Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Diggin’ the “Spirit of Freedom”

 (14-18 April 2011)

Port Douglas was an ideal place to relax for a few days after my Daintree tour, but it was time to move onto my next adventure!  Sorry there are so few photos of the lovely Pt. Dougie (see end of previous post), but I simply couldn’t be bothered for some reason to take more than 2 pics. ;)

On Thursday (14 April) I humbly hopped onto the public bus from Port Douglas and then majestically stepped off at the VIP red-carpeted private tarmac, where I would begin my most glorious 5-day dive trip.  Wait a sec, a DIVE trip that starts at the airport?!  Yes, indeed, that’s how I roll, y’all!!...apparently. ;)  Four other passengers and I boarded the small aircraft, which flew us north over the GBR and Queensland coast to Lizard Island, where we met up with our dive vessel, the “Spirit of Freedom.”

This dive vessel was tricked out in every respect to make it comfortable for all the wonderful folks who actually paid full price for the trip ;)  Sun deck, dive deck, full kitchen and dining room, lounge, satellite phone, ID guides… basically: It all!!

The rest is history!  The trip schedule was as follows: wake up, [eat, nap, dive] x 4, sleep, repeat.  Check out my Picasa album for the photos taken by the SOF crew and divemasters.  The slideshow is below, but if it doesn't appear/work, click here to go to the online album).

Monday, April 25, 2011

A Tourist in Cairns: Rainforest to Reef


(8-13 April 2011)

Left:  Cairns (pronounced “cans”) CBD and marina.

Name anything fun.  Now go to the Cairns tourism web pages and you can bet you’ll find at least 6 tour companies offering all-inclusive this’s and special-discount that’s which will guarantee that you do your fun thing along with a dozen other confused fun-seekers.  In the whirlwind of fliers, pamphlets, and neon posters that plaster the city (and which, I begin to suspect, may actually have structural importance to the buildings and streets themselves) it is quite necessary to be on one’s guard at all times—or rather, on guard of one’s holiday budget.  Just imagine a city with more tourist offices  than gas stations, banks, and grocery stores; perhaps even combined.  The whole economy is set up to lure visitors and reel in the cash.  Of course, there certainly ARE some amazing things to do and see in northern Queensland, and despite this flurry of tour offers, I found Cairns a convenient base, if only in small doses.  And even if I won’t admit that I was taken in by the tour-mania, the facts show that I partook in THREE tours out of that city of temptation.  And I enjoyed every second of each!! 

Right:  cruising out of the Cairns marina, 7am.

When I returned from the Torres Strait on Friday (8 April), I had only to spend one evening in the CBD before making a quick escape to the Marina early on Saturday morning, to join up with the crew of the Rum Runner for our 2-day dive trip out to the Great Barrier Reef!  As we motor-sailed away (not sure what exactly to call it) I was very pleased to see the harbor and city fade away towards the horizon.  Pleased to be out of the city, yes; but on that day, I did a LOT of watching the horizon.  Friday and Saturday had some pretty big swell, and I learned first-hand that the “Great Barrier” only takes care of so much ocean energy, and that big winds inside the reef can stir up some very uncomfortable sea and stomach churnings!  Luckily, skipper and chef Jase didn’t take offense at me losing his delightfully prepared lunch!


Above:  This is how happy I am to leave Cairns, and before we hit the high winds aboard the Rum Runner!  All of my dive equip... ya never know when you'll need 10 pairs of fins that don't fit! ;)

After 3 hours of “finding my sea legs”, we arrived at Michaelmas Cay and I was ever so ready to get off the rocking boat and into the water!  Unfortunately the Coral Sea conditions had forced many other tour vessels to take refuge in the relatively sheltered waters off Michaelmas Cay, so there were a good 80 people already splashing about when we arrived.  Most of the people, however, were snorkelers and beach-goers, and their vessels vacated OUR reef by the afternoon.  After that, the reef was ours for the exploring!  The cay is comprised of a small, crescent-shaped sandy island, surrounded by shallow coral reefs.  Its remote position and scant vegetation means that it is home to thousands of seabirds.  I wish I had time to get a better look at them, but I was busy not getting pooped on while gearing up and getting to the water!


Above:  Michaelmas Cay Seabird Sanctuary.  If you can't tell that it's a bird sanctuary by the looks of it, the noise and smell were quite convincing.  Below:  Dozens of seabird species co-habit this tiny sandy refuge, many have been blown here from across the Coral Sea!  I think they are as excited as I am this afternoon when all the day-trip boats departed.

 As the only scuba diver onboard, I had my pick of dive sites and times, conditions permitting.  Actually, we had a very tiny group of passengers—just 4 of us, and 4 crew!  I guess the icky conditions weeded out everybody but the die-hard adventurers (or those with tight schedules).  Accompanied by as many crew as could be spared for some fun, I did a few 7-12m dives right near the mooring, and a couple on either end of the cay.  The visibility was horrible for GBR standards, but pretty darn great by my California standards!  And I the coral was still just as stunningly beautiful as on any clear day.  Highlights include heaps of green sea turtles and black-tip reef sharks, giant Tridacna clams and lots of Dr. Seuss-ian Sea Whip corals.  On the last dive at Michaelmas, we nearly met face-to-barb with a bull ray, about 2m in diameter.  Ok, maybe just ONE drawback of low visibility, those gigantic deadly stingrays.  Luckily, we were able to take a wide detour before it took much notice of us.  The night dive was less than spectacular, but it was still a night dive, woo!  At one point, we did cover our lights so that we could play around with the bioluminescent plankton, like underwater sparklers!

  
Above:  Sunset over the Coral Sea/GBR!  And gigantic Frigate Birds (spp?) hover above the boat in the wind.  Below:  A somewhat soggy map of Michaelmas cay and dive Saturday's dive sites (Sunday on Upolu Cay, no pics) 


On Sunday morning we pulled anchor and set sail for Upolu Reef, which had no sand cay, but was still a fantastic dive.  Again, viz was crap, but the fishes and corals were crazy enough for my pleasure!  At this point, my perception of the GBR was that it was surprisingly tame!  Nothing had yet jumped out to attack me!  No jelly stings, no sunburn…was I in the right place?!  My Rum Runner trip was simply good times and good dives on a somewhat rough sea.

Above:  Our awesome Rum Runner crew and 3 fabulous guests!!  Below:  The saltwater has gone to my head..and Jase pretends not to notice my nonsense.


We docked in Cairns again on Sunday, I decided to get a more complete view of north Queensland, and visited the nearest tour office (the hostel lobby, naturally) and filled my week with “Experiences of a Lifetime”….on standby rates. ;)  This quest continued with a day of Native Fun with a couple Aboriginal tribes people. 
 




Now, I’m not entirely sure how to describe this kind of tour without hearing the tourism agent chiming in my head, so forgive me if I wind up sounding like her.  Whatever I say, you are in no way legally obliged to book this tour!  (although I recommend it if you go to Cairns, Haha.)  The “Daintree Dreaming” was what I considered my second really touristy activity since I’ve been in the country.  As I’ve mentioned, I have been trying to do my own thing when possible, and a bus full of roudy tourists/backpackers gives me a serious case of no-thank-you-very-much.

Right:  That’s no Batman Signal, the Flying Foxes take over Cairns every night at dusk!




 Above:  Rainforest-covered mountains nearly dwarfed by the surrounding sugar-cane covered landscape.  Below:  Because of all of the new development in Far North Queensland, wallaby populations are being squished into tiny pieces of habitat, shared by domestic animals.  A sad and dangerous fate for this species.
 
But it seems that to “see” the Daintree rainforest, however, the “all-inclusive” day tour seemed the way to go.  Again, I had to spend a couple measly nights on the outskirts of Cairns, but we hit the road early in the morning.  After breakfast, we met up with an ambassador of the Kuku Yalanji (the regional group of Traditional Owners), who took us to the beach at Mossman to teach us about the native plants and animals.  I had no idea that you could eat Beach Almonds, (very common on beaches throughout the tropics and a favorite snack of squirrels and monkeys in Costa Rica) and that they are quite tasty!  After our “gatherer” portion of the morning, it was time to become hunters!  We each got a nice, sharp reed spear (you got to love a tour that allows children to play with real weapons!) and we hit the beach to wade through the shallows on the hunt for mud crabs and fishes.  The knee-deep coastal waters just outside the mangrove forests were shallow yet muddy, so fish were identified as ripples in the water and crabs as either moving shadows on the bottom, or as a painful pinch on the toe!  The guide assured us that there were no crocs (but I suspected that info was a crock of another sort) as we lost sight of our bare feet in the muck.  


Above:  Wading in the dark waters at Mossman Beach hunting mud crabs, I couldn't help but take in this amazing landscape.  Far North QLD is simply splendid!   

Left:  Brandon (Kuku Yalanji) brandishes his spear, which has already impaled several large mud crabs, while I stumble around with my own spear.

After several frustrating attempts at spearing what turned out in most cases to be sunken leaves, by the end of the morning I had finally nabbed a crab!  I was thrilled until I brought it out of the water and observed its pathetic writhing.  Hmm, I guess I’m less a hunter, more a gatherer. ;)  He also took us—again, barefoot—into the mangrove thickets to find “mud mussels”, Nerita and Mudwhelk snails.  After our bucket was filled with muddy, slithery creatures, we headed back to his own house where his wife and mother cleaned and cooked our critters for morning tea.  Everyone in the group was pretty stoked to eat the crab and mussels, of course, but I think I was one of the few who were as excited about devouring the Nerita snails, with which I had been familiarized in Cabo Blanco. ;)
 

 Right:  Aaarrrggh!  Heather the Huntress!  The battle was epic, as you can tell by the tiny flailing crab and my enormous smile. ;)  All that's left of the mud crabs and Nerita snails we collected, a lovely complement to lunch!  

We had lunch and a hike into the Daintree World Heritage rainforest to a nice swimming hole (also reputedly croc-free) then met up with a local artist in Daintree to learn about aboriginal painting and art.  The best part of this (especially with my love of crafts) was that after a gallery tour and lecture, we got to paint our own Burnie Bean!  So, the “story” behind the burnie bean is that it is a transportable medium for pictures and notes, like a notepad…or a text messege, if you throw it at somebody!  But the real fun of this large nut is that it is a favorite “game” of children (and, admittedly, adults) to rub the nut on the ground to build up friction and heat, then BURN your buddy with it (hence the name).  What a great game!



 
 Right:  I enjoy some natural massage therapy!!  Daintree National Park/ World Heritage Rainforest

















Observe, the Burnie Bean... becomes a momento to my hunting/gathering success! (after substantial direction by actual aboriginal traditional artists)
 ----------------------------------------->>>

 


      
After the tour, instead of bumming around Cairns again after this spectacular adventure, I hopped off the bus in the small classy town of Port Douglas, where I camped for cheap across the street from fancy-shmancy golf resorts.  Sweet.  I have to say that Dougie’s Backpacker Resort was the best accommodation I’ve had in all my travels in Oz.  I loved my tiny quiet rainforest campsite property with lots of hammocks and a nice distance from the bustling tourist district, but just across the street from a spectacular beach!  Aah, I thought, I shall do well here. : )

 Above:  Shmancy yachties at the Port Douglas marina ...contrasted with my tropical escape camping paradise at Dougie's...I wonder if the Yabbo's know that they don't have to pay so much for paradise?? (below) and Basket and Staghorn Ferns adorn many of the rainforest trees near the edges of the streams

Turtlehead Island, Part 3


--3-8 April 2011--


Left:  Pinctata maxima with natural blisters and Torres Pearls silver-gray pendant

Ok, so where were we?!  I suppose I ought to kick this blog off with an apology for my virtual disappearance act.  Time flies, etc…that’s all I have to say about that.  Rather than listing even one reasonable or imagined excuse, I’d rather jump right in and get on with the recapping of my awesome April.  I’ll do this in a few posts so this won’t be painfully long, but realize now that I’m starting where I left off, 3 weeks ago, way up in the Torres Strait….

Above: CB keeps vigilant watch for crocs and dolphins; After observing how much Rusty loves to catch fish, CB took it upon himself to catch us some dinner!  Unfortunately his fish wasn't what we had in mind....but he was SOOO pleased with his guitarfish.


Mostly I just want to share my fun photos from the last part of my wonderful stay at Torres Pearl farm.  Back in February I had tried to use Everytrail.com as my main photo-sharing tool, but the website is just too darn slow, and it sucked up all my $5/hr internet time, ouch!  So this bloggy-wog is about to get heaps more photographic.  Prepare yourself. ;) 


















Above:  Bronwyn (dripping with Torres Pearls) and me at Turtlehead Island.  Below:  Now that's my idea of decoration!  Years of desceased pearl shells decorate the campus, framed in their own culture baskets; My island house is surrounded and perfumed by these native Frangipani (Plumeria) flowers!  Ah, I love the tropics!







 


















 Above:  Just before sunset, we got a treat of a full double rainbow that stretched right across the river mouth and over the mangroves.  I was too close to even get the whole arc in one shot!; With a full, double rainbow to the East and an imaculate sunset to the West (below), which way would you stare??

The last bunch of days I spent at Turtlehead Island were filled with more great food and company, and some rush to get Rusty’s fantastical no-plan working raft near completion.  Getting things done on a remote tropical island, especially working on the water itself, takes so much more work than imaginable.  There’s the planning for tides, rain, winds and waves, and then there’s got to be meals and smoko (snack time) fitted into the day, and of course sunset-break time.  A couple of days we got so far as to carry wood plancks to the wharf before running for shelter to play scrabble and uno.  I’m sure that by the time I’m writing this, that magnificent raft is complete and upriver, ready to support heaps of pearl farm labor.  However, by the time it was time for me to depart back to the mainland, we had assembled only a portion of what would become an impressive roof and walls.  Not much marine science knowledge necessary for these tasks, but now I do feel quite confident that if I ever become stranded on a deserted island, I could and would make a survival raft which would make Bear Grylls darn proud!...not to mention rafts of more entertaining value, if the occasion called…

















Above:  Grotty approves of our work so far on the pearling raft, once it's proven river-worthy.    

Right:  It has grown substantialy since last week,  but we've got heaps more work to do!  This ain't no simple leisure raft!  This is a serious working vessel!











When the afternoon heat and the low tide found a happy arrangement, Bronwyn and I took to walking the beach and mangroves to find amazing treasures; or, at least, entertaining animals and artifacts, including corals, seashells, flotsam from crashed planes, boats and autos.


















Above: This lucky anemone just had a nice mud-crab lunch!  I'm jealous of it's good taste in prey, but am also amazed at this beautiful, plate-like mouth, covered with purple and green shag-carpet-like tentacles.  Brilliant!

 Below:  Hmm, now I'm thinking maybe this anemone is an upside-down jelly?  I still haven't been able to find this "bushy" anemone in an ID book yet...and ideas from my Cnidarian-ologists? 

















Below:  No, it's not plastic mesh, it's the remains of a spectacular soft coral (I think...if anybody can identify this 2 ft-wide basket-like skeleton, I'd be much obliged); Upclose image of what I'm provisionally calling a "basket coral" skeleton.   


 















Below:  Basket ferns form the border between the mangrove thicket and the proper rainforest.; One brave lone mangrove sapling dares to take on the tides way out on the beach.  A tenacious tree!

When it was time to pack up and head back to “civilization” (although I felt much more civil way out here than in any of the mainland cities, esp. Cairns, where I often felt quite uncivil toward tour hawkers at times!), I got the treat of a second leisurely boat ride back up the Middle and Jacky Jacky Rivers to Bamaga, dodging rainclouds through the pristine mangrove wilderness.  Did OPRAH get a private tour through THIS magnificent countryside, with her own personal driver?  I think I win!  We didn’t spot any crocs on this ride, but since the tide was so much higher, we whizzed through the narrow channels.  Check out the video at the end!

More fantastical sunsets over the Cape York Peninsula from the wharf.   





 Below:  Biology and Physics create a beautiful landscape:  soldier crab sand-balls gather between the sandy ripples at the beach.


Right:  The Bamaga airport.  Note the lack of airplane and other living souls.  Cue Casablanca music.

Because of the tides, I arrived at the “airport” a good 2 hours before the other 15 passengers (and the airplane).  Ever seen one of those black-and-white movie scenes with the tiny train station out in the sticks, in the pouring rain, deserted except for the one pitiful individual who’s got nothing better to do?  Well that wouldn’t be far off from the reality (except that I know how to fall asleep practically anywhere, thus solving my entertainment wants).  And then, as if on cue, a man walked in out of the rain.  Was he dangerous?  Was he a handsome cinematic hero (going with the black’n’white drama, here, bear with me).  It was destiny, indeed.  But alas, no.  He was neither of those exciting plot options.  He was, in fact, a SkyTrans corporate exec  from Cairns, who took pitty on the fact that I had all the appearances of a desolate, possibly homeless backpacker, with my sweaty work clothes and my inappropriate use of the small wooden bench as a siesta nook.  With all the gallantry such an occasion could allow, he smiled and handed me nothing less than a SkyTrans baseball cap, pulled elegantly from a big plastic sack.  Ok, you probably thought this was leading up to something important, but you KNOW how much I LOVE free stuff!!  It is my most beloved baseball cap, ever. ;)

Zooming through the mangrove wilds of Cape York Peninsula's Middle and Jacky Jacky Rivers towards Bamaga from Turtleahead Island


Friday, April 1, 2011

Turtlehead Island, Part II

 Saturday, 2 April 2011 – Turtlehead Island, Torres Strait, QLD


Since Monday, my days have settled into a precise schedule here on Turtlehead Island.  Working at the Pearl Farm, as I expected, is not glamorous and is tough but interesting work!  Rusty, who used to be a pearl dealer on Thursday Island, took over the Escape Island pearl farm only two years ago.  The farm had basically been run into the ground (mud, actually) by a set of international investors, and the island had gone from the historically renowned Pink Pearl capital to an unruly quagmire of drunken workers and filthy work conditions.  In just a short time, the troublemakers were rooted out, the campus beautified, and the reputation built back up as a productive, high standard, environmentally conscious business.  Things are looking up, but it took a lot of work, and there’s still heaps of projects left to be done, to get the farm back to its well-oiled-machine-like glory.

Left:  when the generator is turned off at night, my house lamp makes a frightening impression in the ultra-black night!  Above:  Nautilus pompilius shells wash up on the beach in the dozens, sometimes traveling clear across the GBR.  I lucked out with this fresh one!

This month is the season for farm maintenance, with at least 2 months to go before the pearls are harvested and re-seeded with nuclei (FYI, all cultured pearls start out as “nuclei,” which are beads of cut from the Mississippi Mussel shell inserted into the pearl oyster gut along with a tissue graft; so, the core of your $100,000 pearl is just an ugly glob of mud-clam calcite, hehe).  That means that there are infinite projects to be done around the island, so most of the work I’ve been doing involves the organic veggie garden and getting some of the dilapidated equipment cleaned and functioning properly (the previous owners obviously had no clue how to care for, or even use, their own microscopes and x-ray machines!).

 
Our afternoon project over the last few days has been to build a gigantic work-station raft to be anchored up river so that the pearl shells don’t have to be hauled back and forth for each harvest.  We spent a whole day collecting all the materials, scavenged from either the beach flotsam (that’s some serious beachcombing!) or from one of the disassembled buildings on campus, and the next 3 days putting together the floating frame of plastic barrels and wood poles.  Today we floated the huge frame out to the water and she’s seaworthy!  The tides, climate, and island fauna mean that we only have a few hours in the afternoon to get all this work done:  crocodiles patrol the mud banks near high and mid tide, so we wait until we have ample space between us and the waterline before hitting the beach; the tropical midday sun paired with the 90% humidity (or just 100% rain) turns the slightest work into a substantial effort; and the heat and rain makes the insect repellant drip off so that any exposed skin is instantly attacked by mozzies and sand flies.  How on earth does anything get done around here??!!  I’m not complaining—I mean, half of the day is too hot and/or wet to do much work, then when the weather calms down it’s just sssoooo niiiiice that all you want to do is sit on the dock and watch the birds/dolphins or take the dogs for a walk on the beach to pick up cool junk and seashells!!


Above:  the first section of our mega-raft after day 1.  She floats!  But in a few days she'll have a workstation on her and will be croc- and yachtie-proof!  Below: CB (Croc Bait) poses to show how gigantic this Syrinx shell is...but CB is a gigantic dog.....I guess next time I'll put a normal-sized object in there, too, haha!!

But we managed to get the raft together and now it’s time to turn it into a habitable platform, complete with hut and workbench!  My job will be to paint a BIG sign to warn yacht-goers that the platform is NOT a picnic spot for their personal enjoyment!  I’m thinking something like: “Private Property: Beware of Guard Crocs”.  This island is incredibly remote, but the mouth of the Escape River is a renowned fishing spot and is the only safe inlet on this coast for yachts to anchor overnight.  So far, I’ve only seen one tiny fishing boat pass by; otherwise, this coast is our kingdom! 

After each day of “intense labor”, we sit and watch the sunset and fish off the dock, or take the boat out around the island to the Coral Sea, or to check on the pearl floats.  Besides fishing, at which I have no talent, skill, or luck (so far I’ve cast over 50 times and have hooked 2 submerged ropes and have netted one large mud crab), there’s lots of entertainment to be had with the dogs, Gottie and CB (Croc Bait), who are always willing to help crack/chew open coconuts or act as croc-sentry on walks along the beach!

I hope you all are having a wonderful April (well, the 2 days of it so far) and continue to stay happy and healthy!  Over and out until next time (which may not be for a while....internet is seriously patchy here when we're always covered by rainclouds!)

Cheers!