March 5-9, 2023
“We are all visitors to this time. This place we are just passing through. Our purpose here is to Observe. To Learn. To Grow. To Love. And then we return home”
– Australian Aboriginal Proverb
It’s not like we were not warned about it. When we were researching the potential stops for the episode everything said this is the “Wet season” here. And boy is it wet.
You first notice it when you step out of the airplane. The air is so heavy and humid it is like an enormous wet blanket just wraps around you. The temperature is in the 80’s but the wet air makes it feel warmer.
And when it rains - dear lord - this is no spring shower. These are fat heavy drops that fall with a heavy thud. It isn’t long before the streets flood. We skidded while driving more than a few times.
It wasn’t a total loss. Our Air BnB is cozy and we have a chance to rest, cook for ourselves, and get some laundry done. We are so grateful for the chance to take this long and interesting trip. It has been a real privilege and we are always mindful of that fact. However, we are tired, sore from the pace, and looking forward to coming home.
Cairns hosts a weekly Farmer’s market and fortunately it was held indoors. So we piled into our small rental car with the woefully inadequate windshield wipers and headed into town.
It was like going to an elaborate zoo except for fruits and vegetables. The vast space was filled with colorful stands and piles of unique local produce. You found all of the well known products such as broccoli, sweet corn, and oranges. But there were strange and exotic carambola, granadilla, grumichama, jaboticaba, jackfruit, longan, mandarin, mango, marang, miracle fruit, papaya, passionfruit and pulusan as well. We tasted exotic lychee fruit, freash mangos, and odd banana varieties. We also saw durians, rambutans, lychees and mangosteens. All of this was grown locally in this tropical climate.
Periodically the bands of rain would clear and we would walk on the beach. The cove was beautiful but had few swimmers. It was probably due to the rain but the water was warm and inviting.
More likely it was due to these signs.
“Stingers” refer to Box Jelly fish. There are many varieties of jelly fish but none are so extravagantly lethal as these thumbnail size beauties. They come close to shore during the summer months here to breed. You cannot see them in the water. Their sting causes excruciating pain and even death. It is a terrible way to die.
And then there are these guys.
Jurassic park is real here. This ancient grove is 160 million years old, making it the oldest rainforest on earth. This area is the home of the Salt Water Crocodile.
I must admit it boggles the mind that these 12 to 20 feet dinosaurs can lurk in the surf. Salt water crocodiles are ambush predators, This means they wait until you get close to the waters edge and then leap out and grab you. It is the stuff of nightmares. Their are thousands of them here in the rainforest. Mostly they can be found on rivers or near the estuaries as they empty into the ocean.
The locals just shrug it off with typical Aussie bravado and in truth attacks on humans are uncommon. But they do happen and no one appears to be swimming much.
During another break in the rains we drove to Daintree National Rainforest. This 160 million year old tropical rainforest predates the dinosaurs,
We wanted to come to Cairns in Northeast Austrailia to visit the Great Barrier Reef. The rain finally broke enough for a nice calm day and we went to a small island off the coast of Cairns.
The reef is justifiably famous. It is the largest living organism in the world and is the size of Italy. Thirty species of whales, dolphins, and porpoises have been recorded in the Great Barrier Reef. Six species of sea turtles come to the reef to breed. 215 species of birds (including 22 species of seabirds and 32 species of shorebirds) visit the reef or nest or roost on the islands., Seventeen species of sea snake live on the Great Barrier Reef., More than 1,500 fish species live on the reef. Around 10 percent of the world’s total fish species can be found just within the Great Barrier Reef. There are at least 330 species of ascidians on the reef system alone.
The reef is literally the Amazon rain forest of the ocean.
The chief threat to it is climate change. Corals are actually animals and sensitive to environmental change. With the rising temperatures of the ocean due to global warming the number of bleaching events have increased dramatically. With the bleaching, the colorful coral turns bone white. It is dead.
Today, approximately 60% of the reef suffers from bleaching episodes. If the reef dies, it will have a cascading event to the sea life that will devastate the area.
The reef is huge and extends for hundreds of miles. We visited just a tiny corner of it. We thought we would see the world of “Finding Nemo’. We did not. Just a few colorful fish and the occasional sea turtle. Here are a few pictures.
Still it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the sunshine wile it lasted.
Bill Bryson writes, “ I can understand it of course. Austrailia is mostly empty and a long way away. Its population is small and its role in the world consequently peripheral. . It doesn’t have coups, recklessly overfish, arm disagreeable despots. grow coca in provocative quantities, or throw its weight around in a brash unseemly manner. It is stable and peaceful and good. It doesn’t need watching and so we don’t. But, I will tell you this: the loss is entirely ours. You see Australia is an interesting place. It truly is. And that really is all I am saying.”
This is our last report from the Road to Bali for this episode.
We have run out of ibuprofen and Tim Tams so it is time to come home. We miss our grandson and need to catch up with him. We miss our dogs and we miss our own bed.
And I need to mow the lawn.
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