Australia -- Tropical Queensland

 

 

After a few days in the Red Center, we flew to Cairns in northeastern Australia where we would find a tropical paradise, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Daintree Rain Forest. 

It seems that the humidity here affected my camera, as well as my watch and my alarm clock. They just stopped! So I'm depending on the photos of several people in my group that were shared on WhatsApp. Many thanks to everyone!!

 

The Great Barrier Reef

We spent the day on a catamaran that took us to the Great Barrier Reef, which is located in the Coral Sea. The crew was amazing in its organization and service. We had a super buffet lunch with a choice of grilled steak, chicken, and prawns along with a variety of salads.

To see the reef, you must go "down under" either through snorkeling or with air tanks and a wet suit. The crew cast a net around the snorkeling area, which guided swimmers from getting too far away from the boat. The ship's crew provided elaborate instructions for snorkelers to follow, including hand signals to keep them safe in the sea. Snorkelers jumped into the water from the stern of the boat and proceeded to view the amazing sights of the reef below.

Others crossed from the catamaran to a special boat with windows on its sides that provided a serene (and dry) experience of looking at the reef and fishes. It was just another unworldly experience in Australia.

 

 

 

  

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 1,400 miles over an area of approximately 133,000 sq miles. The reef is today experiencing the danger of bleaching the coral, which makes it white.

Daintree Rain Forest  

The Daintree rain forest is about 460 square miles and part of a continuous area of tropical rain forest in Australia. It is the oldest continually-surviving rain forest on Earth and it is English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian, and author David Attenborough's favorite place in all the natural world.

The rain forest was once a vast forest that covered the entire Australian continent. It has survived 120 million years of climate change, which has reduced the forest to few remaining areas of the continent. It is named after Richard Daintree, an Australian geologist and photographer (1832–1878). 

 

 

Cassowaries have three-toed feet with sharp claws. The second toe sports a dagger-like claw that may be 5 inches long and is dangerous since cassowaries sometimes kick humans and other animals with their powerful legs. Cassowaries can run at up to 30 mph through the dense forest and can jump up almost 5 feet high. They are good swimmers and can cross wide rivers and swim in the sea.

Here is a cassowary walking across the rain forest. How lucky we were for Moshe to capture it for us on film. The male can be six-feet tall while the female can stand at  four-feet. The bird eats seeds and fruit whole and then deposits them on the forest floor where they grow. The cassowary is almost single-handedly responsible for keeping the rain forest going.

Cassowaries have a skin-covered casque on top of their heads that grows with age. Scientists are unsure of its purpose. They suggest it is a weapon against others, a clearing tool for foraging, a secondary sexual characteristic, and an amplifier of sound.

Cassowaries live 40-50 years.

 

 

We look like quite the explorers as we wade through the rain forest's trees and bushes.

 

Our guide has lived in this part of the forest for over 25 years. She knew the stories of the forest from a biological point of view. She was clearly a friend of the forest as she knew every spider web, every tree, and every animal that walked, crawled, or flew through it. She and her husband were married in the forest, and they own the property. When they give it up, it will become a public land of the government.

  We pose for another group photo, this time in the tropics. We have covered a lot of ground together in Australia: cities, deserts, green areas, and now the tropics.

                                     

 

                                           

This fellow who may have played roles in monster films at one time gave us a thrill to see him in his natural environment. He froze long enough for us to take a photo and endeared himself to us. Not a scary creature at all!

 

Tree roots in the rain forest are exposed because the topsoil is shallow. Tree tops take other interesting forms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rain Forest Vittles

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped for some rain forest ice cream. It wasn't Ben & Jerry's but rather authentic fruits from the rain forest made into some delicious and very tasty ice cream. Many thanks to Callum, our guide, for the treat!! We received three scoops of three different flavors. We also had a healthy vegetarian lunch in the rain forest.

 

 

 

 

Products of the rain forest. A farmer's market provides some of the fruits of the forest while an industrial farm grows sugar cane.

 

 

Peppers Beach Club

Our hotel, Peppers Beach Club, was on the ocean in front of the public beach.  

 

 

It's important to swim only inside the lines, which are nets that are anchored to the bottom. They keep the crocodiles and sharks out, which can eat you. 

 

If you don't want to take a chance with the crocs and sharks, a huge outdoor pool in the hotel's courtyard is available.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Palm Cove gives you a tropical paradise experience. Even the hotel rooms provide all the comforts of home and more with a hot tub, overhead fan, and balcony that looks out to the courtyard's gardens. A few of us found massage parlors for this refreshing and oily luxury.

The hot tub was nice and hot, but proved a challenge in getting in and out. I had to crawl! Then I overdid it with the bubble bath by using a whole tube. After the water drained, the bubbles remained the next day.

 

Unseen critters surrounded our hotel and provided a 24-hour chorus of song. This video captures a bit of the concert.

Rattle n Hum Bar & Grill

We ate some delicious dinners at the hotel but also had opportunities to eat on our own. One of my favorite restaurants was this pub, Rattle n Hum just down the street from the hotel. I ordered two Australian pub favorites: chicken parmigiana one night and pizza on another.

 In Australian pubs, you pick a table, make note of its number, order your food at the bar, and pay for it before you get it. Then they bring your order to your table. One of the servers at the bar was an Italian woman who just moved to Palm Cove six months before. She intended to apply for citizenship. Many Italians migrate to Australia.

Our four-night tropical excursion ended in the morning with a sumptuous boxed breakfast for our three-hour flight south to Sydney for some more urban adventures.

 

Resources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daintree_Rainforest 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassowary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Barrier_Reef

 

 

Australia -- The Unworldly Outback

 

Desolation. Emptiness. Extreme heat. Endlessly straight roads with little to look at, few passing cars, and dangerous shoulders if you veer off the two-lane highway. Occasional stops with kooky attractions. Red soil. This is the Outback. 

We spent a long day traveling by bus in the Outback from Alice Springs to Yulara where we saw Uluru, the Aborigines' sacred monument of red rock. We stopped at some rest stops plunked in the middle of nowhere, which provided necessary rooms, a restaurant, a store stocked with junk food, and  different sorts of wacky Aussie entertainment and wit. 

The more we moved into the center of the Australian Outback, the flatter, redder, and sparser it became. This part of the continent is aptly called "The Red Center". 

Although the roads are largely free of potholes and cracks, they are rugged, which makes riding them a little bumpy. Roll-overs in the Outback are common, and it's easy to see why. There is not much road on the edges of these two-lane highways, and shoulders are sandy. The monotony of straight roads can cause distraction and sleepiness. Drivers must plan for journeys in the Outback that may last 8-10 hours with enough food, water, fuel, and attentive energy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twenty years ago there were 200 deaths a year in the Outback due to road accidents. The government installed warning signs to assist people with strategies for driving through these regions. Today, deaths amount to 20 per year. For example, one cautionary practice for drivers with accidents or breakdowns is to stay in the vehicle so that rescuers can more easily find the person(s). Besides, the heat of the Outback can cause dehydration if a person were to walk on the road. Although there are satellite cell phone available, coverage is limited. The Flying Doctors are available 24/7/365 to help. (Click here for information about this service and scroll to the end of the blog.)

 

I asked our bus driver what would happen if our bus broke down. He said he is in constant touch with his company so he would call them and they would send a bus out right away. We would not be stranded in the Outback.

Mark, our expert bus driver made us feel perfectly safe with him at the wheel of our big, white bus. He also looked like the stereotypical Aussie that we were always looking for.

 

 

 

Erldunda -- Rest stop with emu entertainment 

Feeding the emus at Erldunda is one of the attractions of this rest stop. It looks easy, but these no-fly birds are expectant and aggressive.

 
                                         

                                            

 

Everyone had a different approach to the emu feedings. Cyrus eyed them down. Cheryl tried the gentle touch. Dave used his hat.

 

 

Familiar products and familiar needs were always adequately satisfied. After every two hours or so, we made a rest stop.

 

 

Curtain Springs -- rest stop

                                    

We had a nice lunch here and enjoyed the amenities around the station. This place had previously been a cattle station. A station is a farm. Most of these farms are huge, like an area of thousands of square miles in size.

Restrooms included toilets and showers.

 A couple relics of the past that still operate today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stuart's Well -- rest stop

The owner of this rest stop apparently had a love for camels. Actually, in the history of the Outback, camels were the only animals able to make it in the desert climate. They were brought to Australian by "the Afghans", men the British colonialists brought here to build the roads in the Outback from the 1860s to the 1930s. They were referred to as "Afghans" even though they originated from the western parts of India, Iran, and Pakistan (also British colonies). They set up camel-breeding stations and rest-house outposts in order to create links between the coastal cities and the remote cattle and sheep grazing stations.

 

Half a million visitors come to the Outback each year and Stuart's Well (a.k.a. Jim's Place) has become an important tourism hub providing services, supplies, and information to visitors intent on exploring the natural wonders of the region. The Jim Cotterill family, who immigrated to Australia from England, have played an integral role in developing tourism here. 

Outback Look-out Point

 

As we came closer to Uluru, we stopped for a look on a red-red dune and discovered an ancient salt lake that used to be the floor of an ocean hundreds of millions of years ago. It's the biggest lake in Australia, but it has no water except every 7-8 years or so. The early settlers were unable to traverse it because their animals and wagon wheels got stuck in it. So they steered around it--no small feat because the lake goes on for miles and miles.

 

In the Outback, most of what you see is flat land and sky with bushes of different greens. The salt lake is in the distance.

 

 

 

 

One of the few picnic spots available on the road and this couple took full advantage of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mt. O'Connor is part of Uluru, which is actually a range of mountain tops related to one another. Several members of our group who flew in a helicopter over Uluru noticed that this range of mountains is all in a straight line. Mt. O'Connor is the biggest.

 

 

 

 

Resources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_cameleers_in_Australia

Aboriginal Culture Down Under

 

Before the Europeans landed in Australia on January 26, 1788, between 750,00 and 1.25 million people lived on the continent. There were about 500 Aboriginal nations and languages. These people had been living here as hunter-gatherers for about 50,000 years. Their survival was due to their adaptation to the place where they lived and their accumulation of knowledge of the plants and wildlife around them over thousands of years. They also practiced conservation to ensure a continuing food supply.

The basic unit of Aboriginal society is the family, with groups of families living together in bands. The size of the band depended on the amount of food readily available although it varied between 10 and 50 people. Other bands of the same language group made up the tribe which would come together for important ceremonies or for trade but would generally live independently. When food and water were plentiful, bands would cluster together but in harder times they would scatter over a much larger area. Each person in a band had a responsibility that was clearly defined. Women and children collected wild berries and fruits, grubs, honey ants, bugs, etc. while the men hunted for larger game such as kangaroo, emu, or goanna.

Education of the children was accomplished through storytelling. It included everything from social behavior to how and when to find certain foods. As the children grew older, they learned more stories that they were expected to pass on to the next generation. Not all information was passed on, however. Sacred information could only be trusted to certain initiated men or women.

 

Spirituality

 To Aboriginal people, the land is an integral part of their lives and its bounty decided their fate. Ceremonies were held to honor and worship the ancestors who created the land. This was an integral part of tribal life. Two essential parts of this spirituality were "The Dreaming" and the Two Souls.

The Dreaming    In the Beginning...The Sky and Earth are eternal and each have their own eternal beings. The Sky beings have no interest in the Earth. These beings remained asleep and the Earth was featureless and covered in darkness. Time began when these sleeping supernatural forces awoke. The Sun and the Moon rose up from the Earth. Supernatural beings (Totemic Ancestors) in the form of animals and humans walked the Earth and created a trail of life. All features, mountains, lakes, rivers, etc. were believed to be made by these beings. After they had completed their labors, they became tired and returned to the Earth. 

Two Souls    The place at which a woman first feels signs of life or becomes aware of her pregnancy is an important part of the spiritual life of the Aboriginal people. A part of the spirit of the eternal ancestor that created that feature of the Earth enters the body of the baby. Depending on the place depends on which ancestor, i.e., Kangaroo, Honey Ant, Wedged Tail Eagle, etc. 

Humans have two souls. One is the human mortal soul from the mating of man and woman. The other is an eternal soul from the totemic ancestor. Every human being is not just the offspring of human parents but also a re-born part of a supernatural ancestor. The particular spirit that enters the baby has a major influence on the life of that person. 

If, for example, the spirit was a Kangaroo ancestor, then the child born with this totem will learn throughout his/her life all the sacred songs and rituals associated with being a Kangaroo person. In times of drought when food is scarce, a Kangaroo person may be called upon by his tribe to increase Kangaroo numbers. The rituals and sacred songs the Kangaroo person has learned over his lifetime must be performed exactly as they have been  performed for thousands of years at sights of significant spiritual power left from the time of Creation. No deviation is permitted because the very survival of the tribe may depend on it.

 

 

 The Nhunggabarra "Recipe" in Summary

This outline is taken from Treading Lightly: The Hidden Wisdom of the World's Oldest People by Karl-Erik Sveiby and Tex Skuthorpe, a 262-page book on the culture of the Nhunggabarra, an Aboriginal people of Australia in northwestern New South Wales. It provides a summary of their belief system. 

Mission

 Keep all alive

Core Belief: All are connected

• "All are connected" (Ancestors, people, animals, plants, sky, and Earth)
• Timelessness (time arrow is an illusion)
• Eternal life and reward in the Warrambul (when one's mission is accomplished on Earth)
• Individual spiritual relationship with Ancestors--there is no formal religion, no gods, no devil, no Hell
• Spiritual world is mirrored in landscape on Earth--no tangible religious monuments
  

 

Core Value: Respect

• For knowledge itself (learn about the responsibility required before access given)
• For knowledgeable individuals (defer to more knowledgeable people)
• For all individuals (do not impose your own view on other people)
• For knowledge diversity (learn from foreign people)
• For the rights of foreign people and countries (do not conduct conquests)
• For the leadership role of other individuals (do not usurp the role of another person)

 

Economy: Intangible

•  Production and consumption are primarily intangible
• Tools and equipment made of natural materials--recycle
• Tightly coupled teams (families) are core production units
• Intangible processes to keep all alive (stories, ceremonies, and dances)

 

 Ecosystem: Care

• Ecological farming methods--"eco-farming"
• Natural medicine
• Regulation of population
• Nomadic life (to reduce human pressure on the ecosystem)
  

 

 Primary Resource: Knowledge

• Life-long learner-driven education
• Eighteen-year knowledge journey
• Status from knowledge--no status in material wealth
• Knowledge safe-keeping (tuckandee, role-splitting)

 

Leadership: All Have a Role

• Context-specific leadership--all have a leadership role to play
• Impersonal role allocation (via planned marriages)
• Processes to prevent individual power monopolies (role-splitting, respect)
• Knowledge-based organizing (focus is on creating, sharing, and maintaining knowledge)
• Consensus decision-making
• Gender equality through role
• Rule of law and enforcement of sanctions

 

Society: Build Community 

• Fuzzy country borders--"country ends where the story ends"
• Networking processes for keeping peace (buurras, knowledge journeys, marriage rules)
  
• Individual career (to take on more responsibililty for functionality of the community)
• Generosity and sharing (reinforced by kinship rules)
• Custodianship of land and knowledge--no individual ownership
• Collaborative methods for increasing productivity
• Widows, orphans, and elderly cared for by the community
  

 

More resources for information about the Aborigines

Tjukurpa  https://parksaustralia.gov.au/uluru/discover/culture/tjukurpa/

https://dreamtime.net.au/indigenous/spirituality/

https://www.studymelbourne.vic.gov.au/news-updates/tanderrum-an-aboriginal-ceremony 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_Victorians

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/aboriginal-australians