Great Barrier Reef

It *must* be one of the natural wonders of the world. A vast coral reef, just under the surface of the Pacific Ocean, stretching along the coast of Queenland. Home to a myriad of multicoloured fish and other sea creatures.

[below: the Great Barrier Reef from space]
It was the first time Carolyn and I had been snorkeling and after an hour bouncing along in a fast ship to get to the reef feeling a bit sick, we wondered whether it was going to be worth it.

[below: Catamarans (ships with two hulls) are very fast, but this means that the travel is very bumpy!]
Wow! It was. It was a big help that the sea was warm for swimming (an amazing 27 degrees C) and the tour company provided good advice and the right equipment. Once you get used to a snorkel mask (breathing through the mouth, not the nose!)and get comfortable swimming about you experience a tremendous feeling of freedom in three dimensions. Remember this is salt water so you are more bouyant than in a swimming pool, so it takes very little effort to float. The feeling is one of weighlessness, and excitement of a new environment and sensation.

[below: What's this?? A monster from the deep?]

[below: No! It's snorkling dude!]

Tropical Weather in Port Douglas

After the sunny, dry weather in Sydney and for the journey north to Brisbane, we flew to Cairns in Northern Queensland and stayed for a few days in Port Douglas. The weather was totally different - it was their wet season, and we experienced rain and wind.

So what causes this tropical weather?

During the summer, the sea becomes warm (about 27 degrees - I know, I've swam in it). The prevaling wind is from the east, so as the warm moist air from the Tasman Sea is forced up over the mountains the air cools, condenses and clouds are formed. The resulting rain makes this area one of the wettest in Australia with an average of 12 feet of rain each year.
The picture above shows the beach at Port Douglas - notice the clear blue skies over the sea, and the clouds over the mountains.

Leg 7 : Brisbane to Cairns : 866 miles

So, just to recap, we arrived in Australia at Sydney, hired a car and took 10 days to slowly work our way up to Brisbane, and then a flight to Cairns in northern part of Queensland for the Great Barrier Reef!

Ficus Watkinsiana

The Strangler Fig, or Ficus watkinsiana to give its proper latin name, is a strange tree of the rainforest, with an interesting method of survival.

By using an adult tree as its host, the strangler fig avoids competition for light and nutrients at ground level. Its fruit (the fig, containing the seed) is tasty to birds and monkeys, so encouraging the seed to be desposited high in a tree's branches. From there, it sends long thin roots down the side of the tree to the ground to secure a supply of water and nutrients. It also grows upwards from the seed, reaching the sunlight available at the forest canopy before any other tree can do so growing from the forest floor. Eventually, the roots from the strangler fig become so thick to surround the original tree and kill it.

Australia's Wildlife: Pademelons

These cute little things are pademelons. They are like a small kangaroo or 'marsupial'. It feeds on grass, usually in the afternoons or evening. Surprising turn of speed when frightened.
A common sight at Lamington and quite tame, I suppose because of the familiar sight of people walking around. We talked about smuggling a couple home in the cabin baggage for our back garden. (it's surprising what you can take on board the plane in business class) However, we realized after half a hour running round the field with a home made net trying to catch one of the bugg**s, that probably they would only last a couple of nights with the foxes anyway.

Australia's Wildlife: Scrub Turkeys

Brush or Scrub Turkeys are quite large birds, and usually seen scratching around in the forest floor. They have an interesting nesting behaviour and an refreshing attitude towards childrearing, which could catch on with the human species.

[below: Scrub Turkeys were a common sight at Lamington]

What happens is the male turkey scratches up leaf litter and soil into a mound - about 6 foot (2m) across and 3 foot (1m) high. A hole is made in the mound in which the egg is laid. The mould must be damp otherwise not enough heat is generated to hatch the eggs.

Amazingly, the male turkey has very accurate heat sensor inside his upper bill and regularly checks the mound temperature by sampling the leaf litter. By adding or removing litter he can keep the nest at a constant temperature of 33 degrees C. Clever, hey? Well, that's not all.

And after all this trouble to ensure that the eggs hatch - guess what happens next?:
Yes, once the chicks are hatched, the scrub turkey parents feel that they've done their bit, and leave their offspring to make a go of it as they will. Modern progressive thinking! I feel that there is something here which all parents should seriously consider....

The view from our verandah

The accommodation at O'Reilleys was functional rather than luxurious - but compensated by the most wonderful view from the plateau, across various ridges and mountains far into the distance. And the sunsets!
No air pollution from industry; no light pollution from the city - us city bods forget what a true natural sunset does look like.

[below: the view from our verandah during the day]

[below: sunset starts. A good time to crack open a cold beer...]

[below: night time falls quickly, and is clear and cold even in summer]

Australia's Wildlife: Spiny Cray

Well, I don't know who was more scared - Carolyn or this creature she had just nearly trod on:It was sitting in a small puddle in the middle of the track we were followed next to a creek in the rain forest. I had to look twice - a crayfish? in the middle of a forest? and bright blue??

The cray started to slowly back away. We did the same. Later, we found some information about the creature - it was a Lamington Spiny Cray, and it commonly moves from one creek to another. There are nine species of the Spiny Cray in the National Park, varying in colour from bright blue to a distinctive red. Weird.

The Rainforest

We spent three days at O'Reillys hotel in the middle of the Lamington National Park. The place was totally different to anywhere we had been before. A bit like the Blue Mountains - a high natural plateau with impressive escarpments down to deep valleys, but this time the forest was on top of the plateau.
But a forest nothing like any other we had seen - this was sub topical rainforest.[above: The rainforest at Lamington]

Thick undergrowth, massive tall trees, vines, this was the nearest we had been to being in the jungle. Water everywhere, in puddles on the track to a myaid of streams, cascades and waterfalls. Lots of wildlife, producing an alien vista full of strange, noisy, unrecognized sounds.

[above: Rainforest Creak at Lamington]

The biodiversity in flora and fauna is astonishing - in Australia less than one percent of the total land mass is rainforest yet half of their bird and plant species, a third of their mammals, and two thirds of their ferns, bats and butterflies are found there. Not surprisingly, Lamington is listed as a World Heritage Site.

The best way to experience the rainforest is to walk in it, and well signposted tracks provided the means to spend most of our time at Lamington. ( Visibility is low and easy to lose the sense of direction and if you accidently wandered off the track, it would be difficult to find it again; you wouldn't want to get lost in rainforest).

[below: Carolyn at the top of an arial walkway, high in the treetops, looking out at the forest canopy. You can tell how high it is by how tight she is holding on to the safety rail].

Answer to Geography Question No.5

If you are interested in the bridges and the engineering feats required to build them (and who cannot be!) then you probably have found the question easy.

But just in case, here are the answers:

• Golden Gate Bridge - Suspension bridge
• Auckland Harbour Bridge - Cantilever bridge
• Sydney Harbour Bridge - Single arch bridge

If you got that right, well done! You won't be able to look at another bridge again without working out its design type.

And while we are deep, deep in Dadland, if you've ever been to visit Newcastle then the picture of the Sydney Harbour Bridge would have perhaps jogged a memory. Remember that the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built by Dorman Long, who are based in Middlesborough, near to Newcastle. Then guess what the famous Tyne Bridge in Newcastle looks like?

Australia's Wildlife: Kookaburra

This is our best picture of a Kookaburra; it had been sitting, quite contented, on the top of a telegraph pole. Just when the picture was taken, it turned away and, I'm sure it made a laughing sound, flew away.

So here's a proper picture, taken from the excellent Australian Bird's Anonymous website:


Kookaburras are:

• The largest member of the Kingfisher family.
• They grow up to 47cm and weigh about 0.5 kg; and their bill is up to 10 cm long.
• They eat small lizards and snakes; before eating them they bash them against a rock or a tree to soften them up.
  

The beaches

There are many really, really, really fantastic beaches on the east coast of Australia, between Sydney and Brisbane. Just to make you jealous (and remember this was in March) here are some snapshots of some of them:

[above: The world famous surfing beach at Manly, near Sydney. We had taken a ferry from Circular Quay to the town; and enjoyed a couple of hours on the beach (it was too hot to stay longer) and then, after a cooling beer, and a wander around the surfing shops before taking the return ferry].

[above: This is a lovely day, towards the end of the afternoon, at a beach called 'Fingal's Bay'. We were staying near Nelson Bay (not to be confused with Nelson in New Zealand) and we really enjoyed our two days there - it was a smallish, friendly area, and reminded us of our time in Hokitika].

[above: Another great beach near Nelson Bay, this time one called 'One Mile Beach'].

[above: Carolyn having fun at the Byron Bay main beach].

Carolyn visits Scotland!

As we travelled north on the Pacific Highway, we stopped mid-way on our day's travel for a coffee and a bite to eat. On our way to Coffs Harbour, we stopped at a surreal place called Maclean - publicising itself as 'The Scottish town of Australia'.
The locals seem to take it seriously, and I suppose it's a good way to seperate your town from all the others situated on the Pacific Highway and attract the tourists and the curious (it worked on us); but we felt an overpowering feeling that it was all made up.
So, street signs were two languages, English and Gaelic; school uniforms were tartan; a Highland Gathering was held at Easter, a Highland Dancing Competition in June. You get the idea.
What seemed well over the top was the annual blessing of the tartan, called 'Kirkin O the Tartan' when, apparently, you can have your tartan blessed in the traditional way. And the telegraph poles. They are painted in tartan - each one differently of course, with the name of the clan also inscribed in case there was any doubt to its authenticity...

It certainly brightened our day, as you can see from the snap of Carolyn taken there:

[above: Carolyn, properly dressed in her 'McClifton' denim tartan, for her visit to the Scottish town of Maclean]

Bell Birds in the Blue Mountains

You have seen the mavellous pictures from our couple of days at the Blue Mountains; but you are missing an important aspect - the sounds.

The video (taken by our camera, so not the best quality in the world) shows you what it's like on the valley floor in the forest, and also you can listen to the noise of the bell birds.

When we first came across a bell bird (at Franz Josef, I think) it's song is so clear and simple that we jokingly called it a 'front door bell' bird. Now, in the Blue Mountains they are hundreds of them and so there is a constant clamour of ... front door bells. Listen for yourself and decide.

Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains are an unusual natural feature - they're upside down, with the normal height of the towns and roads on top of a plateau, and the wonderful views *downwards* from high cliffs into forest valleys. They should be called 'Blue Valleys' as a better description of what they are. Whatever the name, they are stunning.

Here is a picture, from a lookout called 'Sublime Point', across the main valley. Notice the continous escarpments running far into the distance - and the lush green grass? well, that's not grass, that's the forest canopy:


The scale is difficult to appreciate - my estimation was that it was about 1000 foot (325m) from where we were at the top of the cliffs to the valley floor; and we could see about 10 miles to the horizon.

The following picture, of a rock formation called 'The Three Sisters', taken from another lookout, Echo Point, perhaps gives a better idea of the vastness of the area:
Here is a picture of one of the many types of fern seen in the forest:


We had a fantastic day, walking along the cliff edge, then descending into the valley accompanied by streams and waterfalls, walking in the forest to the cable car to take us back up to the top of the cliff.