31) Return to Currumbin

We returned to our local wildlife sanctuary, Currumbin, to see more of our furry, feathery, scaly co-inhabitants of this vast landscape. As wonderfully designed to recreate habitats and really care for the animals it is easy to experience a strange melancholy here. Many of these animals are getting slammed by development, drought, habitat destruction - many will exist only in zoos in our lifetime. A recent report in Science by International Union for the Conservation of Nature in Gland, Switzerland, estimates that 1 in 4 mammal species is at risk of extinction (no time frame specified). It's sadly ironic that while advertiser's shamelessly exploits animals for marketing and keeping all good consumers busily buying "stuff", we're experiencing a mass extinction of our animals and birds through habitat destruction and pollution. We learned that habitat of koalas, the icon of Australia, is predicted to be destroyed through development by 2015. That's seven years from now! Zoos and wildlife sanctuaries are harboring what animals they can, until small population genetics take over.


Our local neighborhood is indicative of the problem - our immediate neighbors are quite thrilled to use a leaf blower - gasoline powered - to clean their deck and driveway 2-3 time A WEEK! (usually quite early). Climate change? - it's only a little engine. Oil prices? drill off the US coast, drill in ANWR - I need a leaf free driveway damn it! and its too much work to use a broom! We look at office buildings with a majority of office lights blazing away - at 11 pm (no one home - not a car in the lot). Need more power to keep those lights on? - just build another coal fired plant (AU has enormous coal reserves) How can other species survive when we are mining and logging, drilling, building and chopping every bit of habitat into little bits?


Tree kangaroos - tails are longer than their bodies!



















Azure kingfisher







































Olive python - BIG guy!

1/3 of the houses in AU supposedly have a python in living in/under the house!













This is one the the most ferocious and aggressive species in AU! (actually - too many people let their cats run free - decimating the bird population. On Steven's Island off the coast of NZ an entire species of flightless wren (filling the ecological nitche of ... mice!) was discovered.. and made extinct in the same year....

...by the light house keepers cat......

[btw - this cat stays indoors - she would get carried away by the Currawongs!]






The biggest "saltie" in captivity. They only fed him once today (thus no footage) because they are worried about him having "too much weight in his hindquarters" (you have got to be kidding me! He only gets one chicken because he has a big butt?). And this after him not being fed *at all* for the last 6 months!

It was a most impressive lunge though...

[a Queensland man was recently "taken by" a croc up north (a normall 'shy and retiring croc' mind you!). Another man was pulled from a canoe in 2005....]

...stay away from the water.. stay away from the water...







Green Wing Macaw (Thanks, Callie for the correct id!)--from the Amazon? Another bird not long for this world.
















Many babies in evidence - but no place for them to go out in the wild.....












Nancy and Helene the common wombat. These guys are part of a captive breeding program - wombats are really hard to breed in captivity and development and habitat destruction are taking a toll on the Northern Hairy nosed wombat- the "species is restricted to a single population on Epping Forest National Park (Scientific) near Clermont in central Queensland. The population was estimated to contain 113 individuals in 2000, of which as few as 25 may be breeding females (Banks et al. in press)."
What they learn here may help that population (but genetic inbreeding seems inevitable)

Listen to the recording of a chiming wedge-bill. This bird was in a row of fight cages housing birds in a captive bird breeding program. We're wondering if the success of the program may be limited due to this bird driving his pen mates bonkers with his (momentarily) charming repetitive broken record call. Or maybe he's already driven himself bonkers and this is why he keeps calling with no hope of locating a female who finds him attractive...

Also here's a black breasted buzzard, birds known for their talent for using a rock as a tool to acquire dinner from other birds' eggs. They pick up and drop the rock onto an egg (e.g. an emu egg) until it breaks open. The claim is that this is a 'hard-wired' ( as opposed to learned) behavior - give a young buzzard an egg and a rock and they just do this!

30) Toolona Creek to Mt Bithongabel

We have been focused on the more easterly (and closer) bits of the national parks that lie upon the border ranges. We decided to head over to the Green Mountain section of Lamington to see O'Reilly's Guest House and check out a new set of trails. So we headed out through Nerang, up through beautiful Beechmont (with great views of the coast) and braved the multiple sections of single-lane road that cling to the ridge leading to the Lamington Plateau.

There is a small office for the National park (which has been absorbed into the
Orielly's building... hmmm). A great display of skulls, some random poisonous critters in jars of formaldehyde, great trays of beautiful mounted butterflies, old surveying equipment - all the trappings of a proper small museum. - oh - and a warning about
an escaped highly venomous funnel spider
someplace in the room!



























O'Reilly's is an old in-holding in the National Park. A restaurant, the requisite gift shop, O'Reilly's "Lost World Spa" which "provides the Gold Coast region with a true destinational spa experience and is a valued addition to the Gold Coast tourism infrastructure." Here you can enjoy such delights as:

Vinotherapy Ritual 2.5 hours $295 per person

Begin your ritual gently with a warm steam to relax muscles and slow the mind before a

full body exfoliation to soften and smooth your skin. Continue your journey with a Red

Grape & Clay Infused Body Mask to firm and nourish whilst enjoying a deeply relaxing

scalp massage in your warm cocoon. Conclude your ritual with a warm, aromatic soak

in the tub, enhanced by The Lost Worlds signature Vinotherapy bath blend.

• Steam/shower
• Jojoba Body polish
• Vinotherapy Red Grape & Clay Infused body mask
• Scalp massage
• Bath

Uh-huh.... we opted to go for a walk and get in touch with our sweaty inner animal.....

We headed for Toolona creek which drops into a deep river basin before climbing up past 14 waterfalls in a steep climb to an overlook on the rim of the caldera.

I have been studying phenomenology, or "lived experience" (Heidegger; Husseral) as an approach in some research but these Aussies have this down pat. As we dropped into Canungra creek we were confronted with this sign: If you are looking at the Empire state building or the Eiffel Tower and want to get to the top, would you take the stairs or the lift? If you said lift, this trail is not for you!" -- Now THAT is communicating lived experience. Being somewhat less than intimidated by the thought of a 1400' climb up out of the valley, we soldiered on.

We were immediately rewarded by the sight of an Albert's Lyre Bird scratching in the dirt at the side of the trail. Unfortunately it was not amenable to photos and even my deft pursuit through the webs of entirely venomous spiders, over the burrows of even more venomous snakes, and acres of thorny (and probably poisonous!) undergrowth, did not get me within flash range of this beautiful bird... but at least Nancy can *actually* check it off her life list!

The jungle is an amazing place. As we left the lone family at Picnic Rock (an outcrop in the middle of the river) we also left all sounds and traces of people beyond the trail itself. We have noticed that on even medium length hikes we rarely see other people more than 3-4 km from the trail head. So the light filtering through the canopy, the raucous or melodious birds, the creaking trees as they rub together in the breeze, the trickling creeks, the frumious bandersnatch... we have it all to ourselves.

Just don't step on anything venomous....

The trail up wove back and forth across the creek.. long switchbacks which took us through multiple eco-zones with fantastic vegetation. We were warned by a sign at the creek not to worry about the blue shelled crayfish we might see tramping on the trail as they moved from one drainage to another, we heard lots of birds we never saw, we passed by, leapt rocks below, and peered over the lip, of many spouting waterfalls, sprays, drips, and assorted forms of water falling from on-high to down-below.


















We passed through a dense stand of Antarctic Beech - great mossy, gnarled trunks that advance through time from the days of Gondwanaland. We finally reached the caldera rim where we heard multiple Lyre-birds - the damndest sounding birds - again they were all off in the deep growth but the video below captures a bit of the magic of their call. I could have stood there all day and listened. But the woods are dark and deep and there were miles to go before we sleep... We headed for Mt Bithongabel, where the map clearly shows an overlook. We ran into 2 campers (beautiful spot) who said - "Oh -that overlook isn't there any more!" What - it fell off? "No, it just became so overgrown there is no sightline off the rim!"

But the afternoon sun was spectacular as we headed off along a section of the Border Track, weaving through dense mats of hanging moss, vines and the occasional highly venomous tree snake (never saw them but I *knew* they were there!) back to O'Reilly's (hmm - maybe I could go for that Vinotherapy Mask now! Or maybe the Reviving Salt Glow (a mere $119).

Nah - we packed it in and wended our way through the gathering gloom, where red is grey and yellow white. But we knew that little koalas in the road would not be an illusion. So it was slow...

Aussie Wine -Not Just for Drinking!
(info from the Lost World Spa website)

"Information on Vinotherapy

Vinotherapy involves using grape seed extracts which happen to contain some of

nature’s most powerful antioxidants. These antioxidants are fifty times the strength

of vitamin E and ten times the strength of vitamin C. The grape products are rich

in collagen and firm the skin and slow down the aging process. The infusion of the

extracts of grape will introduce healing properties and rejuvenate.

Products such as red grape extract, micronised vines, wine leaves, grape skins, yeasts,

grape seed oil, red wine or muscatel wine are used to stimulate the production of

collagen, combat free radicals and prevent the premature aging of the skin, as well as

improving blood circulation, stimulating the immune system and combating fatigue."

(nothing to see in this video - listen to the ONE bird making this noise!)

29) Odds and ends (and odds)

As you well know, English is the language of OZ-land. Most of the time our accents (which are commented on with frequency) are understandable. What seems to get in the way though is our -- vocabulary!

A few difficulties the locals have with what we are saying:

1. On the highways you do not "pass" (a car) - you "overtake" (usage: no overtaking next 5 km)
2. Regarding weather -- it is not a "high" of 20 degrees, it is a top of 20. And good weather is fine.
3. They do not do "roadwork" here. Instead the signs read changed road conditions ahead.
4. One does not "grade exams" - faculty do marks and assess.
5. For exams there are no proctors because one invigilates exams
6. No one here "drives drunk" because there are many signs advising you don't drink drive.
7. Around gas stations (servos) one is warned no smoking or naked lights (open flames). (quite conservative here!)
8. Of course no one understands me when I ask them to "call me" because they ring up.
9. By the way, it is a BAD idea here to shop steal because you will be prosecuted.
10. Hoons are bad enough that the paper says they are bringing in some military hardware from Iraq to help catch them racing around on the roads.
11. Dump trunks are out - tip trucks are in! And no garbage cans, but instead rubbish skips.
12. Better use your tomahawk, because axes are nowhere to be found!
13. No electric "tea kettles" - one buys a jug.


Some interesting shops around......
















I found that my boxers simply did not measure up! Oh well - guess I'll have to head down to
the Byron Bay Market next month to get
some festive knickers for Nancy!












We do have some unusual local wildlife. Nightly, we have a veritable herd of possums launch themselves at the metal roof from WAY up in the trees. These things must weigh 50-60 Kg - they sound like sumo wrestlers working out up there! It really sounds as if they are *falling* out of the tree - this is not a graceful leap with a synchronized 4 point landing - it is more like some out-of-control smoke jumpers landing on the roof and then trying to dig their way in! (if I heard this in CO I would be quite sure it was a bear up there!)





Oz is the land of "big things" and the ocean dwellers are no exception!
The crabs on the beach are occasionally hard to deal with
- this was of unusual size but not the lethal variety!












But our real fun is the morning chorus - starting about 4:30 am - there is no picture in this video (it's dark!) - so just turn up the volume, click the little triangle pointing Right and imagine this as your alarm clock! (these are Laughing Kookoburras) (also a page of info here)

28) Running down under, Mt Warning

One the harder things to adjust to down here is the loss of soaring verticality amid the vast reaches of the broad horizon. In other words, this place is pretty flat! There is nothing even vaguely like being able to trot up to the 3rd before work and climb 1000' vert, or pop over to Eldo for a some quick pitches after work (or the well planned headlamp tours!). I am not sure there is the equivalent of the elevation gain on Flattop Mtn on the entire continent! Which is an amazing thought! (The high point is Mount Kosciuszko, 2229 metres - low is -15 meters).

Nancy has been pining for some real mtns to run -- in exchange we have found some gorgeous places above the ocean and through the rainforest where she can get in the verticle (if she goes up and down a few times!)


















We recently made the pilgrimage to "Wollumbin" ("fighting chief of the mountains" or"cloud-gatherer" depending on what source you look up). This volcanic neck is now known as Mt Warning -- named by Captain Cook to warn future mariners of the offshore reefs he encountered in May 1770. It was declared a National park in 1966 and became a world heritage site in 1986. Warning is a volcanic neck - the remnant core of the Tweed volcano - it sits at the center of the caldera on whose rim are the "border ranges" which include the major national parks in the area - Springbrook, Lamington, Border Ranges, Nightcap,

The plug of Mount Warning was composed of different rocks – gabbro at the base of the walking track, syenite on most of the mountain, and trachyandesite near the top.

The complex is about 22 myo "is elliptical, being 8 km maximum east-west diameter, and 5.5 km maximum north-south diameter. The structure we now see is a huge erosion caldera exposing the eroded remains of a large magma chamber. The trachyandesite plug (with minor plugs and radiating dykes) which is the central part of Mt. Warning rises to 1156 m, penetrating the volcano's outer ring dykes of syenite, as well as the surrounding gabbro and monzonite intrusion (itself intruded by the syenite) that now forms the plug's outer slope. The gabbro represents the oldest exposed rocks of the igneous complex. The ring dyke (intruded into a ring fracture) is generally less than 30 m thick and forms a steep-sided ridge. Alkali rhyolite (comendite) and trachyte dykes occur near the summit. The original vent would have been about 1940 m above sea level and over 30 km across. Thick rhyolite and basalt lava flows and pyroclastics were also associated with the volcano, extending up to 54 km away from the eruption centre."(http://www.amonline.net.au/geoscience/earth/warning.htm)


We have learned not to take things lightly here and our goal was to reach the top of this vegetated choss pile. That reliable source of up-to-date information-- "Wikipedia" (the go-to-source" for student information!) says "An ascent of the mountain takes approximately 2 to 3½ hours (one way) and requires a good level of fitness." It is an 8.8 km roundtrip with a vertical of about 700 m and includes the world renowned (via the Internet) "stairway to torture"! We made sure we got a proper Australian "alpine start" and got on the trail well before 1 pm.








We were safe - we got here by 12:45!










The dreaded "steps of
Pain"





Not a good place to hangout in a big e-storm!





















Summit - 360 views of the caldera from the center where it all began.


Wait, what is that rumbling noise? Is that some steam venting over there? Was that a little tremor.....?










Drive home via Fingal Heads. Great storm waves coming in on Dream Time beach, beautiful columnar basalts, dolphins playing in the waves.....