Great Barrier Reef

Dear Family and Friends,

      On Thursday 26 September we went on a sailboat to the Great Barrier Reef. While we were motoring to where we would stay for the night I saw a flying fish which was awesome. Then a little while later we caught a shark mackerel (which turned out to be delicious). When we got to Millan Reef we went snorkeling. At sunset we went for another snorkel which was really cool because we got to float to the boat because of the ocean's current. The next morning we went for another snorkel when the fish were more active having breakfast (What's for breakfast? Fish!). Then the boat went to another reef where we went snorkeling and we also got tugged behind a tiny fishing boat which was really fun. Then we came back to Cairns. 

Here are some of the animals I saw on the reefs: I saw a sea snake, a sea turtle, a few trumpet fish, lots of parrot fish, a Napoleon Maori Wrasse, a Palatte Surgeon (the fish that was Dory in Finding Nemo), Butterfly fishes, a clam, and 2 sharks. I didn’t see any clownfish though. 

                                                                

Atherton Tablelands

Dear Family and Friends,

       We are in the Atherton Tablelands which is in Queensland, west of Cairns. On Saturday we drove to Chillagoe, where we went to a natural swimming hole which was really fun. After that we watched the sunset and saw a ton of wallabies by the old railroad tracks. On Sunday we went caving in Chillagoe-Mungana Caves National Park and we went hiking there. In the afternoon we went to the old Chillagoe mine and then we went to the natural water hole again; this time we saw a file snake in the water. Note from Michael: Chillagoe is widely known for the caves in the region that are the result of repeated periods of volcanic activity over geologic time. There was a lot of gold, tin, silver, lead and copper mining here in the late 1800s, up to the 1950s, although it was never profitable. We went hiking in the afternoon at Royal Arch Caves with a ranger.  He showed us lots of neat stuff like cave spiders and bats.  The caves also had a species of cave snake but we did not see any of them.  The caves wound all around underground and had amazing limestone features, including stalagtites (which are the ones that hang down) and stalagmites (the ones that stick up).  The walk was a total of 1.5 km underground. 

Limestone formation of Royal Arch Caves, Chillagoe-Mungana Caves National Park, QLD. This is the outback. One of the signs we saw along the road here said "Next Gas 500 km"!

Stalagtites (they hang down, like the middle of the "T" in StalagTiTe) in the Royal Arch Cave.

Later, we went to a campground called Granite Gorge near Mareeba where I saw wallabies and I also petted them. On Monday morning we watched the wallabies for about 20 minutes then we went on a 15 minute hike.

                                            Travis with a mob of friendly Rock Wallabies.

   A Rock Wallaby contemplates her peaceful life, 

Granite Gorge, near Mareeba, QLD.

An interlude from Karen, with a warning that it gets a bit scientific...one of our main reasons for visiting the Atherton Tablelands, in addition to the diverse fauna, was to see a few tropical forest restoration projects in the region.  We spent a day with Nigel Tucker and half a day with Kylie Freebody, both of whom have worked on forest restoration in this region. We saw a range of tropical forest restoration and natural forest regeneration sites ranging from 5-25 years of age.  Much of the forest restoration here has focused on restoring corridors to connect the remaining intact forest habitat, which is home to the cassowary (the largest Australian bird and an important seed disperser), flying foxes, tree kangaroos, a variety of opossum species, and many other critters.  The oldest site we saw was 25 years old and now has some fairly large buttressed trees.  In one of the corridors they’ve recorded 119 unplanted species which includes a range of understory plants, trees, vines, and epiphytes.  They’ve done studies showing that small mammals are dispersing through a restored corridor that is 1.3 km long.  The results of their work are quite impressive and at some of the sites it didn’t feel like we were in a planted forest. 

Overview of what the Atherton Tablelands look like.  They are closer to the ocean than the Chillagoe area (previous photos) so this region gets a lot more rain.

              Example of one of the restored rainforest sites we visited.  Would you believe that this was a grass-covered cattle pasture about 20 to 30 years ago?

    Monday night we stayed at a hostel in Yungaburra.  In the evening we went night canoeing which was really fun. We saw 2 tree kangaroos, 3 barramundi (fish that can be huge...over 3 feet around!), an echidna, a water rat, and a blue water lizard. The lake was really warm so there was fog coming off of the lake which made an eerie effect.

On Tuesday we went for a hike to a water fall in Wooroonooran National Park (try saying that five times fast). On the way back we saw a turtle which was really cool. In the afternoon we went swimming and there were places at the swimming hole that were about 15 feet deep. Today (Wednesday) we are going back to Cairns and tomorrow we are going to go sailing on the Great Barrier Reef.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Travis (or as my friend Skylar suggests; Travis lord of birds and wool; behold his amazing rock watching powers)

Philip Island and Great Ocean Road

Dear Family and Friends,

                On Tuesday (Sept. 17) we went to the Melbourne Museum. At the museum we went to the aboriginal culture exhibit. It talked about how they lived, how they hunted, and how they made paint. They made paint by getting ochre and smashing it up and then mixing water with it. One of the ways they hunted was they had these woven tubes that they used to trap eels. We saw the Phar Lap exhibit; Phar Lap was a famous Australian race horse. After that we went to an exhibit on rocks. They had a 3-D video on the making of rocks which was cool because it made it seem as if there was lava on top of you when the volcano erupted.  

After the museum we drove to Philip Island to see the penguin parade. That was comical because the penguins were really cute plus they would get knocked down by the waves. Then they would have to climb up some rocks which seemed hard for them and while they were climbing they would push each other over. A ranger told us that some of the penguins homes are a 1.5 km away from the beach, and the penguins are only 30 cm tall. That’s not far for humans to walk but for a bird that size it is pretty amazing. We saw Little Penguins, which are the smallest type of penguin, hence the name “Little Penguin”. These penguins live in Australia and New Zealand and they are the 2^nd most northerly penguin.

On Wednesday we took the ferry from Mornington Peninsula to Geelong (southwest of Melbourne). In Geelong we went to the National Wool Museum, which was very interesting. We learned what types of sheep there are and the different stages wool processing (so now we know what they do with all the sheep in Australia).  I also learned that the kelpie “sheep dog” was bred using mostly smooth collies.

 On Thursday we drove the Great Ocean Road, which is a famous coastal road kind of like Highway 1 in northern California.  Our first stop was at a golf course to see the kangaroos on it and it had a sign that said “No access to golf course for kangaroo viewing” because so many tourists stop there. Then we stopped at the Kennett River to see koalas; we saw 2 koalas and about 60 parrots and cockatiels. They were landing on my dad and me and they swarmed our car. We stopped in Apollo Bay to have lunch and hiked through the Otway temperate rain forest. Then we drove to the 12 Apostles which are 12 rock pillars and went to the beach.

                                                                                                            Travis

Philip Island penguins (photo courtesy of journals.worldnomads.com as no photos permitted)

Great Ocean Road

 

Kangaroo going for par 3 at the Anglesea golf course

no comment necessary

 

National Wool Museum - each dot represents 40,000 sheep in AU

King Parrots near the Kennett River

 

Two of the Twelve Apostles rock formations

Melbourne and Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary

Dear Family and Friends,

      This week we are in Melbourne. On Sunday (your Saturday, remember to add 7 hours then minus a day) we went to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne. They had a lot of plants such as a fern 25 feet tall! They also had a bottle tree which is very thick and round at the base and gets narrower as it gets higher. After the Royal Botanical Gardens we went to the famous MCG (Melbourne Cricket Grounds). We went on a tour and learned that the stadium can hold 100,000 people. That’s more than any pro football stadium. They have a club for cricket and there are 100,000 members in the club.  There are 200,000 waiting to get into the club and it takes 18 years to get into the club. Then after the tour we went to the National Sports Museum of Australia where we learned about Australian sports. They had an interactive area where you could do archery; you could take shots on a goalie (in soccer); you could field a ball in cricket (don’t ask me how to play); you could bike (extremely hard); and you could try to kick a goal in footy (or as you Americans call it Australian Rules football). All of it is done by computers.

       Monday, we went to the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary with my grandfather’s friend from Manchester College, Reis Flora, and his wife Nima. At the sanctuary we went to a platypus show where we learned that some turtles can breathe through their bum. We also learned that male platypus have spurs on their back hind feet that have poison. Then we went to the birds of prey show where we learned that Australia has 700 types of birds, and they have 56 parrot species. We learned that the Black-Breasted Buzzard uses a rock to crack open emu eggs which they eat. The biggest Australian raptor, the Wedge-tailed Eagle) can see a rabbit move up to a kilometer away. Another interesting fact is that emu’s eyelids cover their eyes but the covering is white which makes it seem like its blind and it scared me (hahahahaha I know, you would have been scared too. It was right next to me).

       My dad and I got to pet a dingo which is a wild dog. Its fur was very soft and fluffy and it kept getting stuck to my fingers because it was raining. At lunch we got to see a tree kangaroo climbing in a tree to get to its food and then eat some cantaloupe, corn, and potatoes, which was really cool because it ate the corn off the cob like a human (video coming soon once we have a better internet connection). We went through a wallaby section and some of the wallabies were hiding from the rain and others didn’t care and were eating. We got to pet them on the back. It felt like velvet (the material, not my cat) and they were very cute. We also saw  Tasmanian devils, which are kind of like a little black cat/dog even though they are marsupials. When we showed up there were two Tasmanian devils feeding on the meat that the keeper was throwing to them. If one got to close to the other they started snarling at each other. That was pretty cool!

Dingo sniffing Travis

 

Wedge-tailed Eagle

Dingo yawning

Black-headed Buzzard

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Travis

flight to Australia and train to Melbourne

Dear Family and Friends,

        On Wednesday, 9/11, we flew to LAX where we caught a plane to Australia. The plane to Australia was massive! It was double decker and it had 3 sections for economy, all 3 sections on the lower level of the plane which also included some of first class. There were over 85 rows on one level of the plane, and there were 3 seats next to the window, 3 seats in the middle, and 3 seats next to the other window. Every person had two windows next to their seat. For take-off I watched the tail cam which is when the airplane has a built-in camera in its tail and you can watch the whole airplane take-off, in-flight, and landing. I watched 4 movies like I said I would, and managed to still get 6 hours of sleep. The movies I watched were The Hobbit, The Internship, Rise of the Guardians, and Despicable me.

Once we landed in Sydney and went through customs we rented a car and went to Richmond which is where we will be living. Richmond is about 40 miles west of Sydney.  After spending most of the day there we came back to Sydney to drop off the car, and go to the hotel. On our way to the hotel we missed the exit and got stuck in one of Sydney’s many annoying tunnels. So we decided to just drop the car off and then ride the intercity train to grand central where we got a cab to our hotel which was close to grand central so that we could catch a train the next day.

The next day we got on the train to Melbourne which is where I am as I write.  On the train I have seen many pastures with lots of sheep.  So far I think I have seen about 50,000 sheep which is very small fraction of the sheep in the two states of Victoria and New South Wales. In total there are 100,000,000 sheep in Australia, which is over 4 times as many people as there are.

                                                                                                        Travis