The Great Red Center, the Great Barrier Reef, and the World's Oldest Rainforest

Over the past several days, Callie and I have been on mid-semester break, and in order to gain a broader appreciation of Australia, we decided to take a little trip.  Granted, "little" is a relative term in a country where everything is much larger and further apart than you would initially think.  But, undeterred by Australia's vast and sparsely populated emptiness, we left Sydney bound for Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef, and the world's oldest rainforest. 

Our first destination was the Ayers Rock Resort in the Northern Territory.  Ayers Rock (or its more appropriate Aboriginal name, Uluru) is the world's largest monolith, which is located in the dry, baked nothingness of the Outback.  Beyond the sheer size of Uluru and the peculiar fact that it rises over one thousand feet in the middle of a flat desert, the rock itself is an incredible geological phenomenon.  Composed of a super-hard and weather resistant sandstone known as arkose, Uluru was formed as the surrounding rock eroded over the course of the last 400 million years.  What remains is a captivating presence that dominates the surrounding landscape.  Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to spend in the park, but we did enjoy dinner under the stars and a guided walk around the base of the rock with a native Aborigine- both of which offered a unique narrative on the creation of the natural environment.  We stayed in a quaint accommodation called the Outback Pioneer, (which reminded Callie of Camp Mac) and while we managed to avoid any serious encounters with the wildlife, our first experience in the Australian Outback left a distinct impression on the both of us, the kind of impression that compels one to return.

From Uluru, we traveled to Cairns (pronounced "cans") and Port Douglas, which is in Northern Queensland.  We arrived in Cairns early Saturday evening and, no thanks to some erratic and incompetent local driving, managed to find Port Douglas.  Port Douglas is about 70 kilometers north of Cairns and is a gateway to both the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest.  

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest living organism- composed of 2,900 individual reef formations, populated by 1,500 species of fish, and is visible from space.  Needless to say, it is quite an imposing and beautiful part of the Australian environment, and given the fact that we only had one morning on the reef, it is impossible to do justice to its scope and diversity.  Leaving from Port Douglas early Sunday morning, we made the one-and-a-half hour journey to some of the reef's outer sections aboard the "Aristocat," a local dive and snorkel operation.  Having been a scuba diver for several years, I could hardly sit down, which was quite distracting to Callie, as she was preparing for her first introductory dive.  Despite somewhat limited visibility, the reef was absolutely amazing.  While we didn't see large wildlife, the coral structures were unlike anything I had ever witnessed.  Most reefs have sections of well-developed coral, but they tend to be limited in their size and maturity.  The reefs that we saw, however, were simply loaded with all kinds of corals in every shape and size imaginable.  I'm sorry that we don't have any pictures to validate such claims, but . . . trust us.

Following our day on the Barrier Reef, we spent the better part of Monday exploring Port Douglas.  We walked along the beach, around the town and through the harbour, generally enjoying the absence of structured vacation that had thus far occupied our trip.  We wandered amidst the abundance of local shops, frequented the pool, and enjoyed an early dinner in the anticipation of the next day's adventure to the region's ancient forest.

The Daintree Rainforest is roughly 60 kilometers north of Port Douglas and is basically the last remnants of an ancient forest that covered all of Australia before the last ice age.  As Australia began to warm, the forest retreated in the upper-most reaches of Queensland and the Northern Territory.  Today, the Daintree is one of only a few of these prehistoric environments that remain.  

Our experience in the Daintree began with a beautiful drive through the small agricultural communities that dot the Queensland coast.  Sugarcane is second only to tourism in supporting the local economy, and the region is dominated by paddocks of tall, thick cane that thrive in the area between the mountains and the shore.  We drove by Mossman Gorge, past Snapper Island, over the Daintree River and found ourselves on a spectacularly unspoiled stretch of beach called Cape Tribulation (appropriately named given that Captain Cook ran aground there on the Great Barrier Reef).  Following morning tea complete with lamingtons (more on those later  from Callie), we went sea kayaking, as the barrier reef actually comes right into the shore at Cape Tribulation.  Afterwards, we went swimming in a exquisitely clear freshwater creek, hiked through a privately-owned section of the forest, and took a Daintree River cruise to look for saltwater crocodiles.  Needless to say, it is impossible to recount each of these experiences in such a way that captures the natural majesty of the area, but it is certainly an understatement to describe both the rainforest and the barrier reef as spectacular.  Beyond that, I'm not sure any written description is sufficient.

Now that we have returned to Sydney, we have a few free days left before returning to school and our normal routine.  Callie will begin her intermediate session this week, and I'll return to class for the last weeks of the semester.  We can't say enough about how much we have enjoyed our time thus far in Australia, and having a chance to see more of the country this past week simply adds to our appreciation for this opportunity.  We'll be sure to post more pictures from our trip, but I'm not convinced that any picture or story or experience can capture how truly inspiring and expansive Australia is.  We will try nonetheless . . .