Cairns Part III

The final day was a long one, 5 hours each way, to visit Undarra lava tubes, about a third of the way across to the Gulf country. We headed out of Cairns and up through the incredibly rich and fertile Atherton Tableland where there are cassowary and tree kangaroo.
Pretty amazing, hey. This is part of one of the lava tubes which can be easily accessed. After our lunch we were taken on a tour of a couple of the tubes which was very interesting, though it was conducted in English so I felt the frustration of the group, but they had Taka and another geography professor to translate or add their own interpretation so all was not lost.
Looking out from one of the tubes. The vegetation surrounding the area generally is savannah woodland but around the tubes it is a really interesting form of dry rainforest which creates a very pleasant micro climate.
The only snake we saw on the entire trip - a freshwater or keelback - I think this is the first I've seen in the wild. It was in one of the tubes looking around for frogs.
On the way back we stopped at this quite famous cathedral fig. Got back to Cairns just on 8pm and then had a lovely dinner at Ochre, a very good place to eat. Some had wallaby, others had crocodile, I opted for the duck and Cal had the lamb.

Cairns Part II

Day 2 saw us arrive on Green Island, about a 45 minute boat ride from Cairns harbour. We stopped in front of a sign and gave a short talk on aspects of the management of the Great Barrier Reef. This is my colleague, Taka, from Tokyo Metropolitan University talking to some of the group and I followed up after he'd finished. I'm glad I give an annual guest lecture on marine tourism to SCU's environmental science students...that knowledge came in handy.
I couldn't get over how unafraid the buff banded rails were on Green Island....here's a little mob enjoying the sun at the swimming pool on the island.
After a couple of hours on the island we then headed to one of the outer reefs, Norman Reef, almost an hour to the north of Green Island. We were headed straight for a storm but it was moving towards us so by the time we got to the reef it was sunny. The tour company has a pontoon based here and so we moored to the pontoon and used this as our base for lunch and obviously snorkelling. Pretty incredible experience - masses of fish, some of which you can see in the photo above, lots of colourful coral (and quite a bit of dead coral as well). We were advised to snorkel in lycra suits as a person had been stung a few days ago by an Irikandji stinger and had to be hospitalised.
Heading back to Cairns, we passed a number of islands and small coral cays.
There's something about cruising around the Coral Sea that makes me happy.

Cairns Part I

Last week I accompanied a group of people from the Tokyo Geographical Society to Cairns where my role was to add to or enhance their experience by providing more information on some kind of phenomenon or a bird/plant/snake identification. The language barrier was difficult as was my lack of local knowledge which became obvious when I was asked to name plants that I'd never seen before. Cal came along as well and it was a great opportunity for him to see far north Queensland.
The first day was spent walking in the rainforest of Barren Gorge National Park, with the photo above showing the Barron River. A beautiful place.
After a tasty lunch at Mossman we then boarded a small boat on the Daintree River in search of crocs and other wildlife. Here I am pointing out the importance of being croc-wise (which makes a change from my usual wisdom).
Cal in relaxed mood en route to the croc nursery...
and here is one of the five crocs we saw that afternoon...only four days old and sunning itself on the branches of this low hanging native hibiscus. Mum was around of course but we didn't see her though another vessel did shortly after we had left the area.

Burton's Legless Lizard

Steve spotted this Burton's Legless Lizard about 50 metres below our entry on McGuinness Road as we walked back up from plonking a bag of garbage in the garbage dumpster. This is my first record of this species here and to be honest I guess I wasn't expecting it. However, when I think about it there is good habitat for this species up on our neighbour Bill's property, amongst the sandstone rock outcrops. What a shame it had been squashed by a car - but of course if it hadn't I wouldn't have known that they existed here. I've only seen a handful in the wild, they eat skinks and have that long distinctive nose. Lialis burtonis for those Latinists among you.

Cairns bound

I'm flying up to Cairns tomorrow morning for a week. Some time ago I agreed to accompany a small group of academics from Tokyo University around a number of tourist attractions in the Cairns area, including Daintree River and NP, Green Island and the outer Reef, and Undarra Lava Tubes. And so, the time has now come to do just that.

I'm taking Cal with me, and I've decided that he can be the official photographer. We leave Coolangatta tomorrow morning and meet up with the group tomorrow afternoon. I've done a bit of research on Daintree, Green Island, GBR and Undarra lava tubes but I guess I'll probably play to my strengths (ie they are going to learn a lot about snakes lol). I've had a fair bit on my plate the past couple of weeks so haven't really had a lot of time to think about it or get excited about the trip, but yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I like Cairns and have spent a fair bit of time there doing library based research about the taipan and Eric Worrell's involvement in the creation of an antivenom in 1955. The library is a beautiful white colonial-style building, that was the first town hall, and it was such a treat to spend days in there looking through fifty year old copies of the Cairns Post which carried the most amazing stories and advertisements. Sometime in the future I want to do some research on the old travelling shows that used to go up and down the east coast of Australia.

I also want to visit the grave of Kevin Budden, who died when he was just 20 after travelling to Cairns from Sydney back in 1950, to catch a taipan...which he did, but bit him when he was trying to bag the snake after having hitch-hiked to a friend's place holding the 2 metre taipan. He died the following day a hell of a long way from his family. I interviewed his lovely sister, Dorothy, for Snake Bitten and she very kindly gave me access to Kevin's diaries and photo albums. I've visited his grave several times to honour him and his sister, who absolutely adored her little brother.

Maybe Cal and I might do some night-time snake hunting but we'd need to hire a vehicle and I don't really know any good snake roads like I do around here. Luckily taipans tend not to be nocturnal!

I'm looking forward to visiting the Undarra Lava Tubes as they are out in savannah country..well maybe I should say I'm looking forward to looking at the tubes...5 hours there and back in a bus in one day....hmmm I'm not looking forward to that! Eye spy, anyone?

Death of a Wallaby

Steve and I had only got as far as the spot where Julia's Little Creek flows under McGuinness Road on Friday morning on the start of our trek to work, when we saw to our horror, that one of the larger male red necked wallabies that hang around our place had been hit by a car sometime earlier that morning. His back legs were next to useless and he had a very bloodied and messy throat. The poor thing must have been hit on Martin's Road and managed to crawl and haul his mangled body up near our paddock. What the hell to do? Our friend, Piglet, had the unfortunate experience of hitting a wallaby on his way home from Lismore when he was up here doing his prac last year and had courageously returned to run the poor animal over in order to kill it. How many other people would have continued to drive on? Our wallaby was now off the road and it was so large that I was afraid that running it over, as awful as this sounds, wouldn't have killed it swiftly.

We drove back up and conferred with our friend Shane, who stayed at our place Thursday and Friday nights, with his partner, Cub, (aka Jason) so that he could work his magic around the creek. In the end we asked Shane if he could ring WIRES as a first port of call, given that it would be a fair assumption that they get calls like this fairly regularly. Unfortunately, there were no close WIRES people, so the woman Shane talked to suggested he ring Nimbin police who could come down and shoot it. Shane was reluctant to take the police away from more pressing policing matters, so he drove up to our neighbour, Bill's place. Bill lives at the very end of McGuinness Road, a few hundred metres past our gate. Bill came down with his rifle and put the wretched wallaby out of pain with one clean shot.

Big Wet

Last Sunday was a very hot day and by about midday, it was starting to look like we'd be copping a big storm. And a big storm we did cop. The sky turned dark and a strong northwesterly tore leaves and branches from our trees. 57mm was dumped on us in under 20 minutes, creating streams like this one in our bottom paddock, where streams normally don't flow...
the rain flowed sheet-like across the lawn, gouging out the garden bed...
Incredible energy and power transformed the usually trickling Julia's Little Creek into the murky, turbulent monster
and this is what the creek was like on the other side of McGuinness Road...banking up until it was almost at the level of the road...yet in 15 minutes it had subsided a good metre or so. Nature....a harsh mistress...

I get my eyes read

Steve, Cal and I spent a few hours at the always fabulous and interesting Channon Market on Sunday. It's such great fun, always amazing stuff to look at and buy, and it's a fantastic spot for people-watching. Steve stocked up on his goats' milk soaps from his favourite supplier, and Cal bought himself a hat, oh and a cake of goats' milk soap, as well.

I was intrigued by a tall African man who had a white full face kinda Phantom of the Opera mask on, who was charging $2.00 to read your eyes. He was doing quite good business and I decided I'd get mine read.

I found the experience of gazing into his eyes, defined entirely by the whiteness of his mask, incredibly comforting - it almost felt like I was surrendering to him (which is very unlike me). We remained like this with our eyes connected for a couple of minutes and then he wrote his message on a little square piece of paper.

"Nature loves you deeply

Smile to life

Your spirit is eternal

Don' t lose the faith in the magic and

In the beauty of Life"

I was a little disappointed when I first read what he had written, I guess I was hoping for something a little more specific ('the winning lotto numbers will be...' but, on reflection, I like what he wrote, I still think they are nice words. And I did experience a moment of transcendence when I was looking into his eyes.

Cal Returns

and he baked us a delicious white chocolate cheese-cake with raspberries on top (under Steve's tutelage)
So Cal returned last week, after spending almost 6 weeks in New Caledonia, where he spent just about every day in or around the sea, snorkelling, wind surfing, generally hangin' with the fish and turtles. It's great to have him back with us, though, and we celebrated his return in style, with the quintessential Larnook package: a glass or three of bubbles in the hot tub, a delicious meal and a movie.
Glen came over last Saturday evening and we had a great night.
And here's the man, himself. Cal calls Steve and I his 'gay daddies'...aw shucks....

a little illumination

Steve has been having lots of fun buying lamps from the Recollections store up in Loganlee, just south of Brisbane. We used to buy a few things from the store in Leichardt, Sydney, when we lived in Newcastle, and lately Steve has just been keen to take advantage of a 2 for 1 deal at our closest store up here. And he loves a bargain. Most of the lamps he has bought have an art deco feel about them. The one above sits in one corner of the Good Room, lighting up Micky Mouse and a wooden statue from Borneo.
We have two of these, one here, next to the baby grand piano and the other next to the tv in the living room.
Another type in this, Glen's, bedroom...
and yet another look in this bedroom.

Quirky

We bought this fella years ago at the Honeysuckle Markets (RIP) at Newcastle. He used to preside over our back deck in Newcastle but he will soon be up, lording over our middle deck, here at Larnook. Love his texture, his colours, his friendly wickedness...he's kind of a merman-ian Pan, sort of...

Just a bunch of pics

After feeding the boys and collecting the eggs late this afternoon, I wandered around the place pointing and shooting at whatever took my fancy. Here's just some images. I hope you like....hydrangea
play of late afternoon light on yellow torch ginger...
one of my favourite spots...
sublime frangipani
bronzey new growth on the mango tree against an endless cobalt sky

Late afternoon on a summery, February Sunday

I love the drama that paints itself on the Billen Cliffs throughout the day as well as throughout the year. Much more dramatic than this photograph suggests, but I love the contrast of light and shade...OK so I like nature-stuff.
Looking up to the front deck of the house late this afternoon across a perfectly mown lawn thanks to the combined efforts of Roger our zero-turn ride-on and Stevie. You can see the hot tub sitting on the lower deck and the vege gardens, which will soon be given over to autumn plantings.
I never get tired of looking down McGuinness Road and up to the Homeleigh Range.
Or this one, our resident magpies foraging for grubs in the foreground, the protective Billen Cliffs in the background.

Green...

Isn't this the craziest plant. It's some kind of elephant ear but each leaf crinkles up and creates these amazing, well...crinklings of a lighter creamy, colour.
Tarro...
Rough tree fern...
water lily
Thalea...

A very nice carpet

This sloughed skin is from one of our semi-resident carpet pythons, which we found recently in our shed (the skin, not the python). I'm 178cm tall so it's probably another 20cm or so longer than I am tall. Can't wait to see the real McCoy sometime. One for you, Louise.

Steve went up to Loganlee near Brisvegas today to buy some more lamps (I shall photograph his various lamp purchases and post them shortly and yes he is going through a lamp-fetish stage at the moment, but they look great, of course, Steve selected them, goes without saying) while I spent what was a beautiful summer's day at work. (Please, put those violins away). It was all good. I had a very productive morning working on some interview transcripts and then, once the gym opened at 2.00pm, I high tailed it down there to do a workout with my trainer, Dale. She put me through my paces and she enjoyed watching, and I endured doing, a few super sets until fatigued. I then crawled back to my office and drank my 35 grams of protein powder (vanilla flavoured, actually quite refreshing and tasty). Yes, I've gone back to the gym with a vengeance. As some of you know, I am sliding quickly towards my 50th (yes there will be a party) so I need to renovate my body. Dale says she saw some striations today. I think that is a good thing...

Weather creates disappointment

Our friends, Ros and Kev, were planning to come up and stay with us this weekend, but because of the dreary, and often, wet weather we have been having, and probably will be having again, they reluctantly decided to pull the pin.

Ros (who is one of my regular blog-readers) and Kev own the beautiful Yeranda at Barrington Tops Cottages near Dungog, in the Hunter Valley, near Newcastle, and we have been friends for hmmm close on ten years I reckon. Many a delightful weekend has been spent in either Pindari Cottage or Kalimna Cottage, with other friends. We have lovely memories of our stays there.

Ros is a fanatical naturalist as well as being a brilliant wildlife photographer, and she was so looking forward, as Kev was, to coming up and checking out Larnook and surrounds.

Here's hoping that you guys can come up sometime later this year.

And a blatant plug: If you would like a perfectly relaxing and rejuvenating few days, go stay there! Their website is www.yeranda.com.au and all the details of the cottages and costs are there (it is an extremely affordable place). For those of you who might like a tree-change, Ros and Kev are downsizing and have offered Yeranda for sale. I often fantasised about owning Yeranda when I would stay up there, thinking about the various tasks that would need to be done, all the time surrounded by the beautiful forests of the Barrington Tops. Anyway, if you'd like to consider purchasing the property, just talk to Ros and Kev.

A beautiful moment. Then destroyed.

I often stroll down McGuinness Road, over the bridge and then up to where Martin's Road comes off Cawongla Road when I want to think, reflect, get really deep into myself or just take a relaxing walk. I did just that this afternoon about 5.30 or so, and it was just perfect. The afternoon was warm, but with a slight breeze and the sky was grey, but not depressingly so.

As I reached the garbage dumpster we share with our neighbours, Pete and Cheryl, I noticed a young galah standing on the grass in front of it. I slowed my walking right down and crouched down and was able to get to within a couple of feet of it. I admired the greys and pinks that make up its feathers while it looked at me with a quizzical eye. Because I was literally right next to it, I decided that it must have been injured, and, if it had been, it would have ended up dying. So I slowly and gently brought my hand down to hold it around its wings, when it gave a defiant screech and flew away. Elegantly and powerfully.

If I hadn't tried to catch it, I could have sat with it for a while, enjoying the close proximity between bird and beast. But I didn't. And in the action that followed that decision, I destroyed a precious, beautiful, moment.

A lesson, I think.

Simple but tasty salad

This is a tasty salad that goes well with fish: chop up onion, tomato, lebanese cucumber, and if you like some crunch, some radish, and then drizzle some olive oil over it. Very quick and easy, very tasty.