The ship
is sailing along the coast of Australia in the strong southward current called ‘East
Australian Current’ or EAC, another example of a Western Boundary Current similar
to the Gulf Stream. As our daily
programme says, “These types of currents are at the western edges of Ocean
Gyres and they are formed by a process called ‘western intensification’ which
can be explained using complex mathematical theories.” Let’s just say that the ship is in the same
current that Nemo was following with all of the turtles in the movie “Finding
Nemo.” Remember, the EAC, dude?
It is
probably fitting then that a new professor, Henry Hutchinson from Oxford, has
joined our ship to talk about Global Warming.
The first lecture was graphs, charts, pictures of before and now, and
lots more data which would indicate global warming is occurring. His next lecture is “Why is the Climate
Changing?”
Our
classical music concert was an Australian classical guitarist who was not as
good as the previous one from London. Leave
it at that.
On to the
Queen Elizabeth Maiden Call to Brisbane!
To reach Brisbane, there is a 3 hour trip through Moreton Bay with a
pilot on board due to the numerous sand bars in the Bay. The ship docks at Fisherman’s Island, which
is just at the interface of the Brisbane River and the Bay. The river is tidal and brackish, and due to
the tidal flows here, actually has sharks in it. And we see lots of wild island foliage, most
notably mangroves and tamaracks, prolific in our part of Florida.
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| Young Koala Bear |
Our berth
is almost 20 miles from the city (we are too tall to cross under some of the
river bridges) and right next to a huge grain elevator, cement factory and
container. Brisbane is in the state of
Queensland, which you may remember had significant flooding last year. The river flooded parts of the city due to
the amount of rain that fell and a dam further up the river that either let too
much water out or couldn’t hold it. It
reminded us of the Nashville flood story because the river does the same thing –
winds its way through the city creating south-bank and north-bank sections of
the city. It also reminded us of the
recent floods in the US northern plains because of the questions there about
dam and flood-water management.
There use
to be only 3 bridges across the river and now the city has maybe 10, with several
exclusive to pedestrians and bicycles.
The weather in Brisbane is similar to Florida – it never really gets
cold and the temperatures today will hit 90.
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| Retired Koala Bear |
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| Emu |
Our tour
bus takes us to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary with the tour guide describing
what we are seeing along the way. She
explains how if you want to have your picture taken with a koala bear, you have
to pay AUD$16.00. We think we will just
take pictures of those in their faux trees, sleeping. Koala bears sleep 20 hours a day and eat 6
different types of eucalyptus tree leaves out of the over 300 types of such
leaves in their native habitat, selective little creatures that they are. The sanctuary has the koala bears sorted by
age and sex for various reasons. We
loved that there is a retirement section too.
Since this is a sanctuary, the oldest known living koala bear lives here.
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| Lynn with Kangaroos |
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| Platypus |
We walk
around on our own for 2 hours taking photos of the various other strange
animals – wallabies, wombats, dingoes, lizards, birds – and yes of course,
sheep and the attendant sheepdogs. Unfortunately,
many of the animals are nocturnal and do not readily make themselves available
for photographs. For AUD$2.00 you can
feed the kangaroos and walk among the kangaroos and emus. The platypus has its own house because it
swims in the water. The platypus swims
very fast so the pictures aren’t worth posting of the live one; you must settle
for the skeletal view.
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| Kookaburras in gum tree |
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| Rainbow Lorikeet |
Dingo
factoids: They are not native to
Australia, having been transported by early Asian seafarers; and it is now rare
to find pure dingoes since they have interbred with domestic dogs. Dingo-doodle anyone?
After the
sanctuary, the bus drives us to two locations, Mt. Coot-tha and Kangaroo Cliffs
where we can have vista views of the city.
Then, we drive through the city as they point out different areas and
buildings. It was a nice overview. The plants are very similar to Florida – bougainvilleas,
plumbago and palm trees everywhere. Some
people get off in the city to shop; we stay on the bus and go back to the
ship. (And no one is doing laundry so we
get both machines!)
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| View from Mt. Coot-tha |
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| View from Kangaroo Cliffs |
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| Brisbane Downtown Queens St. |
Brisbane
is definitely a city that would be fun to visit longer and the weather is one
that you could enjoy year round. It is
perhaps a bit more rugged that the other Aussie cities we visited since this is
a backpacker paradise.
Now we are
out to sea for two days as we head to Port Douglas which is the ship’s entry
point for the Great Barrier Reef.
Cruise
Muse: The buses for the tours vary in each
port and yet the people are always from the ship. A British man on the bus is annoyed
apparently with the bus seating situation.
When the tour guide asks us politely to put on our seat belts because it
is the law in Australia, the man yells out, “Get us a decent bus. We aren’t sardines. It’s disgraceful how we are being treated.” A woman quietly in the seat behind him says, “Well,
you can get off the bus too.”
We are
just glad we aren’t on Costa Cruise lines!
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