Adventures with Julia

Friday, September 27, 2024

By 10:30 the Aroona crew had left us behind on Lizard Island and taken the tender back to the boat.

I watched until the boat motored out of sight. Been a long time since I had been so sorry to see something end. We had had such a good time with everyone and with the boat itself.

Anyway, we are now on a new adventure. The day is clear and sunny and our room faces across the lawn and to the sandy beach. The water is pleasantly cool, but the sand and air are very hot. We went for a dip to cool off and settled into our Air conditioned room to read. We had a light lunch and relaxed the rest of the afternoon.

I finished my book about Australia, called “Sunburned Country” by Bill Bryson. He travels all over the country and provides a good and humorous read. He did touch on nearly all the places we have or will visit and confirmed our experiences so far. The north is very hot in September and sparsely populated. The locals we have met have all been friendly, welcoming and inquisitive. The Barrier Reef is equally hot at this time. When we started on the boat trip, the air was breezy and the water was choppy. Gradually the wind died down and the water grew calmer, especially our last day on the boat.

When we were not in the water, we played the card game of Uno, ate and told stories. We learned a lot about the adventures of the crew before they signed on to the Aroona. They each had unique and interesting lives. Their ages ranged from 19 for Fletcher to 37 for Lorenzo with experiences to match. Mark and I shared some of our history too. The last night everyone shared an experience no one else in the group knew. Th evening got a little emotional. The next morning, we had breakfast, went for an early walk on the public beach, grabbed ours bags and motored in the tender to the shore in front of the resort.

That night we walked the beach to the Marlin Bar for pizza and beer. The bar is filling up with people who are here to fish for marlin. The Island will be visited by passionate marlin fishermen for the next month. Fortunately, we will leave the Island before the crush.

Saturday, September 28, 2024

At 7am we went for a bird walk with a naturalist named Lauren, originally from Weatherford, Connecticut but we saw only a few birds and got fewer photos. Particularly the Olive-backed Sunbird, which had a lovely sound and was pretty to look at. All I captured was its interesting, but abandoned, nest.

The Pheasant Coucal, which makes a loud whoop whoop sound; the Silver Gull, or Australian seagull;

A Grey Heron with a wounded leg

and a monitor Lizard but we enjoyed the walk. Then we had breakfast and went walking on the beach.

Now we are sitting on the beach at Lizard Island and I am reminiscing about the boat trip rather than being on the beach. We are, however, sitting on the beach and I am hot so about to go swimming. We walked into the water up to our necks, enjoying the coolness and calmness of the water. We had lunch

and then went for a snorkel with a guide named Ella, who provided us with sea darts, which are machines that pull you along in the water as you look at fish and coral. I had a very difficult time getting used to the thing, but eventually got some control of it. It does pull you through the water at a good clip.

Mark got into it right away and was going at full speed. As we made a beach start, the water was a bit murky, the coral was not at its best and there were few fish, compared with our diving and snorkeling off the Aroona. Being away from the shore has its advantages.

That experience did me in for the day. After a hot shower to get rid of the sand and salt, we settled in with our reading, dinner and bed.

The food is good at each meal, although we liked it better at Silky Oaks. There was a short menu at each meal, from which there was always something appealing to choose.

Sunday, September 29, 2024

We got up in time for a walk before the heat of the day set in.

We walked up to a lookout point overlooking Watson and Anchor Bays. Then walked back down the hill and along the airport runway. We made it back to the lodge in time for breakfast at 9am.

We had two planned activities this day. The first was a 1:30 snorkel dive to see turtles and the second was a 5pm walk to see bats.

The snorkel was in Watson Bay. There were three of us and the guide, Ella. It was a bust for turtles, but we saw lots of fish and coral and clams and more. I did not want to quit, but, after 45 minutes we were all getting cold.

Clean and dry, we were ready for the 5 pm bat walk with Lauren. These are Flying Foxes or Fruit Bats. They are the second largest bats in the world, next to bats in the Philippines.

In addition to bats Lauren shared a lot about the history of Lizard Island. The island is approximately 2146 acres in size, was occupied by an aboriginal tribe called Dingaal, who used it three months of the year for male initiation ceremonies and called the island Jiigurru. Women were not allowed on the island. Today the remaining tribe members live on nearby Cape Flattery. In 1879, a Robert Watson arrived on the island with his wife, Mary, and 2 chinese male employees and started a business of harvesting sea slugs for export to China. Sometime in 1881, when he was out fishing with one of the Chinese, a band of Dingaal arrived on the island and were about to kill the woman interloper, Mary Watson, her 5 month old baby and the other Chinese man. They escaped in a large water tub and floated to another island but within a few days all three died of dehydration. The beach is named Watson Bay.

Much later, in 1973, a small resort was opened with 4 rooms. Over time it has grown and been remodeled more than once. Today there are 40 suites and the current leaseholder, Delaware North Corporation, has the lease until 2035. The majority of the island is a national park owned by the Australian government. The resort is in reasonable condition, the menu has interesting choices and the food is good. There are many activities to keep people busy. Although very nice, I think the place is slightly overrated.

September 30th at 10:30 we flew from Lizard Island to Cairns in a Cessna 404.

In Cairns, we switched to a Virgin Airlines flight to Melbourne. This was the end of our Great Barrier Reef Adventure. It was not nearly enough reef time for me and I would love to come again.

Friday, September 20, 2024

After saying good bye to Sab, we went to the airstrip near Davidson’s camp and flew back to Darwin in an old Cessna 210,

where we were immediately picked up and driven to the Darwin Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory for a private one hour tour of the current aboriginal Exhibition.

The curator, Bryony Nainby, met us at the entrance and wasted no time imersing us in aboriginal art. Here are some of the most impressive pieces we saw. Double click for a full view.

After the tour we had a quick bite, and were driven back to the airport for our 3:30 commercial flight to Cairns. It was a crazy day, but we made all our connections and got to Cairns in time to catch our ride to the Silky Oaks lodge, have a light dinner……and slide into bed. Hope tomorrow is a slower day.

Saturday, September 21, 2024

Our accommodations are in a lovely lodge called Silky Oaks on the bank of a river in the middle of a rainforest. It was nice to wake up to the sound of the river just outside our cabin. After breakfast, we were met by Cathy Wharton, our guide for the next two days. Off we went for a drive through the countryside to the rainforest property of Alan and Susie Carle, which they named, Botanical Ark. Cathy introduced us to them and soon we went walking into the forest with Alan to learn about his property and his life’s work of saving rainforests everywhere. He talked about starting with an empty 21 acre piece of ground and collecting seeds from all over the world to plant in his Botanical Ark. The plants have grown quickly in the 43 years since they acquired the property. His ark is now a magnificent rainforest.

He and Susie wanted tropical fruit so they started with 25 fruits from Asia. Then purchased 80 more fruits and kept them in pots while they grew. To date they have collected 500+ different fruits and flowers. Åt one point they had 2500 different flowers.

Sue had a very nice spread laid out for us and we sampled a few pieces, took a photo and departed.

We left Alan and Sue around noon and headed to lunch at a restaurant in the National Park after crossing the Daintree River on a ferry to get there.

The nearby Daintree Forest contains 900,000 acres and is a National Park. At 1.45 million years, it is the oldest rainforest in the world.

After lunch we went for a boat ride on the Daintree River.

The most exciting part of the afternoon was finding the cassowary bird and her two chicks along the roadside. The rest of the day was quiet.

Sunday, September 22, 2024

Silky Oaks puts on lovely meals. This morning was no exception. I had Avocado Toast and Mark had smoked Salmon with poached eggs and spinach with hollandaise sauce.

Then we drive to the nearest helicopter pad a few miles away and flew about an hour to a place called Jerramali, which means “thunderstorms”to meet another couple who are friends of Cathy. This couple belong to the western Yalanji people, “people that belong to this place”. They are Johnie, his wife Erica and their three children. There are thousands who belong to this group of people. Johnie will be showing us the traditional art gallery on his property. He has an old utility ATV that he uses to take people close to the art site. It is a scary ride, but better than walking. Anyway, there is still more boulder walking after exiting the vehicle before we are finally at the art gallery. Johnie is pretty good at explaining the figures. What I notice is that the drawings are different in style and color and shape from the art in the Arnhem collection. Here are samples from the art wall.

Once we finished visiting the art wall, we had lunch with Johnie’s family and helicoptered back to the car.

Back at the heliport, we say farewell to Cathy and take the hotel car back to Silky Oaks. We both felt sticky enough to want to jump in the pool, so we did, then chilled the rest of the day. I finished this post and got it ready for Mark to proof it.

Time to pack and head for the Aroona. Time is flying by.

Monday, September 16, 2024

It is believed that humans arrived in what is now the Northern Territory about 65,000 years ago via land bridges and short sea crossings from Southeast Asia, during a period of glaciation when New Guinea and Tasmania were joined to the continent of Australia. Knowledge of this period comes from oral tradition prior to the arrival of the first Europeans. The oldest site showing the presence of humans is a rock shelter in Arnhem Land, near Darwin.

At the time of European contact, it is estimated the Aboriginal, “original inhabitants”, population ranged from 300,000 to one million. There were about 600 tribes speaking 250 languages. They were complex hunter-gatherers, who had diverse economies and societies. Some groups engaged in “fire-stick” farming or controlled burning. Some engaged in fish farming. Semi-permanent shelters were built. It is unclear if any groups engaged in agriculture.

We are headed to the Northern Territory to see where and how the first people lived and to see their art. They may have landed in Western Australia about 60,000 years ago and settled across the continent within 6,000 years

Enroute to Darwin, we stopped in Singapore for a day and two nights to get acclimated after the 15.5 hour flight from SFO on Singapore Airlines. The flight was not so bad as we both took sleeping pills and were out for several hours each. The bed was the flattest, roomiest and most comfortable we have had on an airplane. An escort was at the gate to meet us and walked us through the arrival process and to our transport with no stress or fuss. The ride to the hotel was an easy 25 minutes as it was very early morning. We were wide awake so we stayed up, had a light breakfast in the hotel and then went for a long walk around the area.

We reminisced about our first time in Singapore in 1993. It was the first stop on our honeymoon. Our big activity was afternoon tea at Raffles Hotel. It was quite a do at the time. Today, Raffles seems small and old compared to the dozens of sky scrapers we see today. Our hotel, not Raffles, is the small building in the center foreground of the image (left of the low white & red pitched roof.)

After a 2.7 mile walk we returned to the hotel just in time to miss a down pour. Our room was quite pleasant with a porch and a good view, so we hung out until our 2:30 food tour with a lady named Charlotte. She gave us some info about Singapore and told us we would be spending time in Chinatown and Little India eating foods from those cultures.

Chinese and Indians arrived in the area 800 years ago to develop trade. Europeans arrived in the 1800’s. The first one was a fellow named Raffle, an employee of the East India Company. British rule reigned from 1924-1963, when the area merged with Malaysia for 2 years. In 1965 Singapore became free and independent.

The current population is 5.6 million, with 4 million being citizens. 75% of the population is Chinese; 14% are Malay; 9% are Indian. 1.4 million residents are people with work passes, who come mostly from Bangladesh and the Philippines.

According to Charlotte, Singapore has the busiest transportation port in the world. It is certainly huge. She pointed out a government housing project that provides 99 year leases, A pedestrian street full of restaurants where the upstairs used to be a red light district and a Taoist Temple that housed a relic of Buddha’s tooth, brought from Sri Lanka. We had to smile as we remembered being in the Taoist Temple in Sri Lanka and seeing the same, or similar, tooth.

We took a taxi to Chinatown and went into a huge food vendor court. The place was packed with vendors, tables and people buying and eating various food items. Charlotte sat us down at a dirty table, which we cleaned ourselves, while she shopped for 3 different food items starting with a drink of freshly squeezed sugar cane juice. The first items she brought were a plate of Braised chicken and rice; Water cake made with rice flour and a spicy condiment; carrot cake made with daikon. Her next trip produced a dish called Popiah, made with a large, thin biscuit and Jicama; and Laksa, a soup bowl with rice noodles, soy beans, mushrooms and fish. That was enough already. My favorite was the Laksa. We wandered around the court looking at other food offerings, which we were too full to sample.

Then we took the subway to Little India where we sampled a version of hot Chai; a dish called Prata, a flat bread made with wheat flour, accompanied by a curry and lentil sauce; Appan, a large crepe made with coconut milk and rice with a dipping sauce of warm, sweetened coconut milk; and finally Thosai, another crepe made with fermented black dough and rice with a dipping sauce. Prata was Mark’s favorite food. For dessert, Charlotte gave us a moon cake to split. It was filled with lotus paste.

Here are some photos of what we ate in Chinatown. First there is a photo of a Chinese building near the entrance to the Chinatown Complex. The next three photos are of the suger cane juice vendor making juice and serving Mark. The first food dish is Braised chicken and rice, followed by Water cake and Carrot cake. The last dish was Laksa, a noodle soup with several condiments

The Little India food dishes we tasted included: hot chai; Prata; Appan; Thosai; and Moon cake.

We were so stuffed we did not want another thing. We said our good bye’s to Charlotte and took a taxi back to the hotel, where we went straight to bed at 8pm.