Port Douglas and Beyond

Touch is the sense of Port Douglas.

The humidity here seems to have been between 99% and 100%. The 100% moments have been wonderfully intense thunderstorms which for many have achieved a drenching effect. You may want to ask Zelynne and Corrin how that felt. Our winning activity to beat the heat was hands down snorkeling at a few sites along the outer GREAT BARRIER REEF! At our final site the snorkel guides picked up a few things for us to check out. There was a mushroom coral, a sea cuke, and a feather star which had impressive adhesive abilities. I'm sure that the guides planned this in hopes of detouring tourists from touching and potentially harming the reef and the inhabiting creatures. Personally I was too afraid to touch anything for fear of instant death or at least, lots and lots of pain but it was really neat to handle a few creatures. (If you haven't heard, Australia is home to a huge amount of critters that will end you, most importantly the box jellies which are keeping us from cooling off in the beach surf) While the ocean is off limits for shore entrance, I think that the crew successfully found ways to explore Port Douglas.

At the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Center we got a lot of hands on experience after some theatrical representations of aboriginal history and culture. We learned about and held different culturally important plants and tools and even got to fling spears and throw boomerangs. J-MO was the ultimate warrior of us all, just missing the kangaroo target while Corrin rocked the boomerang throw. I think that this experience gave us a greater perspective on an important part of Australia which for me at least conjured up a greater respect for the land and its creatures because they are so influential in the aboriginal stories and way of life.

Later that afternoon was the Hartley Crocodile farm where we got to pet koalas. While this was awesome, overall a handful of us left Hartley's feeling a bit disheartened. I highly recommend reading Emily Bishops blog for further information about our experience here.

During todays free day I was able to rouse Preston and Emily for sunrise on the beach complete with digging through the cool, fine, sand making sand castles/sponge bobs. This adventure was followed by a morning dip in the pool- So refreshing! After a lovely nap, we rented a MANUAL car and headed north. Driving here certainly felt different. I think this ties nicely in with the theme of habits which we have visited throughout the course. In the case of driving in Australia, as with the case of making sustainable lifestyle changes, habits may be hard to break, but sheesh are they necessary! While eventually the left side of the road felt mostly normal, I personally (and I'm pretty sure Preston and anyone else who got to drive this day) never quite made the transition of differentiating between the blinker and window wiper controls.

Since we couldn't go swimming, handmade ice cream in the middle of this adventure was our way of cooling down. The dish came with four flavours: raspberry, mango, wattleseed-which was coffee hazelnut-esc, and soursop which was described as lemony goat cheese...but don't doubt the goodness.

Towards the end of our adventure in the Daintree National Park the car-full of us came to a jolting halt in response to a cassowary crossing the road (A cassowary is a large endangered bird which is central to the creation story of AU Aboriginals). I had a momentary desire to pick through the pile of cassowary poo/shit in the middle of the road but Preston and Emily wouldn't have it. While that was kind of a bummer, overall this moment was awesome because I missed seeing the cassowary at the croc farm but thankfully I had this awesome opportunity to see one in the wild, albeit in the middle of the road. The multitude of cassowary crossing signs were no joke and strikingly presents the threat of human impact on this magnificent creature. Of course the rainforest is home to an immense range of biodiversity and while there may not be sign-age every few kilometres, the protection of all the magnificent creatures and plants in these beautiful places is just as pressing as ever.

While our time in Port Douglas was short, I feel like we made the most of it.

Last day in Port Douglas

As we prepare to head back to Sydney I reflect on all of the amazing things Port Douglas had to offer.  In the past three days we have accomplished so many activities.  On the first full day here we snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef; also part of the natural wonders of the world and world heritage site.  The second day we visited the Tjapukai Aboriginal Culture center, threw spears and boomerangs, and attempted to play a didgeridoo.  We also visited Hartley's Crocodile Farm and petted a wallaby and a koala, saw a cassowaries.  And on our final day here we rented a car and drove on the wrong side of the road to the rain forest area.  We swam in the river, much stronger than it looked, and played the tourists card while downtown Port Douglas and spent the day walking through shops.  In the evening Taylor, Jimmy and I walked down to four mile beach.  Talk about beautiful!  The ocean actually felt like a bathtub on the surface (probably because the tide was coming in).  Australia is the most beautiful place I can imagine and I will be sad to leave next week.  Our next plane ride is tomorrow morning at 5 am, so we're leaving the hostel at 3am.  Only 4 more flights to get our luggage through.  Lesson learned: pack light!

Croc and koala feeding

Yesterday I got to touch a koala bear!  They are very smelly creatures but so adorable you tend to forgive the smell.  I guess I haven't really ever been too close to one before because I couldn't stop staring.  Their ears are giant for their bodies and full of tufts of hair.  We saw them at Hartley's Crocodile farm, however at 4:30 feeding time they stole the show.  They are also funny to watch as they sleep in odd positions around branches to keep from falling out.  One koala even had a baby in her pouch.  The pouch is too small to see though so we just had to believe her caretaker.

Of course at Hartley's we were able to see the main attraction, feeding time for the crocs.  We got to take a boat tour out in the lagoon.  Some of their methods for treating the animals were not as careful as US regulation and some of our group felt uneasy with being at Hartleys.  The method for feeding the crocs was to attach chicken to a long pole and dangle it in front of them.  For the most part the effect was for the tourists to capture the perfect moment when the croc jumped up.  Otherwise we wouldn't be able see them clearly as we were able too.

Hartley's was one of the better attractions in Port Douglas because we were able to see all of the animals we had missed during our stay in Australia.  Today is a free day to explore Port Douglas before our 5am flight back to Sydney.  The time here has gone by so fast, and yet has gone by slow enough to enjoy the overload of activities we have done every day.  I love Australia!

Hide n Seek on the Reef

Today I swam in one of the great wonders of the world, the Great Barrier Reef!  It was better than all the hype.  I’ve only gone snorkeling once before and it was in Mexico where the fish were limited in a variety and ranged in colors from grey to grey.  Today the fish were the most vibrant and amazing colors and patterns.  One of my favorite fish matched the coral he was hiding in perfectly.  He was playing hide and seek in the open and beating all the other fish.  Another great experience was a fish that was just large.  At first all I could tell was that he was big and moved pretty slow due to his size.  Once I followed him for a bit I could tell he was well over four feet in length. 

The crew was very nice as well.  We toured through the company Quicksilver.  On our third stop of the day we received a tour of the area from one of the Quicksilver crew members, Tammy.  Tammy was able to dive fairly deep into the water with just her snorkel mask on.  She showed us a poky (but not harmful) see slug.  One of the more plain ones was a cream colors circle shaped piece of coral.  This coral emitted a sticky residue that Tammy explained was their version of sunscreen, like 100spf.  We also got to touch and animal that looked like the black spider of the sea with had orange suckers that attached to your fingers.

At the end of the day we learned about some of the more sustainable practices of Quicksilver (our tour boat company).  They explained that by dropping an anchor into the coral it can kill over 1,000 years of growth.  They also said one of the reasons we snorkeled on the outside of the reef was because the water was more clear.  This was due to the fact that the continental shelf is constantly pushing water up acting as a flush through the water.  This is in contrast to the middle of the reef that receives most of the run off from the land.  However bonus point, whatever waste is put into the water by the farmer comes back to the farmer in his products so the vicious cycle helps to keep everyone on track, in a manner of speaking.

Overall, one of the best days of my life!