A Walk Through the Tropics

Today began with a morning much like any nice summer morning on Whidbey Island... about 21 deg. C. ... getting up to around 27 deg. C. (you do the math, my brain is full). Oops! It is winter here just north of Cairns... balmy, wouldn't you say? After all, we are just 17 deg. Lat. south of the equator.

Dave here again... So we set out on a drive north (toward the equator) to spend some time in the Daintree Rainforest. The drive began with views of wonderful curving coastline. Eventually the road took us a bit more inland to a crossing of the Daintree River on an old and small cable-driven ferry - the kind that reels itself across the smallish river by pulling itself along a fixed steel cable. We hit the "rush hour" and had to wait in line for a couple of ferry circuits until our turn came... maybe 50 minutes. (Did I say this is a smallish river?) The drive continued up and into a soft soaking rain. (Did I say this is a rainforest?) Expert planners that we are, we left all umbrellas back at home near Sydney, so we purchased thin and cheap plastic ponchos for $3 Aus each. No sooner than we had begun our tour of the rainforest via the "boardwalk" pathways lifting us off the forest floor than the rain quit! However, the humidity stayed with us all the way through the walking tour.

The electronically guided tour was amazing and very interesting. Becky and I agree that one highlight was climbing the 70-ft tower that took us through the various ecosystems at each level right up to the forest canopy. We learned heaps about the very complex ecosystem but had barely scratched the surface before we needed to move on. If you have ever been to the Hoh Rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula... that is a temperate rain forest with many familiar evergreen trees like firs and cedars, etc. The Daintree Rain Forest is a TROPICAL rain forest with much denser foliage and more in the way of palms and many other plants and animals that make up an amazing ecosystem.

Curious factoid:  One animal in the Daintree is the Cassowary, a large flightless bird about 5-6 feet tall.  They eat fruit, nuts and other things that ripen and fall to the forest floor.  Some of the large softball-sized fruits they swallow whole, including a blue one that is poisonous to any other animal that might eat it.  Then - here's the fun part - when they poop, the large seeds are excreted whole (in the poop) and the plants are thus propagated across the forest!  The large seeds would never "fall" very far from the mother tree without this unique delivery system.  (The same kind of thing happens frequently with smaller seeds and flying birds, too.)

On our way back down from the Daintree we also stopped at Mossman Gorge to hike into a less wet and still very humid section of the Daintree. That stop included another hike along a "boardwalk" made of steel in most places for some very nice views of the Mossman River tumbling over huge boulders and forming some popular swimming "holes" crowded with winter break school children and families.

Back at the hotel in the evening we all went out to restaurants of our choice for a nice dinner. Becky and I walked down the beach-front street to eat at "The Rising Sun." We had a delicious meal of grilled Spanish mackerel, served by a waitress with a distinctly American accent. Turns out she is from Federal Way and is working her way around the world! Small world, indeed!
   

Viewpoint in the rain forest.  The Daintree River flows into the sea in the background.

Lunch at the interpretive center before hiking on the "boardwalk" (steel grating) through the rain forest.

Looking upward through the forest...

... and looking downward to the forest floor... if you can see it!

See the leafy vine trying to make its way upward by attaching to the larger tree?
Everything in the rain forest is trying to reach upward to get more sunlight.

At the top of the viewing tower Becky is looking across the rainforest canopy.  We could see some birds and butterflies.

Surprise!!!

More pics from the Reef day

I added just a few pics to the previous post about being at the Great Barrier Reef, so here are a few more in no particular order...

At the Cairns harbor on day of arrival.

The two Beckys and me at the end of the day.

Here is a shot of some soft coral (center of pic) waving like spaghetti in the current.  The hard corals aren't moving.

Niece Becky snorkeling before she took off the life vest and began diving, too.  She's a strong swimmer.

The two Beckys relaxing on the windy upper rear deck.  See the reef (darker area) in the background?

Me writing this blog on our balcony later in the evening.  Notice the palms screening the area?  Really nice place!

Lying Face Down in the Ocean . . .

. . . can be an adventure. I don't care if that tube is supposed to stick up in the air (usually) above my head, it just doesn't feel totally natural for me to have my nose and mouth under the water surface while I am taking full breaths. (Dave here...) But the trade-off for the view was more than worth the effort.

Fish of every stripe and color... some looking like zebras, others like a repetitious rainbow, still others hovering in formation like a collection of thick grayish arrows, and many more! Blue and yellow, striped and plain, they swam leisurely by in front of my dive mask singly and in small schools, some so close I could easily have touched them. But a slow fin kick allowed me to be among them as an observer to be tolerated more as a curiosity than a threat. It will take me a couple of weeks with Sarah's marine guide to identify half of what I saw.

And then there was the coral! Some (hard coral) stood in colorful and stately confusion like the branches of a deciduous tree in winter while others (soft coral) swayed gently with the currents like spaghetti or a bulbous rippling sponge. More shapes and sizes, not to mention several colors, than I can ever remember. The naturalist said there are about 1500 different types of coral. We took pictures from the glass bottomed boat and the semisubmersible that gave us a nice view of things. But no view was as good as lying face down in the water over one of the outer barrier reefs in the Great Barrier Reef off of Cairns (pr. Cahns). I didn't have an underwater camera for that one... wish I had... and scuba is a ways beyond me, so I'll just have a few images and some great memories of a day out on the ocean with my sweetheart, Becky, and Aussie niece, Becky, and about 300 other folks from all over the world.

The tour boat (right) took 90 minutes to get us to the anchored pontoon platform (to the back) where we also found the semi-submersible, glass-bottom boat, helo platform (costly rides!), and all the gear for snorkeling.  A delicious buffet lunch was provided in the cost as was all the gear and boats, but not the helo.

Glass-bottom boat gliding above the coral.

View of some coral from the semi-submersible.  The colors are hard to capture through the glass.

Yours Truly, face down in the water... what a view!

At a rest station with niece Becky Andrews.  Becky could spot me among all the swimmers by my white hair!

Relaxing on the back upper deck as the day at the pontoon wraps up.

Viewing station at stern of the pontoon held display of live coral and fish in the open ocean. 

Beach Day, more pics

Here are some more pics of our ferry trip across Sydney Harbor to Manly Beach.  I also took some good video of the city from the ferry and of the surfers at Manly, but we will export the video from the camera to a computer when we get back to the USA.

In the meantime, enjoy several more views from that sunny day . . .

A typical downtown Sydney street.  Please note the "LOOK RIGHT" instruction as you are about to step off across the street.  Traffic is coming at you from that direction (the left-hand side of the street)!  There must have been enough tourists unexpectedly stepping in front of traffic to cause the city to paint these warnings at every intersection and marked crossing.
Anywhere else in the street... you are on your own! 

The sails of the Opera House from the park across Circular Quay.

Sydney Harbor Bridge from the ferry as we were leaving Circular Quay.

Downtown Sydney from the ferry.  You can see a slight window glass reflection of the bridge which is off to the right.

Downtown Sydney from the ferry.

Looking out at the western Pacific through the harbor mouth.

The North Head (headland) framing the harbor entrance.

To the right is the South Head (headland) also framing the harbor entrance.

We are not in Kansas (or Washington State) any more!  Bright sunny winter day, eh Becky?

One of the ferries docked at Manly.

Across the distance is Manly and Manly Beach... taken from Shelly Beach at the end of the walkway. 
This water is the western Pacific Ocean.

Just a Day at the Beach

Dave here . . .

at Manly Beach, that is... on a sunny first day of school break. So we took the train into Sydney again, this time to a station close to the ferry terminals at Circular Quay (think Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge). We wedged ourselves into a mob of kids and adults on one of the ferries crossing Sydney Harbor to the town and location of Manly Beach. I resisted the urge to buy a Manly tee-shirt (hehehe) as we strolled up the pedestrian mall toward the beach.
 
After a delicious lunch at a sidewalk cafe overlooking the promenade and long beach full of frolicking kids, surfers, and sun worshipers, Becky and I took a walk along the promenade to one end of the beach and back to where Bob and Cheryl were enjoying the sun and scenery. Some more time watching the surfers and chatting with a transplanted Syrian family, and we strolled back toward the ferry dock. Of course, the stroll was interrupted with a stop at a gelato shop for the ladies and an ice cream shop for Dave... Bob stayed the course with his diet plan (good on you, Bob!).
 
The trip home began in the sunshine of the returning ferry ride past the iconic Opera House and Bridge and ended in the dark as the train was a bit delayed by mud slide cleanup work along one of the tracks and the fact that the sun goes down much earlier here (winter) than back at home (summer). But the pics in the sunshine (and some video of the harbor and the surfing) came out really well.

Looking back at downtown Sydney as we head across the harbor on the ferry. 

Waiting for lunch with Bob and Cheryl at Manly Beach.

A busy school break day at Manly Beach... can you see all the surfers (black dots) in the distant water?

One Week In . . .

Dave, again...

Sunday means worship... with Bob and Cheryl at their church about 20 minutes' drive from their home through lovely countryside. Good worship and a good sermon on the parable of the sower was followed by High Tea fellowship to which a friend of the Andrews family also brought Krispy Kreme donuts in honor of their visiting US relatives! Even better, it was also the birthday of the pastor's son, Joel(!), so we enjoyed a caramel mud cake in his honor as well!

Sunday at the Andrews' home means pot roast for dinner and plenty of guests with whom to share it. Pastor Glenn and his wife, Judy(!), and family were there. Also Larry and Graham Ransley; Bob's mum, Joyce; the Andrews' daughters Becky(Bek!) and Marcie along with Marcie's husband, Geoff, and their daughter, Camilla (Cami). It was a delicious and noisy meal and afternoon full of good conversation and fun.

Monday brought an early arrival of the promised blue skies of winter. Cheryl was babysitting Cami today, so we bundled into the car for a 10 minute drive to the lovely town of Windsor along the Hawkesbury River. While Cami played in the park with Grandma and Grandpa Andrews, Becky and I took a walk along a lovely parkway above the river and then wandered through the shops in the pedestrian mall running through the town. Some of the shops in town are getting ready for a "Crazy Christmas in July" celebration that seems somehow doubly out of whack given the winter season here in July and the brightly shining sun. After a delicious lunch of meat pies in a local restaurant we returned home to do some washing and for me to catch up the blogging. We are planning to do a couple of day-trips to different areas of the coast (east of here!) before we head off to the tropical/sub-tropical Great Barrier Reef area on Friday.
 
More to come...

Beautiful silver-bark eucalyptus trees along the river parkway. 

The Hawkesbury River and parkway at Windsor, NSW.

Becky and Dave overlooking the Hawkesbury River at Windsor.

At home with Bob Andrews, granddaughter Cami, and blogger Dave hard at work.

A Splash of History . . .

Dave here (Saturday morning 6/29 Australia time)...

One of the fun things that has happened several times during conversations with shop keepers, cabbies, or people on the street has been conversations that go like this:

Shopkeeper: "Where are you from?"
We: "Washington State. North of Seattle, in the US."
Shopkeeper: "Oh, I know you are from the States... just wondering where at."
Seems our accent is an immediate give-away as to our nationality, but we just assume that they can't tell the difference! Duh.

Bob and Cheryl picked us up from the hotel early this morning for a pancake breakfast down in the Harborside shops. We ate at a nice place where I had the strawberry pancakes which had fresh
strawberries and strawberry syrup as well as a thick dollop of cream and - get this! - ICE CREAM! As the Aussies would say, "Brilliant!" Why don't we have this in the US?! I'd order this one every time!

Even though the rain was coming down by the bucketful we drove through the city out toward the South Head of the harbor entrance. Along the way we stopped for a tour of the Vaucluse House. From a humble beginning as the small cottage of an eccentric Irish Knight in 1805 it became the colonial mansion home of William Charles Wentworth and his family beginning in 1827. Wentworth became one of the 10 richest men during those times, even making an offer to buy the south island of New Zealand! (Reasonable heads prevailed and his offer was rejected.) Following a fun and very informative tour revealing much about life and society in the development of the land that would become Australia we stopped at a lovely tea house on the (very large) grounds for delicious coffee and scones.

Off we went to the South Head. After splashing our way to a viewing area for a photo-op (see pic below) we headed down across a large park to a fish & chips place on the waterfront called Doyles. Thankfully, the eating area was enclosed so we enjoyed food and conversation while able to see the Sydney skyline dimly in the rain waaaaay across the harbor. Sydney Harbor is very large and long with a number of "fingers" that create particular shelters like Darling Harbor, Circular Quay, etc. By the time we left the eatery the rain had eased a bit and during the drive westward toward "home" disappeared altogether. The forecast is for the typical blue skies and colder temps of the Australian winter to return over the next couple of days, just in time for our trip north to the 80 deg.F. of Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef.

In the children's (girls) room... on the table are games, and can you see that the child's high-chair swivels on its base?

The "second room"... the second-floor family living room as distinguished from the very formal drawing room downstairs.

Sarah's bedroom (CW's wife).  Can you tell where to find the commode?  (see below for answer)

In a heavy rain at the South Head.  The North Head is in the rainy distance. 
These two points of land form the entrance to all of Sydney Harbor.

(Answer:  the commode is the "step"-looking structure in the foreground next to the bed!  All the modern conveniences for some of the richest people of the time.)