Reefer Madness

Telen is healing.

When we arrived in Aus. Telen was not moving very fast.  She said it only hurts when she laughed and then grimaced as she laughed.   Laughing with cracked ribs is a no-win situation.  We were worried that we were not going to be able to see the Great Barrier Reef, which is the main reason we came to Australia and Cairns in particular.  The good news is she is getting better.  Her right cross is as fast as ever with almost as much power.   Now I have to be more careful what I say again…  

It was good while it lasted…

One of the nice things about travelling is meeting other travellers.  We met a delightful Swedish couple that was staying in the same hotel as us.   We hit it off right away and ended up chatting for quite a while.  The next day they invited us along on a drive up the coast to Cape Tribulation and along the way we went on a Wildlife Cruise up the Daintree River.   What you find in the Daintree River are crocodiles.

The Crocodile being mellow...

I have to tell you about Australian.   It is a language that I am starting to develop some facility with.  So, I am going to write what the wildlife guide said and then I will translate.

“Gudd Oy, Tudoy will be lukkin fer cruks inna wota.  Duh domnint cruc eer eesa myle koled Scahfiss.  Eesa big boi an woyes but fo hun fiffy keelas an is bat fonaf metahs lung. Now wuriz, mite”

Translation: “Good afternoon.  Today we will be looking for crocodiles in the water.  The dominant crocodile here is a male called Scarface.  He is a big boy and weighs about four hundred fifty kilos and is about four and a half meters long.”

The phrase “now wuriz” seems to be a catchall phrase that can mean: “yes”, “thank you”, “I am well, thank you”, “how are you”, “nice weather we are having”,“can I buy you a drink” or simply means the speaker is finished speaking.  Sometimes it is just used for no apparent reason.  A similar phrase ‘Oy now!” is used in a similar way but tends to signify agreement.

We did see Scarface and he is a huge crocodile.  Luckily he was pretty docile as he was guarding a dead pig and waiting for it to marinate until it was disgusting enough to eat.  When I see a crocodile that is 450 kg and about 4.5 meters long I really, really want him to be mellow and with a full tummy.   I don’t feel comfortable with cranky and hungry.

The rest of the trip was through the rainforest.  It is certainly different from the rainforest we have a home.   It is very lush and all the vegetation has huge leaves and the flowers are large, succulent and look slightly carnivorous.  Most of us northerners think of Australia as desert but this area it is anything but.

I don't think it's carnivorous...but I am not sure.

On a side note – I got to be sexy again for a few minutes.   As we were boarding a bus to come home from the beach the other day I felt someone pulling the hair on my shoulders.   I looked around and there was a little Korean lady stroking the hair.  She gave me doe eyes and a smile.  On the bus she kept looking at me and smiling.   Maybe she thought I was some kind of weird Australian wildlife.  Maybe I shouldn’t wear sleeveless shirts anymore…  Or maybe I should wear them more often…  

We finally hit the reef.

Me on the Great Barrier Reef.

Since we only had 10 days in Australia we wanted to see the biggest attraction.   The Great Barrier Reef fit the bill.  Apparently it is larger than England and almost as large as Japan and is the largest living organism on earth - certainly the only one visible from space.   The last bit may be fairly recent knowledge.  The Chinese have been saying the Great Wall is visible from space but they have been saying that for centuries and only recently has that been proven false.

Speaking of the Chinese...

The tour company that took us out to the reef caters to Chinese tour groups.  I never thought to be a visible minority in Australia.  Probably 85% of the clients on board were Chinese.   There are cultural differences.  Having been to China I am aware of those differences but I was a little unprepared to find them in Australia.  Like Americans who are great in their country but terrible travellers – the Chinese are terrible travellers.  Except the Chinese are not great in their country.  They were loud (talking over the announcement and the speakers), physically pushy, and inconsiderate of others not in their group (I had put my sunglasses and hat down on a chair while I went to the bathroom and when I came back a group of Chinese had taken my chair by simply sitting on them).  The buffet lunch on boat featured prawns but we weren’t fast enough.  The first group of Chinese passengers through took them all – they just kept loading up plates until there was no more.  I was used to it in China – it just felt odd in Aus.

However, we were not going to let that ruin our trip to the reef.

We went out snorkeling with a local naturalist.  Strangely, out of the 300 people on the boat only Telen and I went with the naturalist.  She gave us a great tour and showed us all kinds of things we would not have seen on our own.  I even got to touch a giant clam and watch it snap shut – but I was told to take my hand away quickly after touching it or I might spend a lot of time down there…   We spent about 45 minutes snorkeling with her and neither of us got cold. Pruny, but not cold.  The water temperature is like a warm bath – 30^o.

Salt water and electronics are a bad combination.  My super-duper waterproof, shockproof fancy camera turned out to be somewhat less than waterproof.  I managed to get two photos, a warning came up on my screen and it went blank and developed white streaks.   Not a good sign, I thought.  When I got out of the water I opened up the compartment that housed the battery and SD card and a viscous green fluid started pouring out.  The lens was milky and the viewing screen was a spider web of white streaks.  Not good.  The timekeeper on the camera said, “Time to buy a new camera”

After a small break we went back in the water (sans camera) and had an encounter with a Maori Wrasse.   His name is Wally and he is like a cow.   He follows the cameraman around because the cameraman keeps a prawn in his wetsuit for him (he got to the buffet before the Chinese).  We got a few pictures with Wally.   Wally was so focused on that prawn that we could touch him and pose with him and he did not notice.   So we had to make due with those photos rather than all the ones we could have taken. 

Swimming with Wally 
Rand on the left, Telen (most of her) on the right

While snorkeling I saw a sea turtle. I was within 1 meter of him.  He was swimming along with a grace, serenity and majesty that is hard to describe.  He turned his head a looked at me and said “Kaw!  Duude!  What brings you to the EAC on this fine day?”   Ok, maybe not, but I liked to think that is what he was thinking.  I’ve watched “Finding Nemo” too often…  That was when I really missed my underwater camera.

I did not take this picture - but this is how close I got to the Sea Turtle.

One of the crew told me where to find some clown fish so I swam out there.  Apparently a lot of people don’t swim out to where I was because of the distance from the platform and the sudden deep drop-off so I saw an incredible amount of fish.  I was out there by myself and who came swimming by?  The sea turtle!  Either I saw two sea turtles or the same one twice but it was a fabulous experience.  I watched as he serenely swam off into the blue and counted myself lucky.  Then I swam down to a coral formation and there was a little clown fish about 3 cm long swimming in and out of the anemones.

Clown Fish.   I did not take this photo.  Cameras don't like salt water.

When I got back to the platform Telen was there so I convinced her to come with me.  She saw the clown fish but the sea turtle was long gone.  We could not stay out there long because Telen’s ribs were bothering her a little.  It was unfortunate but probably time to get out of the water anyway.  The sun was hot, the water was very warm and I think we were getting a little dehydrated.  It is amazing that you can be soaking in water for a few hours and get out dehydrated.  I guess it is like Campbell’s Noodle Soup.  How do the noodles soak in a can for years and still come out as noodles?

Telen with her favourite crew member.  His name is Beat (pronounce Be At)

 

         

Oz

The inevitable picture of the Sydney Opera House

43^o C

33^o C

These are new experiences for us.  We arrived in Sydney NSW Australia on the hottest day they have recorded.  We have never experienced 43^o C before except once when a sauna went postal.  What do you do at 43^o C?   Stay inside where the air-conditioner is working its little heart out, of course.

Thanks to my expert planning and foresight we came just shy of being able to do that.  We decided to catch the train from the airport to the hotel we had booked.  It looked like the right thing to do as the train ran from the airport every 15 minutes so it should be easy.  Air-conditioned airport to air-conditioned train to air-conditioned hotels.  Since we had been flying all night in cattle class with little or no sleep the next step was “air-conditioned sleep”.

The train ran from the airport every 15 minutes but it did not run to our hotel that often.  In fact it only ran near our hotel about every 2 hours or so.  In my wisdom I had chosen a hotel that was a long, long way out of the city.  When we boarded the train from the central station to our hotel we did not take into consideration a few things.  One:  there were 2 more transfers after central. Two:  there were one-half to three-quarters of an hour wait at each of those transfers.  Three: those waiting areas were outside in the sun.  Four: those trains were old, creaky, slow and NOT air-conditioned.  Five:  the closest stop to our hotel was 1 kilometer away – most of it across tarmac.  When we got to the hotel we were done.  I mean, “done” as in medium rare.  We had left the airport at 9 am and it was 1:30 pm when we arrived and, thankfully, they had our room ready.  We showered, ate and dropped into bed with our suitcases quietly steaming in the corner.

The choice of hotel was unfortunate in a couple of ways.   There was nowhere decent to eat near the hotel and they charged extra for sketchy Wi-Fi.  We were left with the choice of MacDonald’s or Hooters for both.   Hooters was expensive with very large portions and MacDonald’s was expensive with broken Wi-Fi. 

MacDonald’s expensive, you say?   Yup.  Everything is expensive in Australia.   It is not just because we came from Southeast Asia where the food budget for a week is around $5.00.  Lunch in the Hotel was $60.00 for 2 sandwiches and 2 salads; supper was $100.00 for 2 entrees that, really, would have fed one person.  MacDonald’s came to $15.00 each for burgers and fries.  Hopefully New Zealand will be cheaper.

About 1 km from our hotel was a ferry that took us to Circular Quay – the heart of tourism in Sydney.  It was a very pleasant ride that took about 45 minutes and the temperature had fallen to somewhere in the low 20’s.   We did the usual tourist thingys  - went to the Opera House and wandered around the tourist area.  It was very pleasant but nothing was awe-inspiring.  “Quaffable, but far from transcendent” to quote the movie “Sideways”.

Sydney reminds me a lot of Vancouver.  It is a big city on the waterfront with tall buildings and lots of underlying grime.  Where Vancouver has the 5 sails - Sydney has the Opera House.  Vancouver has the Lion’s Gate Bridge - Sydney has the Harbour Bridge.  Sydney is warm and friendly - Vancouver has mountains and mildew.

Telen making the Opera House look good!

We arrived in Cairns in northeast Australia.  Northeast in Australia means warmer, not colder.  It is a nice little city that reminds me a bit of Banff – except less Australians.   Cairns is pronounced “Ken’s”.  Since they are always putting shrimps on their Barbie’s here I am beginning to think Australia has some commercial deal with Mattel.

Cairns is the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.  Basically it is a beach town with lots and lots of tourist excursions.  Again, it is not cheap.   We did some grocery shopping at the local mall and baffled the checkout clerk with our sobbing and whining.  The downtown area of Cairns is basically souvenir shops, surf shops and coffee shops.

The fruit here is incredible.   We went to the local market to get some mangos, pineapples and bananas.  All of it was locally grown and sooooooo good!   What we call mangos and pineapples back home bear no resemblance to the mangos and pineapples here.

The beach area is a mangrove forest that was cleared out and is not swimmable for 2 reasons: mud and crocodiles.  So they built a “lagoon” where everyone can go swimming and sunbathing and they have dozens of gas barbeques for cooking your lunch.  All of it free.  Can you imagine that in Canada?   The pool would be a soup of drunks, there would have to be a first-aid tent to deal with the burns and people would be complaining that the location is inconvenient. 

The "Lagoon" at Cairns.  Swimming pool, barbecue, sunbathing areas.  All free. This would cause SO much whining in Canada

Yesterday we took the bus to Palm Cove beach.  The water was 33^oC.  That is almost body temperature!  I am not sure it was refreshing but it sure was nice.  I have been in tropical water before but nothing as warm as this.  Again a new experience.

The beach at Palm Cove 

The Stinger Net to keep out the predators.  Doesn't work on two legged ones unfortunately

One does not have to worry about hypothermia here.  The big hazards are jellyfish and crocodiles.  The beach has an area that is protected by a “stinger” net to prevent the jellyfish from zapping people and crocs from having an afternoon snack.   I imagine the crocodiles swimming by thinking “ I hate this over-packaging!”

Things we don't worry about in Canada

Telen writes:

Although we have acclimatized to heat and humidity after being in SE Asia and Bali, the 43 degrees C temperature in Sydney was definitely a first for me.  It was like being inside an oven.  The thought of soaking in an outdoor pool was really appealing.  Thank goodness the hotel in Sydney had one.

My impression of the locals here is friendliness in everyone we had a conversation with.  Yes, restaurant foods here are very expensive, at least two or three times higher here than in Victoria.  The quality does not reflect the price unfortunately.  We had lunch in Cairns downtown a couple days ago.  I asked the server where the toilet was.  He said there is no toilet available in the café.  There is a public one around the corner about a block away BUT “it is very ugly…” He said it in such good humor that I wanted to laugh and felt ripped off at the same time.  We were charged almost $50 AUD for 2 salads and 2 mango smoothies and the restaurant has no toilet for the patrons?

I really enjoy the super warm ocean water and the local mangoes and pineapples.  Unfortunately I am currently healing from a couple of broken ribs after slipping on wet tiles in the bathroom in Bali.  My hope is that the pain will subside enough to permit snorkeling later in the week in the Great Barrier Reef.