The White Cockatoo, The Play

Ok ,where do I start? I guess being the Professional Rainbow Hunter that I am, I will start with my most recent capture. Tony had taken me for a ride in the area. Upon leaving Rocky Point (a jetty suitable for boat launching),we took notice and photos of this Rainbow over the ocean. Somewhere out there is where Tony took me out on to the Great Barrier Reef, but that is later in this Journey. So be patient.

The area that I called home for about a month is smack dab in the middle of sugar cane fields, mountains, and rainforest. There are plenty of creeks and rivers that find there way to the ocean here, and the beaches range from sandy to muddy depending on the tides. The main river system in the area is The Daintree. A "World Heritage" site. This is where I saw my first Croc! Tony took me out on to the Daintree River one afternoon. It travels right through the Daintree Rainforest and various farm plots (cattle and sugarcane).We launched onto the river in search of the infamous "Salties." Tony pointed out that they actually don't live in saltwater. They just use the ocean to travel from river mouth to river mouth. Occasionally crocs are spotted out on the reef. I was told that this generally occurs when the smaller crocs are forced out of the rivers during mating season by the big crocs. I guess after spending a season(mating) or two fattening up on all the fish out there, eventually you become one of the big boys. They are quite ferocious just the same. At each entry to the water, either river or ocean, there are warnings posted, "DO NOT APPROACH WATERS EDGE! Crocodiles are known to inhabit these waters." these crocs are the man eating variety. Apparently the "freshies" are more like an American alligator in their temperament. Ether way, I chose to stay in the boat. Even launching and retrieving the boat I found myself a bit nervous. The water isn't exactly clear.

The Mosman River enters the ocean at Cooya Beach. This was my first bike ride into my surroundings. I think it was a few kilometers from The White Cockatoo. It definitely was a good work out, how ever far it was. Tony and Lenore have mountain bikes available for their guests. If no guest were using them, then one was at my disposal. I took advantage of this a few times, but not enough to really make an impact upon my increasing weight. Which by the way has started to alarm me. Well, "alarm" might be a little harsh. It has not become a big (no pun intended) enough issue to curb my appetite. OOPS! I digress, that would be a whole other story.

The Mosman River travels through the rainforest out of the mountains (that seem to hug the coast), through Mosman, and into the ocean at Cooya Beach. This track has created the Mosman Gorge. I took a hike through the area which has also been deemed a "World Heritage" site. It essentially is a walking path up in and around the Gorge, taking you through virgin rainforest. Here the water does run clear. Thankfully it's cold too. Too cold for crocodiles!

The whole time I was staying at The White Cockatoo the wind offshore was clicking at 20 to 30 knots and it seemed to rain a lot! You would think that this would be normal being in the "wet tropics." It's not, at least not in the month of June. Tony explained," This is our dry season. Things should be drying out, and I can't believe the wind has been so relentless." He tried blaming the weather on me. After three weeks I was starting to believe him myself. You see, the wind was keeping me from The Great Barrier Reef. Tony has a very nice and powerful boat. His offer to take me out there was on the table, provided the weather cooperated. But anything over 15 knots is just to rough to make the 45 minute journey to the protected waters of the outer reef. So we waited, and waited, and waited. After three weeks, my time was running out. I was going to have to leave for Sydney, in order to catch my flight to New Zealand in a couple more weeks. Tony and Lenore came to me one morning and struck a deal. If I guaranteed my stay until leaving for Sydney, they would book a charter trip for me on one of the newest, if not "the" newest vessels traveling to the reef. Well, just look at the grin on my face. Of course I said yes! I didn't have the fore thought to bring an underwater camera along so unfortunately the photo's from that experience are all stored in my head. Except for the one of Tom, Sarah, and Myself. Sarah's mom took the photo for me. If you look, you can make out the reef just below the surface in the second photo. This was a snorkel trip. I was amazed by all that I saw. So many fish, so many colors, so much coral! I even swam with a school of cuttle fish which was an amazing experience in it's self. On two separate occasions during my underwater adventure I swam with a sea turtle. The first one I named Barney, due to the barnacles on his shell. The second one I almost named Stubby, but then I noticed the flipper I thought was missing. So I guess I didn't really come up with a name for him. Hmmmm? You know, now that I think about, I don't even know if it was a him! Anyway, it was an incredible experience on a beautiful boat. We traveled to two different locations on the reef.

AAAAGH! But there is more to this story...

The following Sunday, the last weekend before moving on...

THE WEATHER FINALLY BROKE!!!!!!!

Yep, The Great Barrier Reef Part Two! With Captain Tony Fox.

Allen's private tour.

I will let the photos speak for themselves. Tony ever so graciously allowed me to use his underwater camera. I snapped well over 100 photos. (don't worry I won't post them all) I didn't see any turtles or cuttle fish this trip but I did see...

YES!!! I EVEN SWAM WITH A WHITE TIP REEF SHARK!

As I was in awe of this whole experience, I couldn't even have imagined that I would feel "No fear." The absolute beauty of the reef and of this shark was incredible. As soon as it came by me I immediately started to follow it. It was about 4 feet in length, or so it appeared underwater. Just amazing! I swam with it for about 15 minutes and than I thought, "Hmmmm, maybe this isn't the most intelligent behavior." So I let it swim on. Not that I could have or would have, prevented it. Thankfully my limited knowledge of sharks gave me comfort in knowing, "This was not the man eating variety." It was just as curious about me as I was of it. Once that curiosity was fulfilled, and better judgment set in, we went our separate ways. So between two reef trips the count stood at countless fish, a couple of sea turtles, a school of cuttle fish, hundreds of types of coral and the like, and a white tip reef shark. Oh, but the trip didn't end with the shark...

THE TRIP ENDED WITH DOLPHINS!

I was casually enjoying the ride back to shore, reflecting on the whole experience of the reef. When suddenly, off to my left side, I am eye to eye with a porpoise. Who is traveling, about 20 meters out,"completely" out of the water. BAM! Then another one, and another one! They were literally flying through the air!They were in a race to catch our bow wave. Stupidly, I had packed my camera away, making it a bit difficult to retrieve quickly. This pod was a good 20 members strong. By the time I had camera in hand and ready, They were already in sync with the boat. The moral of this story...

DO NOT PUT THE CAMERA AWAY UNTIL YOU HAVE REACHED SHORE!!!!

(or when the batteries die, which is what I did to Tony's camera out on the reef.)

I know this has been a huge post. Please keep in mind it covers almost a month to the day. There is one more bit I would like to share. My Fourth Of July. I say it like that because, as far as I could tell, I was the only American with in miles celebrating American style. Thanks to Tony and Lenore we had a good old American Barbecue complete with Sparklers! Oh, and a red white and blue duster. American flags aren't readily available; but it did the trick! Tony worked the Barbie, Lenore cooked the side dishes, I made the deviled eggs. It was great fun. What a wonderful night. It was chillier than I think I have ever spent on Fourth of July; but, hell, I was still in the tropics and that was close enough!

Good On Ya, Mates!