Port Douglas Australia

Sorry, it’s been a while since my last entry. I know it sounds absurd but we’ve had so much to do and so little time that my journaling always gets pushed to the bottom of the pile. My limited internet time gets consumed researching travel and accommodation needs for the weeks ahead. So far we haven’t used a travel agent or a tour company. We’ve tried a couple of times but find that the cost is always significantly higher. We ended up using an agent while we were in Cusco, Peru and I regretted it.

Anyway, enough excuses. I did post some photos of Lake Tekapo and Christ Church a few days ago while we were in Sydney and I hope to have some Australia photos up by Monday. Right now we’re in Port Douglas, about an hour north of Cairns on the northeast coast of Queensland and the gateway to the outer barrier reef. Turns out the Great Barrier Reef is really a series of reefs, not a single reef. The youngest part of the reef to the south is about 6,000 years old and the oldest part to the north is about 18 million years old. We hadn’t planned to come this far north. We were going to drive north from Brisbane to the southern end of the reef and spend some time in the Whitsunday Islands but it became clear after talking to people in Australia that the best part of the reef could only be reached from Cairns and Port Douglas so we changed our plans and booked a flight to Cairns. The alternative was a 22 hour drive. It really doesn’t look that far on the map. We’ve given up on sailing the Whitsunday Islands, a segment of the trip I was really looking forward to. Oh, if we only had more time and money! Clearly the first priority was to get to the outer barrier reef. It has always been a dream of mine and unfortunately, the future health of the reef is in jeopardy from siltation, pollution and tourism that migrate from the mainland. With continued public awareness campaigns and real changes in the way Australian farmers do use their land, there is hope that the reef can be preserved.

Right now, much of Australia is mired in the worst drought in more than ten years. There are brush fires in South Eastern Australia (Gippland) and some of them are now closing in on Allison and Dave’s house near Bairnsdale. Reservoir levels in Melbourne are at 41% of capacity and remarkably the water controls are still mostly voluntary. I remember when levels in Charlottesville fell to 71% a few years ago and mass panic set in. Here, people are used to droughts. Australia is a very dry continent and the vast majority of the land here has no agricultural value. If you want a good overview of the history and environment in Australia, pick up a copy of Jared Diamond’s best selling book, Collapse, How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. He spends much of the book covering ancient societies that failed but he has a great chapter on modern Australia, as well as the state of Montana.

Before we get too far away from New Zealand, I want to share a few quick thoughts about Christchurch because of all the places we’ve visited so far, it is the one place that we all agree we could live happily ever after. It is about the size of Richmond, but has many of the qualities we enjoy in Charlottesville. With care, Charlottesville could grow up to be like Christchurch, a very liveable city with excellent mass transit, rich cultural, educational and entertainment resources. And it’s surrounded by a recreational paradise of unmatched beauty and diversity. OK, so we can’t match the last part of that but we’re not far behind.

We’re off to Southeast Asia in about a week and we still don’t have an itinerary in Vietnam yet so I better get back to work. Then it’s off to the Daintree rain forest later today for Liza’s birthday. Or, perhaps we’ll try to go snorkeling again if we can find a cheap way out there. Then, again, we might end up at the pool or the beach. I finished a book on Africa yesterday and don’t have anything new to read so perhaps I’ll get some work done on the family travel guide we’re writing or my real estate photo blog. So much to do, so little time.