Snake Valley & Magnetic Island updates

A big thanks to my parents and Damian for shipping my new mini-computer all over the world so I can get back to blogging and working on my publications.
I have lots to fill you all in on so enjoy.

To begin with, I left Brisbane September 7 for Airlie Beach to stay with Esmeralda (Es), a sailor who spends 95% of her time traveling the world as the skipper on famous people’s yachts (e.g. Bono). Es was, to say the least, quite the character. She had a wise crack for everything and new how to shit the shit with the guys. Her property is affectionately and accurately called Snake Valley. There were numerous eastern whip snakes, pythons (of various assortments), and taipans (a very deadly snake). The abundance of snakes, along with spiders (including bird spiders…they can catch birds and kill them), ticks and chiggers, made Es’s practice of gardening barefoot and in shorts seem quite loony. Nothing fazed this woman! I wore my chacos a couple times around Snake Valley and wound up with 100s of tick bites all over my legs. The ticks there are nearly invisible and since I’m freckly they really blended in. The chiggers are another story. In the valley they call it, “scrub itch,” which accurately describes what I know as chiggers. Like the chiggers we have back home, these little mites find their way to the warmest spaces on your body and burrow into your skin causing you to squirm and scratch, especially at night. Es was covered in scrub itch because she refused to protect herself from the buggers. I wound up with quite a few in my armpits which has been a feat to get rid of.

Es’s property has three houses, two of which she rents out. She, along with her friends, built the houses so they all have a ship-esk feel. Es’s house in particular comes complete with old boat parts and a nearly open layout. The walls of the house come up to your waist with a mosquito net to protect and partition off the bed. And my favorite part is the outdoor bathtub/shower with an accompanying dunny (outhouse style). [Jude, I could envision you living there!] I stayed in a small 1960’s caravan which included a resident bird (it never came out of the light fixture, but it made a lot of racket] and lots of wallabies outside. Just imagine, climbing out of bed at 6am, walking outside your door and seeing 10 wallabies feasting on the guinea grass. I wasn’t able to snap a picture of them because they hopped away when they heard me, but the image is engrained in my head.

Overall, I had a great time at Snake Valley, but the residual scrub itch and tick bites aren’t all that pleasant.

On Sept 10, I boarded another bus and made my way to Magnetic Island (20 minutes off the coast of Townsville) to stay with Anne. Magnetic Island is a mountainous island with a population of 1,500. Three-fourths of the island is national park that’s inaccessible by vehicle. There are at least 20 bays around the island each of which has its own charm and some have reefs to snorkel. There are rock wallabies (small wallabies), possum, death adders (poisonous snakes), curlews (tall nocturnal birds that sound like a crying woman) and tons of waterfowl on the island.

Anne, although polite, was not the most welcoming host I’ve had thus far. I felt like I was in middle school again with Mom telling me when to go to bed and how much food I was allowed to eat. Her closed off demeanor may have been a side effect of the recent divorce she went through, but aside from the lack of conversation at the house, Anne led a very active lifestyle that I enjoyed participating in. For example, Anne & I went for a morning swim in Alamo Bay (think crystal clear flat water surrounded by large boulders and a rising sun), paddled to lovers cove with six other island residents in a large canoe (row team style…it was quite invigorating and beautiful), attended the rotary club disco (local musicians showcased their songs…to be honest, it was painful listening to most of the artists; it reminded me of the American Idol auditions), and sat in on the island choir practice (a male and female singing group that performs yearly at the Woodford Festival in Brisbane; they sing worldly activist songs in at least 10 languages…they have potential). Even with all the activities, as soon as my computer arrived on the island I decided to leave town. It was time to eat something of substance, Anne was a vegetarian who mostly ate canned vegetables (barf) and had a nearly empty fridge, and go scuba diving.

When I arrived in Townsville, I made it my mission to arrange a scuba diving trip before heading further north. Low and behold there was a dive shop right next door to the hostel I stayed in. I booked a trip to the SS Yongala for Wednesday morning. Little did I know, the SS Yongala is ranked as one of the top 10 wreck dives in the world.

Here’s a little back history on the wreck: The ~50 meter ship was built in 1904 and made a few short voyages up the coast of Australia. In 1911, it was heading north from Brisbane to Mackay when a cyclone (or just a big storm, I can’t remember) formed at sea. Apparently the SS Yongala captain was not informed about the storm and headed straight into it. The ship wound up sinking ~20 miles off the coast. It sank to the bottom of the ocean relatively quickly and zero of the ~80 people onboard survived. All the bodies were, at one time, still in the ship. The wreck site, however, wasn’t discovered until the mid-1960’s. And since then people have been diving it. With almost 100 years of rest along the ocean floor, numerous fish and corals have had plenty of time to populate the wreckage. There are no reefs near the wreck so the abundance and diversity of the fish species is quite spectacular for the location.

We went on two dives; both along the wreckage. When we jumped in the water we had to pull ourselves along two ropes and then drop down a line to get to the bow of the boat. The current was quite strong…we were all pushed horizontal which wound up taking a lot of air out of our tanks cutting our first dive a little short. The boat sat between 20 and 30 meters deep and once we got down to the appropriate depth we sought cover from the current behind the boat. As for what we saw…the boat itself was covered in brightly colored corals and anemones. There were ~30 giant tuna (5ft plus) sitting stationary around the boat (swimming up current but not really moving). And along the boat we saw lots of little nemos, conchs, starfish, corals and a green sea turtle. There were lots of other fish, but I couldn’t identify them. The most spectacular thing we saw was a 12 foot bull ray (think manta ray, or sting ray or the big ray in finding nemo)!! It was spectacular!! It was perched on top of the wreckage at the bow of the boat allowing the cleaner fish to do their thing. We watched it for ~ 5minutes. What a sight!! This was the first ray of this size I’ve ever seen while diving and it made the trip totally worth it! To top the trip off, on the boat ride back to shore we saw whales splashing and tail flapping in the distance as they migrated south. The birthing season is coming to a close so the humpbacks are migrating south with their babies for the summer. When I make my way to Tasmania I hope to see them up-close.

Today I’m back on the bus heading to Cairns for a night in town. Tomorrow I’m off to the Atherton Tablelands to work at a bat hospital. I not only want to hold and learn all about Australian bats, but I hope to venture off to a river and spot a platypus or two before I travel to Perth.

Follow this link for pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2750030&id=4932101&l=7068c44987

I hope this update finds you all well. Look for more in the near future. I promise, now that I have my computer, to keep this up to date =)

Cheers!