by Alex Bowles | Nov 20, 2017 | Alex, Australia
One of the most predominant animals at Heron Island is the green sea turtle. When they are born they make a rush to the water where about 10% will be eaten. After getting to the water they must get through the reef where about 75% are eaten. After they make it to the open sea they will spend ten years drifting until they are ten years old and the size of a dinner plate. When they reach that size, they go to a reef where they will spend the next ten years of their life. After those ten years, they go back to the open ocean and will return to the same beach or within 60 kilometers of the beach to lay their eggs. After the females lay their eggs at high tide in the night they will go back to the water and in a short period of time lay another batch of eggs. Each batch of eggs will have about between 150 eggs to 800 eggs. In one breeding season, one female can lay up to six batches of eggs.
by Jason Bowles | Nov 18, 2017 | Australia, Jason
It’s like staying in the middle of a Planet Earth photo shoot. Not the sterile, edited version that finally receives the Attenborough voice-over though. It feels more like the raw, uncut footage waiting for someone to put some order to it. There are so many competing stories at work here. At this time of year, hundreds of thousands of nesting birds await the turtle hatch. Not quietly, though. This many birds make quite a racket. And they are not shy. Birds constantly dart from here to there, just overhead. Very disconcerting when you consider the white-washing of the path you are following and the trees that line it. White-capped noddies are everywhere, making their nests in the pisonia trees that fill the interior of the island. Egrets wait near our dry rinse basin for the fresh water they know will fill it eventually. The general cacophony becomes an almost relaxing soundtrack, a constant reminder that Heron is not like any other island resort we have visited. Here, the birds are not a nuisance but an important part of the appeal of the island. Most of the birds, anyway. The seagulls can be quite annoying. Early in the morning, gulls will march up on to our deck, stand at our closed door and yell at us. They are probably used to food offerings, just to make them go away.
Wildlife is what Heron Island is all about. It sits on the southern end of the Great Barrier right at the Tropic of Capricorn, far enough south to avoid the coral bleaching that has been plaguing most of the reef. Sharks and rays are common, but it is the turtles that have made Heron famous. Thousands of loggerhead and green sea turtles return here every year to lay their eggs. We were fortunate to have loggerhead turtles at least three feet in diameter digging nests right in front of our beach house. In a couple of months, the eggs will hatch, and countless baby turtles will run the formidable gauntlet posed by the hungry birds anxiously awaiting the hatch. With so many natural spectacles on offer, it is not surprising that the island is also home to a permanent research center affiliated with the University of Queensland.
by Maile Bowles | Nov 17, 2017 | Australia, Maile
In Australia, they celebrate Christmas in their Summer!
by Maile Bowles | Nov 17, 2017 | Australia, Maile
We went to the zoo and saw cockatoos and saw a lot of them in the wild. Seeing them all made me want one so I settled on a stuffed animal. Tequila rides with style.
by Jason Bowles | Nov 13, 2017 | Australia, Jason
Room with a view
Fifteen hours, non-stop from Los Angeles—that’s a long flight. Not our longest, but close to it. Sydney is different, though. Usually the further you get from home, things change. The longer the flight, the more exotic the destination. Not Sydney. The most remarkable thing about the fifteen-hour flight to Sydney is that, on arriving, you feel like you never left home. Not that it is like any one place, it just doesn’t feel “foreign”. It’s not the language—English is the official language elsewhere, but when in London or Singapore there is no question that you have left the United States far behind.
Arrived in Sydney this morning, checked into the Quay West Suites. Easy to settle into vacation mode when you have this iconic view from your room!
by Jason Bowles | Nov 11, 2017 | Australia
Leaving Las Vegas
Departing Las Vegas for Sydney, Australia.
