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We are slowly working our way back down the East coast to Sydney. We are in Brisbane now. In Sydney we have much work to do related to the Land Rover and securing our field equipment before we depart for a respite back to Paris and the United States. I have not had much time to write these days because it seems there is always something else more pressing to do, plus we have to sign on from Internet cafés which is not exactly convenient. That said, however, the Global Gossip Internet Cafes in AU's larger cities are the best we have found anywhere. They offer a crucial array of communication services for folks like us who need international fax capability, mail forwarding services, faster log-ons and late hours. Today my thoughts wander far afield to the many interesting adventures that we have had in Australia to date. My notes to you will be in an outline format so as to pass along the most thoughts with the least amount of editorial work. We encountered a strange bird recently on Heron Island which is about four hours off the coast of Gladstone, Queensland. This bird is called the mutton bird, a fairly nondescript species in appearance. But that is all that is nondescript about it. This bird gracefully flies to the island after dusk but then lands with a resounding THUD. It is as awkward on land as it is graceful in the air. It digs big, awkward holes in the ground and nests during the night with much loud moaning and mating and resting and mating. One night I went out late with my F5 and flash and took photos of the mutton birds doing their thing. But that moan!! Some folks here call it the 'orgasm bird'. Years ago sailors exploring these islands thought they were haunted and stayed clear. Their night chorus does make one a believer! Heron Island is a true paradise. On the fringe of the Great Barrier Reef, it is a haven for snorkelers and scuba divers and for glass bottom boats and reef walks. I particularly loved the reef walks. At low tide much of the reef is exposed and you can walk on the sandy stretches between sections of the living reef, with care, I might add. I do have one nasty coral scratch on my heel as a result of slipping where I should have been sliding in my Birks (not recommended for reef walking.) Once I got the right pair of rubber soles I walked amongst the living reef with my Nikon and a 105mm macro lens and I had a blast.
We actually went to Heron to film the nesting activities of the Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas). This was awesome and thrilling. We got up way before dawn and sat on the beach in the moonlight watching the turtles lay their eggs up in the dunes and then bury them with their big flippers. Exhausted, they would then turn themselves around and make the long and arduous trek back to the sea. In many cases they got stuck in the rocky outcrops separating them from the sea and had to wait for the tide to rise sufficiently to float their big bodies again. By morning there were scores of distinct turtle tracks meandering back to the sea.
As well as spectacular photography on the island we also had delicious meals and fine wines and friends from all over the world to share them with. We met folks from Vancouver, South Africa, Norway, Austria, even from Denver and Boulder! From Heron Island we went to Fraser Island where the living was not so luxurious. Fraser is another one of those 4-wheel drive frontiers and you cannot even get onto the island without the requisite 4WD. It was not such fun to be back difficult roads, tired as we were by that point of difficult roads, but the eastern beaches of the island made it all worthwhile. We went to Fraser to film dingos and we were far from disappointed - the dingos (Australia's wild dogs) were quite accessible and we got some great beach shots of them. The beaches on Fraser Island are hard as clay and you can, within a window of two hours on either side of low tide, drive along them, which we did while we were photographing the dingos. Nicole drove the Landy while I sat up on the hood with my 80-200mm in hand, and with the glorious salty wind in my hair. The downside to this, of course, is the need to clean the equipment after such exposure to beach conditions but it was well worth it!
Nicole tells the story best but when we left the island we had to travel the 'seventy-mile beach' down to the ferry at the southern end of the island. Because we stopped here and there and probably meandered more than we should have we got feverishly close to rising tide conditions. Nicole worried for us both. I, personally, was having a great time and I wasn't the least bit worried about the incoming tide or about the steep face cliff of the beach on our inland side. She, on the other hand, was having conniptions by the time we sighted the ferry access point. Speaking of which, the 'ferry' is an economical service that travels to the island and jsut drops it jaws in the sand; you drive from the sandy beach right up onto the ferry, no docks, no signs, no nothing. We passed right by the site the first time as there was no indication whatsoever that a ferry was about to land there, other than (cough) the ominous slapping waves of the incoming tide and the awareness that something had to happen, fast!
Australia has drive-in liquor stores, imagine that! And yes, they have good Australian merlots and also Jack Daniels and whatever else you can stash away in your 4WD. Australia also has the best post offices in the world, certainly they are far better than anything America has to offer. The US Postal Service should come take a close look at the Aussie post offices. They look like any good card shop with customer services of all kinds couched in humane, comfortable surroundings. No long lines, no crusty postal tellers, things move quickly. Indeed, we shipped dozens of boxes of books and research materials back to the states with great confidence in the service. And speaking of America, lots of Aussies ask me where I am from and I always say, "From the United States" - to which they invariably say, "Duh, that's easy, now can you be a little more specific? Like which coast, or something?" I just don't think of myself as having an accent but I guess I do have one! I spoke in earlier reports of Australia's rude drivers. They continue to confound and confuse us by their lack of courtesy in passing or overtaking or in turning. On the beach at Fraser we encountered a weird example of this. Another 4WD approached us on the beach head on. We were very close to the water's edge, traveling south. They were higher up on the beach away from the water's edge, traveling north (We drive on the left here, remember?) The rule for beach driving is that you put your blinker on to show which side you intend to pass the other car on and Nicole did just that. But the guy continued to head straight for us with lights flashing and with insistant gestures of his arms/hands aimed at trying to get us to move over for him. This was despite the fact that the only place to 'move over to' was into the surf! He had 60 feet of beach on his other side and we had no room whatsoever. It wasn't exactly rocket science. We were doing the right thing by using the turn signal to show that we were about to pass him on the seaward side and "right" side of the road. He did not signal and seemed to think that he had the right-of-way which no one really has on the beach! Go figure. I just wish I could say that that encounter was rare, but it wasn't. That reminds me of another bit of 4WD lore, which is the I-am-bigger-than-you rule of the road. When two vehicles approach a single lane passage way (of which there are many here), the bigger vehicle always has the right-of-way. In our case, the Landy is almost always bigger than the approaching vehicle, except when we encounter Road Trains: Road Trains are humongous tractor trailer rigs with two or three trailers attached that travel at the speed of light on roads from hell, carrying supplies to the hinterlands. These 'Truckies' are guys you never, ever want to pick a fight with. The wildlife is very different here, and far smaller in size, than anything one can see in South Africa, for example. In that regard it is disappointing not to see lions and leopards and big elephants at every turn like one does in Kalahari. I keep expecting it! But the Australian landscape and its inhabitants have their own charm and I hope that my slides will show this. We are shooting mainly from the Land Rover, meaning all of our equipment is stowed in the vehicle and we stop and get out to shoot, or we shoot from the vehicle's hood or top or whatever. It is not too often that we have to carry backpacks of equipment for very far - here in the Outback you can drive almost anywhere! I find myself using a circular polarizer a lot and also my 20-35mm F2.8 and my 80-200 F2.8 (all Nikon gear, guys) much of the time, that's how close the subjects are to us. Even the 16mm F2.8 fisheye is a wonderful lens to have along at times. We have lenses ranging from 16mm to 600 F.4 with 1.4X and 2X converters for them so, yes, we are prepared! Essential to our gear is the Wimberly Tripod Head. I cannot say enough good things about this head, both the big Wimberly and the smaller SideKick which I use often as a head for a monopod or for the tripod-collared 80-200mm. I have emailed Clay Wimberly, though, and asked him to design a way for me to attach a camera body to the Wimberly so that I don't have to switch heads midstream. This can be a real pain in the rainforest where bugs and leeches will get you if the heat and humidity don't get to you first. Timing is often critical, as you know, in photography, so I am trying to figure out a way to make the Wimberly do it all for me. I will see Clay Wimberly at NANPA's summit in Texas in January and he has promised to have something figured out by then. Aussies voted for the Queen and against the new Republic last week so I guess we will run into Queen Elizabeth next year when we are back in the country for more remote trekking.
Here are some typical Australian phrases that we hear over and over again. I think you will enjoy them: "Good on you, Mate." (when you have done a good job at something)
The list goes on but you get the drift. The language is sprinkled with colorful phrases and it is sometimes quite hard to understand an Aussie when they talk fast.
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