Nov 25, 2000 - Another Year, More Australian Adventures

The timing was terrible when Blake was invited to speak in Australia last year, leaving us only two free days to play tourist. So when the opportunity presented itself again this year, we decided to do it right - or at least better. Since Australia is roughly the size of the United States, we obviously weren't going to see the entire country in 11 days. How did we spend our free time down under? Read on!

The Fun Begins

We were a bit disgruntled to discover that the helpful travel department at Borland managed not only to ensure that we didn't have seats together but that we were in different sections of the plane. At that we were luckier than some. One couple was booked on separate flights! To top it off, we were met at the United check-in counter with "Where are your travel visas?" Visas? What visas?!? Apparently another little slipup in the travel department... Fortunately, United was able to secure the necessary visas on-line (ahhh, modern technology) and the person assigned to the seat by Barbara didn't show up so we eventually settled down together for 13 hours of in-flight movie fun....

Sydney

While most of our time in Sydney was devoted to conference duties, we did find a few hours to wander around the city. We'd climbed the Harbor Bridge on our last trip so we contented ourselves with a walk through the Royal Botanical Gardens and a closer view of the famous Opera House at Circular Quay. A repeat performance at Nick's Seafood in Darling Harbor was a must. Yes, they're still serving the world's largest seafood platter for two. We encountered a number of film shoots but there were no confirmed sightings of Keanu, Ewan or anyone from Survivor II.

Heron Island

Thursday, November 9th was the first of several obscenely early wake-up calls as we were booked on a 7:30 AM flight to Gladstone. Once there, our travel plans called for hopping aboard a catamaran for the 2-1/2 hour journey to Heron Island, a tiny coral cay located at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef.

You know you're in for an "interesting" trip when they're giving away motion sickness medication at the check-in counter. And it was definitely warranted! Luckily we slept most of the way unlike a few of our less fortunate shipmates. Is the island worth the trouble it takes to get there? You bet!

Bigger than England and half the size of Texas, the Great Barrier Reef stretches 1,200 miles encompassing some 900 islands. It contains 3,000 individual reefs, a single one of which may have more species of fish than the entire Atlantic Ocean. Clearly we had our work cut out for us! As soon as we completed our welcome tour we headed out to test our masks and fins. We opted for The Gantry area which was mere steps from our bungalow.

Before the deep water channel and pier were built, ships would sail in at high tide to unload their cargo into suspended nets and drop passengers who then waded ashore. At low tide, you could wade out to lower the net and retrieve the cargo.

Our snorkeling efforts were greeted with countless colorful reef fish like the clownfaced trigger and moorish idol, endless coral gardens and giant clams in velvety hues. An auspicious start for our island adventure and a good way to work up an appetite for the Thursday night Aussie Barbecue. Emu kebabs anyone? Kangaroo sausage? Crocodile nuggets? Fortuitously, we were also on the island for the Saturday night Seafood Buffet which featured the largest pile of lobster (or Morton Bay Bugs as they're affectionately known in Oz) that we'd ever seen alongside similarl tables of prawns, oysters and whole steamed reef fish.

At our introductory tour, we'd been left with the promise "If you don't know what a Muttonbird is now, you will know by morning."

These bizarre creatures who breed only in Australia, migrate from as far north as Siberia and Alaska. They build their nests in holes on the ground, scooping out a depression in the sand if there isn't a convenient hollow tree available. Apparently predators aren't a problem this far out in the Coral Sea. The birds fly in around dusk and begin their eerie cry which lasts until dawn. Earplugs are a popular item in the gift shop although we were fortunate enough not to have a nest outside our bedroom window. Our Nikon doesn't record audio so try to imagine a horde of athsmatic ghosts repeating "OoooOoooAaaaaAaaahhhh <gaaaasp>" all night long, and next time you see us you can ask for a demonstration.

Barb is an avid scuba diver who'd been out of the water far too long so bright and early the next morning, she headed out on the dive boat while Blake opted for a snorkeling trip in Shark Bay on the "far" side of the island ( a 10 minute walk.)

The dive was a drift dive along the reef wall. Basically the boat drops the divers at a mooring site and then follows their bubbles until the divers surface for pickup. The reef was stunning! In addition to a wide variety of fish and an incredible diversity of healthy corals, the divers encountered several turtles (green and leatherback), a beautiful Spanish dancer and several huge lion fish.

Blake was waiting at the dock with tales of snorkeling and photos of Ben, the huge turtle who resides under the pier.

After lunch, we boarded the dive boat for a snorkeling trip to The Bommie, a group of large coral heads that rise abruptly from the sea bed. Depth ranges from 20ft (6m) to 60ft (18m) and with the close proximity of the shallow reef wall at low tide, it was possible to get up close and personal with the marine life. Some of the more interesting critters we encountered included a group of blue spotted rays, a 4 foot nurse shark, a shovelnose ray, a multitude of large parrotfish, 2 schools of cuttlefish, a trunk fish, and a trumpetfish.

What else did we find of interest on Heron? We took an afternoon trip on a semi-submersible, basically a boat with a glass "basement" for reef viewing. At low tide the water is too shallow to snorkel but it's possible to wade all the way to the reef wall. This is a much longer walk than you could imagine possible in the middle of the ocean. It takes only 20 minutes to walk around the island, but most of an hour to walk out as far as you can go. Take a look at the aerial view that started our report: the breakers half way from the island to the horizon are where we had to stop!

Reef walkers are equipped with megaphone-shaped devices fitted with a plastic viewing lens which helps bring underwater critters into focus. The water is oxygen-depleted at low tide and the marine life is less active so we were able to get very close to a number of epaulet sharks, a sea hare (picture a giant slug with rabbit ears), huge spiny urchins, abalone and nudibranchs. We also spotted a black tip reef shark trolling along the beach.

Our activities weren't entirely water-focused. We discovered we are fairly evenly skilled at tennis (although playing on a court inhabited by numerous island birds presents interesting challenges...) but not at billiards; we explored the island's Research Center where coral bleaching and shark neurology studies are currently underway; we left footprints on long stretches of deserted beach; we also treated ourselves to Reiki and aromatherapy massages. Your basic life in a tropical paradise.

Daintree Eco Lodge

Tuesday morning brought another of those absurdly early wake up calls, this time to catch a helicopter back to the mainland. This is definitely the transport of choice affording great views of the islands and reef! The Heron Island photo we started with isn't stock photography: it's something we snapped out the window on our way back to the mainland.

From Gladstone, we bounced our way north to Cairns via Rockhampton, McKay and Townsville in a small prop plane followed by a 90 minute drive up the coast. How do you follow 5 perfect days on the Great Barrier Reef? Immerse yourself in the world's oldest living rainforest (110 million years by some estimates.) Daintree Eco Lodge & Spa is set on 30 acres of lush ancient rainforest in the World Heritage Daintree National Park. The owners have taken great care to ensure minimal impact on the environment. The 16 private villas are discretely tucked among the trees and the land itself is in the care of several members of the local Aboriginal tribe, the Kuku-Yalanji , who have given a spiritual name to each building on the site. We were staying in "Bobiyibi", which means "Kanakan man" in reference to the cane farmers who were the first settlers to hold title to the land the lodge is built on.

Our first evening at Daintree, we were booked on a "dusk to dark" river cruise through the mangrove swamps with Dan Irby, a delightfully eccentric former research scientist at the Mayo Clinic who fell in love with Australia 30 years ago. As darkness slowly descended upon us, Kookaburras, kingfishers, herons and egrets flew in to roost, the fruit bats appeared overhead and the air was filled with the eerie sounds of the rainforests' nocturnal creatures. Dan was simply amazing, able to spot tree frogs crocodiles and Azure Kingfishers from 50 yards away in the dark.

We spent the next day on an "offroad" tour of the Daintree area including a walk through the Cooper Creek Wilderness, a privately funded area in the heart of the Daintree. Following lunch "in the bush", we continued toward Bloomfield Falls via a controversial 20 mile stretch of road which was bulldozed in the 80's to provide a shorter route between Cairns and Cooktown. The "road" is generally unpaved except for a few very steep passages and the trek requires numerous fordings of rainforest creeks which can become completely impassible in just half an hour once it starts raining. In fact, a group had been stuck for four hours the previous day.

Bloomfield Falls plunges a magnificent 120 feet into the gorge below. According to the Kuku-Yalanji, Aboriginal dreamtime beings still dwell here and some ancient rock art is present on the rocks near the falls.

The river below the falls looks like a nice place for a dip, but like a lot of rivers (fresh or salt-water) there are good reasons to resist the temptation.

Our last stop was Cape Tribulation, named by Captain Cook its founder, in the late 1700's, since it was just a little north of there that his troubles started after he ran his ship onto the Endeavour Reef.

Our last day at Daintree was devoted to pure pampering. After a leisurely breakfast, we made our way to the spa for some serious relaxation. We both tried the Mala Mayi body treatment - a body mud-wrap combined with Aboriginal scalp massage followed by lying on a beautifully carved wet bed while six individual showerheads provided a soothing hydro-massage using the spring water supplied from a nearby waterfall. Blake opted for an additional Kodo body massage, a deep conditioning massage using Aboriginal techniques while Barb had an upper body Mikiri "facial" treatment. We were far too relaxed to do much the rest of the day but we did take an afternoon walk with resident Aboriginal guide Leon to the local waterfall. Along the way he related pieces of native culture such as which plants provide natural mosquito repllent, which plants have sweet edible berries and which are eaten as a last resort. Once we arrived at the falls, Leon spoke in his native language to the spirit of the waterfall explaining that we had come for a visit. He explained to us that this is done to ensure that the spirit of the waterfall is not frightened away.

Cairns

All too soon our time in the Daintree was over. We spent the last day in Cairns at the Rihga Colonial Club Resort a nice facility situated on 10 acres of tropical gardens. The resort has three lagoon style pools one of which had a swim-up bar and "hot-tub-in-a-cave."

Cairns seems to be a jumping off point for tourists with its close proximity to the rainforest and reef. For us, it was a convenient place to catch a few hours sleep before a 6:30 AM flight back to Sydney in order to catch our flight back to the States.

Back Home at Last

As you may recall, we did not have assigned seats together for our return flight to San Francisco. Fortunately, we found a sympathetic ticket agent who not only rearranged the seating but blocked out the other seat in our row. The interesting thing about flying east is that although we left Sydney at 1 PM, it got dark very quickly. We flew through most of the night, arriving in San Francisco at 6:30 AM, just in time for a magnificent sunrise, a fitting end to a spectacular trip! Where will our next journey lead? Stay tuned...

Previous travel

1999 - Australia, Italy, and Skywalker Ranch