After two days at sea we arrived on our second and last
Australian port, Cairns. Located in the
northern part of the “Sunshine State” of Queensland, Cairns is the springboard
to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Reserve.
Having done the GBR when we were here in 2009, we decided to do a land
tour this time.
Naturally the main industry in Cairns is tourism, but there
is also a lot of farming, with sugarcane and bananas being the largest
crops. This area of northern Queensland
is considered the “wet tropics”, being one of the oldest continuously surviving
rainforests on earth at 40 million years of evolution. There is a vast amount of biodiversity here
with many, many plants and animals that are found nowhere else on earth.
Not only did we visit the rainforest, but we visited it
during rainy season. As we took our
tour, Crocs, Habitat, and Port Douglas, our guide explained that the
frequent downpours at this time of year are a result of clouds to gathering a
lot of moisture over the water, moving inland to the mountains and dumping rain
as the clouds rose. The mountains are so
close to the coast that this can happen several times in one day, creating a
cyclic effect where within a short period of time one can experience sunshine,
clouds and sudden but short-lived downpours over and over during one day. We certainly found that to be true, and
fortunately the drenching rains seemed to time themselves to fit well in our
schedules!
As we drove north out of Cairns toward Port Douglas, we were
thrilled to see a mob of wallabies along the side of the road – apparently not
a terribly common sight along the inhabited coastlines of Australia.
Our first stop was at Hartley’s Crocodile World. It was an incredible opportunity to see many
different Australian animals. We were
greeted by a cockatoo, and stopped to visit the most active koalas we’ve ever
seen (awake, eating, and actually doing a little bit of climbing around). Koalas spend the vast majority of their time
sleeping as digesting their meals of eucalyptus leaves takes so much
energy. A couple other interesting facts
we learned about these adorable little balls of fur were that over time the
size of their brains has shrunk due to lack of use, and amazingly, koalas are
the only animals other than humans and primates that have fingerprints! Scientists have found that koalas branched
away from primates about 70 million years ago, and that fingerprints were an
adaptation developed to help primates/koalas climb trees.
The highlight of our stop here was to see the famous saltwater
crocodile, the largest living reptile.
Saltwater crocs can grow to be longer than 20 feet, and they can exert a
pressure of 3000 pounds per square inch when snapping their jaws together! Indeed, when we heard those jaws snap, there
was a loud popping sound kind of like a cork coming out of a wine bottle. Crocodiles are silent but deadly. They smash bones with one snap and eat
anything they can grab – wallabies, kangaroos, and even water buffalo! Larger crocodiles eat smaller crocs, which
are actually a bigger threat to humans. (As recently as January 20 there was an
article about a saltwater croc swallowing a 10-year-old Indonesian girl!) They are at the top of the food chain – apex
predators.
Saltwater crocodiles lay up to 60 eggs. The temperature of the egg determines the sex
– the hotter ones become males. The
female guards the eggs for up to three months, but only about 1% survives as
often the males eat the babies.
When in the water, you often only see the snout and two eyes
peering above the surface. They are so
still and quiet that they blend right in with their surroundings, making them
extremely dangerous! It was fascinating
to watch them – and a little eerie to realize that they were watching us just
as closely! Fortunately we were in a
very safe environment. We watched a
feeding and were amazed at how high these huge creatures will rise out of the
water to grab food. Apparently there is
a hierarchy among the crocs, and the most dominant gets dibs first. If he approaches, the others will back off
until he’s finished.
We boarded a small but well-protected boat for a tour around
the lagoon. The driver enticed the crocs
with food; it was somewhat eerie because the lagoon water was very murky due to
hard rains and we couldn’t see the crocs approaching. Suddenly a croc would lunge out of the water,
snapping for the tantalizing food that was just out of his reach. It was incredible to see the power and
stealth with which these giant reptiles moved!
After a delicious lunch (with a considerately downpour timed
for when we were undercover), we headed a few miles up the road to another
wildlife habitat, where we had the opportunity to see tropical rainforest birds
as well as a wide variety of kangaroos and wallabies. Having had the chance to hold a koala a few
years ago, we opted to skip the koalas and headed right for the aviary. We were amazed at the vibrant colors of some
of the birds – the beautiful rainbow lorikeet, which apparently is quite common
in Australia, as well as the stunning contrast between the brilliant red of the
female eclectic parrot and the lovely green of the male. We also saw a lone cassowary, a huge
Australian bird (see Picasa album).
There are only three kinds of cassowaries in the world, and the Southern
cassowary, indigenous to Australia is highly endangered. Apparently the ecologists fear that, because
the cassowary is so necessary for seed dispersion in the rainforest, if the cassowary
dies out, the rainforest will suffer tremendously! There are only about 1500 wild cassowaries
left, so they are quite emphatic about its protection.
One final stop was made for some free time in the nearby
village of Port Douglas. This time we
weren’t quite as lucky with the timing of the rainstorm. Just as we were about to leave the bus for
about an hour and a half of free time, the skies opened up and we had a
drenching rain. We found various ways of
finding protective cover. I think we
visited the world’s smallest Target store!
It was mostly clothing with a few little pharmacy items; believe it or
not, what interested me most was what was sitting on the cashier’s counter – a
red and white box that recalled many, many memories: someone was getting a shipment of Scholastic
books!
As we arrived back in Cairns, the tour guide pointed up to
the tops of a group of trees in the center of town. Hanging from the trees like something out of
a Dracula movie, were hundreds of
flying foxes! He told us that it was a
colony of about 3000 bats. These
enormous creatures were sound asleep (thank goodness) and wouldn’t wake up
until sunset, when scouts would return to the colony and let them know where to
find food for the night. (Unlike those
of us on the cruise, apparently they have to be directed to their food each
day!)
That evening there was an Aussie Outback barbecue on the
Lido. Chuck, Al, and I went up and grabbed a bite to eat before heading out
into Cairns to visit the Night Markets – an excellent place to shop and spend
the last of our Aussie dollars on various souvenirs before setting sail.
We have four days at sea, some of which are called “The
Great Barrier Reef Experience”. We’re
not sure at this point what it entails…
The first day out of Cairns brought our second of three
Cruise Critic luncheons. As we visited
with others at our table, the captain came on with his daily navigational
announcement, followed by Cruise Director Bruce’s update on events of the
afternoon. When he announced a 3:00 tour
of Australian floral arrangements led by florist Eddy, I noticed that the lady
seated next to Chuck looked disappointed.
I felt the same way as I’d arranged to meet with someone at that exact
time, and I told her so. A few minutes
later, she said to Chuck, “I’m Pat, and this is my husband Rich.” I asked, “You aren’t by chance Pat
Burrow?” She said yes. I told her who I was. She was the person I was meeting at 3:00, so
we quickly rearranged to meet at 2:00. A
few weeks ago I’d received an email from family friend Barb Ekiss. Barb told me of another genealogist on board
who knew a friend of Barb’s. Barb gave
me her name, and I contacted her so we could meet. We were amazed that we just happened to sit
at the same table. To top it off, when
Pat mentioned she was from San Jose, Al said he’d lived there. What an amazing coincidence to learn that he,
Pat, and her husband Rich had all worked for the same company in
San Jose!
So now we are in the middle of four days at sea, continuing
to keep very busy before we arrive at our next encounter with big reptiles –
Komodo Island.
BT
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