Mallory and I decided to do something different. We had heard about the town of Kuranda which is at the top of a mountain and can be accessed by car, scenic train or skyrail. We have had enough of cars and buses so we decided to go up via scenic rail and then down via skyrail. As you will see from our pictures, we had quite a good time and some amazing views of the area North of Cairns.
One of the major scenic sites in the area are the Barron Falls which were quite brilliant and you could hear the power in them when we saw them both by train and skyrail. The interesting thing about the Barron Falls is that they are used to generate power and are considered a green source of energy that is used in Cairns and surrounding cities.
After some shopping in Kuranda and walking the town and enjoying the sites, we were able to head back down towards Cairns.
Once again the sites were amazing, but it is also interesting to know that the skyrail was built in such a way that the natural environment was not harmed. Most of the materials for the towers were brought on by helicopter and manufactured on site so that trees would not have to be destroyed. We saw a video of the building, it was quite amazing. After watching the video I am considering adding this to our course on ecotourism because of the sustainability principles used to create the skyrail. Besides, it was fun also.
The last photo is of what they call the "Flying Fox." When we were coming up via train they talked about this was a common way to transport materials and that some people even "commuted" to work via the Flying Fox. Now that might be fun.
Mallory and I finished off tonight with a dinner at a restuarant where we sampled the local fare. We enjoyed the "Ozie Trio" which consisted of Emu, Crocodile and Kangaroo. It was quite tasty, YUM.
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Today we headed up to the Daintree Rainforest, the oldest rainforest in the world and it was a great day to be out exploring -- despite being a "rainforest" it stayed pretty dry on us -- perfect!
(This is a speed bumb sign were someone decided to make the speed hump look like a cassowarie)
Our three guides Tom (owner of Wilderness Challenge), Evan, and Dean were a wealth of knowledge and we learned loads about the different fauna and birds -- we all hoped to see a Cassowarie (a giant bird similiar to an emu or ostrich), but instead we saw plenty of flying foxes (otherwise known as bats). The other thing that was prevelant on our rainforest experience were spiders -- we saw a ton of golden orb spiders and one of them was just slightly smaller than the size of my hand -- don't worry, they're not poisonous -- ugly, but not poisonous!
On our bush walk through Daintree we saw some pretty neat wild life, a King Fisher bird and we saw a rather large lizard (the name is escaping me at the moment). In addition to walking in the bush we also got to walk along Thorton beach -- it was beautiful and one of the neatest things to think about as we were walking was that the beach looks like it did when Cook discovered these shores back in the 1700's -- pretty cool! While we were on the beach we found pumice stones that had washed up on shore as well as mangrove seeds, one had actually sprouted, which was unusual!
After the beach, we headed to lunch and then we dropped by a fruit grove and bought homemade ice cream -- the flavors we got to eat were Jakefruit, Wattleseed, Blueberry, and Coconut -- we got all four -- it was served that way and the flavors were determined by what was ripe at the grove -- yummy!
From ice cream we zoomed off to our boat trip down the Daintree River, where we actually got to see a mother crocodile nesting -- it was hard to get the right picture through the brush, but were hoping someone got a decent shot! While we were out on the river we also saw a python curled up sunning itself in a mangrove tree, and then of course the bats sleeping in the trees! We definitely got to see some great wildlife on today's excursion.
Today was full of learning and experiencing new things -- I think the students really enjoyed what we saw and the knowledge that was imparted to us. Our guides were great and answered so many of our questions - there wasn't anything that they didn't seem to know (or know how to get the answer to)! Great day!
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Today was the day that many of the students and faculty have been waiting. The opportunity to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. The weather in Cairns was a little sketchy this morning but as we traveled away from the city the weather got sunnier, but the waves were still choppy. The choppy waves caused many to experience some sea sickness, but everyone survived and then had the opportunity to explore the Reef.
After a two hours of snorkeling we grabbed some lunch before heading to our second destination for the day. Right before getting in the water at the second destination a quick storm came through and caused the water to be a bit choppy but the views at the second site were even better than first and we were able to see a number of great fish and coral. More importantly the students were able to use their new found knowledge from the Reef Teach the night before.
I have included a few photos that I took today that attempt to capture the beauty that we saw, but you can tell from the photos that I am not a good photographer or not able to at least tell the full story.
Enjoy!!! See if you can find NEMO in the picture below. By the way, we found NEMO twice, once in the picture below but one of the workers on the boat we went was named NEMO, so regardless, we were successful.
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We have just arrived back to civilization from Lamington National Park -- what an AMAZING experience up on the mountain! We got in a bit later than anticipated on Wednesday (cancelled flight, but the students handled it well and used the time to catch up on journaling and catching up on reading for the course!)
While we were at O'Reilly's we had several group experiences together and then others that we could choose to participate in, from bird watching, a glow worm trek, or other bush walks -- the choice was ours! In addition to enjoying the many activities, I must tell you that everyone also seemed to enjoy the food -- it never seemed to stop! O'Reilly's activities revolved around food -- from breakfast we would move to our morning activity, break for tea, finish the activity, head to lunch, then participate in an afternoon activity, break for 4pm tea, then dinner at 6pm -- seriously, these Aussies know how to eat, and we definitely enjoyed trying to keep up with them! I might add that a good number of the students ate Kangaroo on our last night dining!
On our first day Tim O'Reilly, the activities director held a special session for the Giant Swing and the Flying Fox -- it was AWESOME (and I'm going to work on posting some video, so definitely check back). Tim instructed us on a few safety precautions and we were off to play!
First, I'll start with the Giant Swing -- this contraption hoisted you about 50 feet in the air and then you were released to swing -- the dropping sensation was amazing and it literally felt like you were on a rollar coaster! The other activity we got to experience was the Flying Fox -- a zip line contraption that you flew down, and for the brave you could zoom upside down! The students really seemed to enjoy this activity, zooming down several times trying to top their last zip -- it was great fun!
Flying Fox Video
In addition to flying foxes and giant swings we were also able to experience a little bit of Aboriginie culture from Douglas, a member of the Yugambeh language group. Douglas taught us how to throw a boomerang and several of the students did pretty well almost catching their boomerang upon it's return! The majority of us however were ducking and running away as boomerangs flew erradicly through the air! After our boomerang lesson we headed in for a bit of a lesson on aboriginie culture and we learned loads more about boomerangs -- there are 5 different types and they were typically used to hunt roo's and different fowl.
We also learned about some various musical instruments -- from gourds, clapsticks and, of course, the digiardoo -- we even got to play with several of these instruments too! The digiardoo was of course quite popular, and because it is custom for only the men in a tribe to play the girls did not get to play the digi in the presence of Douglas -- however, there is ample opportunity for them to try at one of the many shops while we are here in Cairns.
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I will begin by apologizing if Mallory and I overlap on what we say but I figured it would be best if we wrote our own entries to talk about our experiences up in O'Reilly's.
Our trip to O'Reilly's was delayed a couple of hours because of our flight being cancelled in Sydney. Luckily Virgin Blue was able to get us on two later flights so the group had to split up but we all arrived into Brisbane safely. From there we had about a 2 hour bus ride up to O'Reilly's. This bus ride often makes students a little uneasy because it is very windy up the mountain. The good news was that it allowed the students their first opportunity to see wallabies (think small version of kangaroos).
As you can see from the picture above the view at O'Reilly's was spectacular. However, I must confess and say that this picture was taken on our last day out of O'Reilly's. To be honest it rained and was cloudy most of the time we were there, but as I tell the students, hey it is a rainforest what do you expect.
On Thursday morning the students and Mallory enjoyed the Flying Fox and Giant Swing. I have participated in the Flying Fox (or zipline) in previous years so I decided to enjoy the Lyrebird Lookout hike instead. This allowed me to see Lamington National Park and learn about the flora and fauna in the rainforest from Carol. Carol is interning at O'Reilly's from Oregon State University. One of the favorite things I saw in the forest was orange fungi which you can see below.
After lunch, the group of Elon students participated in a walk to Morans Falls. I may have mentioned it earlier, but the mountain has received a lot of rainfall in the last week. Last week they had 32 inches of rain which is about half of what they get in a normal year so the waterfall was running nicely. Tim O'Reilly (see below) was the guide for my group and educated the students about the area.
However, the true attraction was the waterfall which had more water than I had ever seen previously. It was quite magnificent and you could hear the power from quite far away.
Following Morans Falls, some of the students participated in a Snakes Alive program and were able to see some of Australia's poisonous and nonpoisonous snakes. One commonly seen in the rainforest is the Carpet Python which we have a picture of below.
Friday started with a Bird Walk for many of the students as well as Mallory and I. We saw many different types of birds as well as some wallabies at our early time.
After breakfast I went on a 10 km (about 6 mile) hike with some of the students. The purpose of going on the hike was to see some of the waterfalls in the area and to get a nice walk in. Because of all the rain we were able to see some really nice waterfalls, but because of the increased intensity we were unfortunately not able to see the most magnificent falls on our loop called Elbana falls.
In the afternoon and evening hours we had the priviledge of having Douglas James talk to our group about aboriginal culture. Douglas has been working with our group for the past 4 - 5 years and is always a delight. The one photo that I have included was that after doing our boomerang throw, Douglas awarded Katherine Lee with a decorated boomerang for being the best thrower in the class. Nice job Katherine.
Later that night I went and saw the glow worms with the students.
On Saturday morning before our early departure, Mallory and I decided to go on a quick hike to Python Lookout. No, we did not see any snakes, but we did get a great lookout of the area. Since the rain clouds had parted, it really allowed us to see the valley better than previous days.
After breakfast it was back to Brisbane and then a flight up to Cairns. In Cairns tonight we had the opportunity to do the REEF TEACH. Reef Teach is a two hour lecture about the fish and coral on the Great Barrier Reef. This will be very helpful for our students when we head out on the reef.
Hope you enjoyed my update, Mallory will fill you in on more details, but just wanted to let you know that the 32 of us are alive and well. Keep reading.
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