Leaving the isles of New Caledonia, we set sail for two days to Sydney. Being aboard for that time gives one time to get well rested. As a result, we were up early enough to hear a boat along side the ship, just outside our balcony.
It turns out that it was the pilot boat, approaching the ship so that the harbour pilot could safely guide the Maasdam to the intended berth. The fellow you see on the right (starboard) side of the boat at the front jumps onto our ship while both vessels are in motion. It reminds me of trying to jump across a puddle, but the consequences of not making it are much greater!
As it was not yet dawn, the Sydney city lights were still ablaze, making for a lovely shot amid the very calm waters of the harbour.
We sailed past the Sydney Opera House, and the ambient light offered a very different look than one traditionally seen.
Once ashore, we opted not to take any tours, as Sonya wanted to do a little reccie work (reconnoitering and sightseeing planning) so that we could prepare for our five days back in Sydney at the end of the cruise.
Once back aboard, we noticed that there was still some provisioning of the ship happening – in fact, half a dozen forklifts were running back and forth all day!
Now, if you can see the picture clearly enough, you will note that the provisions to be loaded are near and dear to many of the cruise guests – liquid refreshments!
We will have more to say about Sydney at the end of our stay so, for now, northward along the coast we go.
Our first stop was Airlie Beach. Of the many options available to us, we chose a tour of the Proserpine River and surrounding area. I had never heard this name before, so I had to snoop around to find its origins. It turns out that Proserpine is a Roman goddess. Many Canadians will be more familiar with her Greek name, Persephone. If that name does sound familiar to you, it is likely because that was the name of Nick Adonidas’ boat on the long running Canadian TV series called The Beachcombers.
Now, back to the present, the Proserpine River flows backwards for quite some length as the tide rises. So, with all the toing and froing the water is quite brackish (read salty), making it a nice home to many species of animals and plants. Check out the baby croc – only 7 inches long!
Mangroves
The trees that you see on either side of the river are part of the mangrove forest that thrive around coastal waters, but only in tropical and sub-tropical latitudes (about 0-35 degrees north or south of the equator), as mangrove trees cannot withstand the cold. These forests help prevent erosion, provide a home to many species of animals, and can provide a buffer to storm surges, reducing the intensity of tidal flooding in some circumstances.
In today’s world with greenhouse gas awareness and concern, these mangrove ecosystems are one of man’s best friends in term of carbon capture, as they can be up to 10 times more effective than land-based ecosystems at capturing and storing carbon on a long-term basis. Sadly, some countries are deforesting these areas at a very rapid rate. Once uprooted, mangroves are very difficult to replant.
After completing the river tour, we came back to homemade Damper bread and Billie tea.
Damper bread is a traditional soda bread, typically made by drovers (you can google that), stockmen and other travelers. It is so called damper because it dampens one’s appetite. Here we had one plain bread and one with sultanas (raisins for those of us from North America).
Billy Tea is tea that is made in a Billycan (you can see the can through the smoke in the picture). The recipe was said to be about 6 litres of boiling water with one cup (mug) of loose tea leaves, in case you want to try this at home over your fireplace! Most people know that I generally prefer coffee over tea, but this Billy tea was one of the best cups of tea that I remember drinking. I expect that the place and time add much to the flavour. If you have ever had camp coffee from one of those blue coffee pots that hang over the fire, you will understand.
After a quick cup of tea and a hank of damper bread, we were off in a different version of a wagon train to have look at the land in the surrounding area.
Among the many trees in the area are a species known as melaleuca or paper bark trees, but you may be more familiar with the name Tea Tree as in Tea Tree oil. Captain Cook (remember him from an earlier blog installment?) named it the tea tree because he observed some of the indigenous people using the leaves of the tree to make tea. Where you see melaleuca trees, you know that the water is fresh, as they do not thrive in saltwater areas. Locals use the sight of mangroves to know the water is salty, and melaleuca trees to know the water is fresh. The line where it changes is very clear! There are nearly 300 different species of melaleuca plants worldwide, and 200 different species in Australia, many found only in Oz!
As you can see the bark does appear to be paper like in quality. So, if you run out of toilet paper, …
you can peel the bark in thin enough layers to use it as a substitute. It is very soft to the touch – maybe not quite as soft as Charmin Ultra, but definitely softer than some of the commercial brands that you run across!
The tight thin layers of the bark serve to protect the tree from fire, as the tight layers do not allow oxygen to penetrate, essentially suffocating the fire and preventing too much damage.
As a side note, when on our Western Wildflower tour, we were told that some trees, like the Ponderosa Pine, can shed their bark when on fire and throw it up to 30 feet away from itself. This poses quite a hazard for firefighters, as they can very easily be within that 30-foot radius of the tree and end up with bark in flames landing right on them! Isn’t nature fascinating!
Back aboard the ship, we set sail for our next destination as sunset came upon us.
It was a calm evening on the seas, so after dinner we enjoyed a glass of wine on our deck as we gazed at the stars of the southern sky.
On Monday we joined a tour of the rain forest, located about one hour north of Townsville. Named for a businessman Robert Towns because he financed some of the development in the area including the first seaport, the name makes more sense than Townstown, doesn’t it!
In any case, the Paluma Range National Park rainforest is about 3,000 feet above sea level, and the road to get there is as windy as the Hanna Highway on the island of Maui, but you must add 3,000 feet of altitude gain! We learned that this rain forest is six to ten times older than the protected rain forests in the Amazon, because Australia, being an island, was geologically isolated from the other continents, so little changed from its original state.
When we walked into the forest, you immediately felt the increased oxygen. Our guide Ross, seen here beside this very large Quandong tree with its large buttress style roots,
described the workings of a rain forest in a way that neither Sonya nor I had heard, despite having been in several of them before.
At the base is the ground layer, where the foliage that is dropped from all the vegetation and quickly absorbed into what he called crap soil (more on this in a minute). This foliage is quickly transformed into nutrient compost for re-absorption by the tree roots.
The second layer is the understory layer, or the story beneath the canopy if you prefer. Trees and shrubs grow in this layer and become dormant and may not grow for 100 – 200 years. They have nowhere to go up, because the next layer, the canopy, takes up all the space above gathering as much sunlight as possible, leaving little light for the understory layer. If a storm or something else causes a portion of the canopy layer to collapse, this second layer will shoot up very quickly to take up the available sunlight. The understory trees are a bit like Prince Charles, patiently waiting years and years, to be King of the Canopy.
The canopy layer consists of trees that are 30-40 metres (100-130 feet) tall and form a roof like structure over the rest of the forest, resulting in little light getting to the understory and ground layers. This area contains the biggest diversity of plant species
The top layer, known as the emergent layer, tower above the canopy layer, with trees growing from 50-70 metres (150-230 feet) in height. These look like the chimney on your roof.
With respect to the buttress style roots on the trees, these roots are believed to: help the tree take oxygen from the air (yes, trees breath); to corral the leaf litter around the base to provide needed nutrients; to help stabilize the soggy ground around the tree; and to provide a wider base for the tree to help prevent it from falling over in high wind situations, because the roots are so shallow, as the crap soil is mostly clay.
Now some of the vegetation in the forest are parasites, such as the strangler fig shown above. The strangler fig starts its life near the top of the canopy. After the birds eat the fig seeds, they quickly disperse these in the treetops because they essentially get the runs from the seeds. The seeds then attach to the host tree, and then send their roots down the tree into the ground to get additional nutrients to grow.
This fig will eventually kill its host, and when that happens, both trees collapse to the ground, leaving a hole in the canopy that will quickly be covered in with those dormant trees that sprint in action to take over the new available space.
The foliage of most of the trees in the rain forest are designed to catch moisture in the air and drop it to the ground by way of their ‘drip tips’.
Up to 40% off the moisture that hits the floor of the rain forest comes from these leaves catching the humidity and dripping it to the ground.
Therefore, when countries try and convert rain forest into arable land for growing crops, they lose out twice. First the forest floor is crap soil as Ross called it, mainly because it is clay sitting atop bedrock, so they lose the leaves that fall to the ground providing compost. (John, with all his dead leaf collecting is really onto something.) Second, they lose 40% of the moisture that previously fell to the ground. Consequently, the only way to grow crops is by adding fertilizer and irrigation. So, here’s to hoping that countries with rain forests sit up and pay attention to these facts!
As we were leaving the rain forest, we noted that the area is not that wide. As can be seen below, the surrounding agricultural land in the centre of the photo is not really that far away!
On Tuesday, we pulled into Cairns.
Notice the mangrove all along the coastline? Just as a person seems to always spot the same type of vehicle they drive after buying it, I now notice the mangrove everywhere we go, having learned about its importance earlier this week!
The port in Cairns is more compact that some of the other ports we have called on, so the ship needed a little nudge on the side from this tug in order to get tucked into the dock.
There are many logistics that come into play when getting a cruise ship into port. This includes providing a gangway for passengers to disembark. As you can see, they are getting the gangway ready to lift onto the ship for our disembarkation. This one was a least a little sturdier than the last one that swung like a suspension bridge.
This day we were off to the Great Barrier Reef to snorkel. Here, we and 60 or so of our shipmates were aboard a catamaran to travel almost two hours (56 kilometers) east of Cairns to get to the reef. It is very strange to go so far away from the mainland and cross deep waters to go to a place that is only a few metres deep, but there you have it!
You will have seen my phone video of the coral in New Caledonia. Well, here are some snaps of the Great Barrier Reef, up close and personal.
And we almost look like we know what we are doing!
The smile on Sonya's face is so big, I am surprised that her snorkel isn't letting water in!
And we almost do!
Here Sonya was trying to line up a shot of our catamaran, but she had some buoyancy issues and ended up getting a better shot of her fins than of the boat! Oh well, great fun was had by all, and we take with us memories that we will not forget.
Now dear reader, you would think that the waters between the mainland and the reef would be fairly calm, but you would be wrong. On the way out, there were several people on board that got rather seasick from the jostling and tossing of the boat.
On the way back, we were equally tossed about and had quite a salty shower thanks to the waves splashing us for much of the journey.
(Click on the video to play.)
It was somewhat like whitewater rafting, except of course that we are about 20 feet above the water on the second floor of the catamaran! What a great day we had!
That’s all for now folks. We are now on the ship for three days before we reach our next destination. Our next installment will start from Darwin – Crocodiles and Dragons!
Take care,
SnP
