Wait Awhile

A bat flower orchid

The buttress root helps the tree stay upright.

A dragon on the left side of the tree trunk.

Overlooking a lake where we saw archer fish in the water.

A farmer's field and pond where we stood for an hour and saw 3 platypuses.

Today we were picked up from our Bay Villas and driven to Cairns where we were to meet our "Wait Awhile" tour guide.  Unfortunately none of us brought the information as to when and where we were to meet them. A very helpful woman at the city tourism desk called Wait Awhile and helped us figure it out.  Most every Australian we met on our trip was very pleasant.  Five times I was told that I sounded like I was from Canada.  "Close," I'd agree.  "Canada is next door to Minnesota."  Evidently we didn't have the southern drawl or the Eastern clip so they assumed were were from Canada. In Cairns we had two hours to wait before our tour started so we could grab lunch or walk around the marina. I walked around the marina.  Families were gathered there to swim and enjoy picnic lunches.  Terry was our tour guide and from the beginning we knew he was one of the better tour guides.  We saw 23 bird species during our day with Terry and learned about that many new Australian slang words as well.  He drove us in  his SUV to a suburb of Cairns where we drove up and down the lanes scouting out birds and wallabies.  He drove us uphill into the tablelands where we stopped at an inn on a lake for Devonshire tea with scones topped with clotted cream and jam.  He took us for a walk in the rain forest where, true to the name of the forest, it rained.  He gave us jackets or umbrellas.  We saw a Cairns bird-wing butterfly - the largest in the area. As we walked I saw him pick bugs off his lower legs. I asked him what was bugging him.  "Leeches," he replies.  I stop right there and like a total nerd, tuck my pant legs into my socks.  "What good will that do?" he scoffs at me.  "It will prevent the leeches from going up my legs!" I reply.  During the walk I saw him pick at least a dozen leeches off of himself. I ask him to show me one.  He holds up a little black inch worm - just like our green inch worms only these bite and suck your blood.  We ask him to hold it so we can take a picture.  He tries but the little bloodsucker is so determined to take a bite out of him he tosses it aside.  The leeches don't look that bad.  Then I feel a pinch in the crook of my left elbow in the exact spot they withdraw blood samples at the clinic.  One of them got me!  I pull it off and toss it away.  I pick off two more and start taking these leeches more seriously.  We walk through the rain forest and see buttresses on the tree trunks.  Because all the nutrients of the rain forest are near the surface, the tree roots don't go very deep making them susceptible to falling over.  The trees have adapted by growing buttress roots to help them stay steady.  The rain forest is great but the leeches are not.  We get into the car to drive to the next lake.  As Terry drives he looks over at me and picks a leech off my right cheek.  "You don't want to get these in the eye ball," he says, "Check your faces!"  I pull down the mirror and frantically check my face and neck and whatever else I can see.  I don't find anymore.  I only had 3 or 4 leeches total but that was enough for me.  He takes us to another crater lake. From an outlook we can see archer fish.  Archer fish have a tube like mouth that points upward.  If they see a tasty insect sitting on a low hanging branch they spout water out of their mouth knocking it down into the water and eat it.  Terry wants us to see the turtles too.  These soft shell turtles are known for being able to breath out of their anus.   The turtles are not showing up.  Terry tosses some gravel into the lake.  In two minutes we see six turtles come to check out what was falling into the lake.  As we drive around the tablelands we learn that this is the dairy center of the area.  We see lots of dairy cows and barns around here mixed in with coffee fields and tea fields.  Wild banana trees grow in the ditches.  Terry told us about the cane toads.  I had thought that the rabbit was the worst invasive species to come to Australia but Terry said the cane toads are much worse.  The cane toad was brought in deliberately to take care of a bug affecting the sugar cane production.  Not only did the cane toad not take care of that particular bug but it has gradually spread over the entire continent.  The cane toad has lots of predators but only once.  Like other tropical toads, if you were to lick one you would get very sick and mentally altered.  Eating one cane toad will kill you.  I saw at least a half dozen of these cane toads on my trip.  Most looked to weigh at least a quarter pound and were dead on the road.  There is not much anyone can do to control them.  In one experiment the researchers took cane toads, removed the poisonous glands, salted them down good and set them out.  When animals came to eat them they disliked the salty taste and hopefully learned cane toads are not edible.  Although successful, it is a Herculean task to teach every single animal on a large continent not to eat cane toads.  It remains to be seen how this cane toad problems plays out.  Terry showed us other plants that said would make us blind or paralyze us.  As dusk fell he took us to a farmer's field.  We stood next to a pond.  I watched the shorebirds with my binoculars while he pointed out a insignificant rise of the pond weeds and said, "That is a platypus."  I didn't see anything but a pond leaf move.  Or he would point to bubbles rising in the water and say, "There is a platypus down there."  Here is where the name of the company comes into play - Wait Awhile.  We waited an hour and had two slight glimpses of a platypus just before it hunched up and dove down.  We were about to leave when a platypus came up and floated on top of the water so we could get a good look at him.  His tail was toward us.  Then the platypus gently turned to the side so we could see his tail, back, face and beak.  After a minute or so of that view he turned to face us.  What a nice platypus he was.  We were very lucky to get such a good luck at a platypus.  Off we drove to the 1911 Hotel in Atherton for dinner.  Both Pope John Paul II and Prince Charles have dined here.  Terry recommended the steak as the best choice and my friends had huge t-bone steaks.  I had the gnocchi which also was very good.  Terry wasn't feeling the best (intestinal problems) so he had squid.  Who has squid when they don't feel good?  Now that it was dark the real fun began.  Terry took us to another rain forest (no leeches in this one) and supplied us with huge flashlights and battery packs.  We walked around a 500 year old curtain fig tree.  We shined out lights up into the trees looking for the reflection of eyes.  We saw lizards and bugs, geckos and a skunk striped possum.  We had fun shining the light up into the eucalyptus forest.  I was walking along the side of the road and saw a red orb shine back at me.  I said, "I see a red eye."  Sure enough, there was a tree kangaroo up there about 30 feet from the ground.  I watched him holding my binoculars with one hand and the flashlight with the other.  We were very lucky to see one as they are rare.  Most Australians see them only in zoos. After an hour or so of exploring the forest in the dark it was time for us to go home.  On the ride home down the hill from the tablelands, Terry gives us a strangely detailed list of all the car accidents on this road and who died where.  We really enjoyed his tour.  Here is a list of some of the Australian slang we learned from Terry:  chin wag = chat, CBD = central business district or downtown, snazzy = awesome, squidgy = untrustworthy, bread = occupation