Our New Neighbors

Hercules Moth

In the past couple nights we have had some new visitors to the center.  One was the Hercules Moth.  He at first seemed quite disoriented and not well by his erratic flying and haphazard collisions with us and walls but he soon settled.  He appeared at about 1 in the morning and a friend and I watched him all night as we were up anyway working and enjoying the rainforest at all hours of the night.  The rest of our group was so pleased when he was still there in the morning perched on a beam above the long tables we eat at.  This magnificent creature stayed around for another half a day before moving on and fluttering off into the forest. Our other visitor was much smaller, and much fluffier.  We believe that our friend was a Mellomie.  It was a small mouse-like creature that was very social.  He had a particular attraction to shoes but mostly my exposed ankles.  He climbed up my shoe and nestled himself as far down in my shoe as he could for warmth and within minutes had fallen asleep.  We let him sleep there while he was thoroughly photographed before being moved back into the grasses to find a more suitable place to spend the night than my ankle.

Beauty of Place

Sunrise at 5:50 am in Chillagoe

In the past week I have found one of the most beautiful and majestic places I have ever visited - Chillagoe, Queensland.  We had the privilege to spend two nights and the most part of three days exploring and learning about this area.  The history of the area, going from 10,000 people during a mining boom to the current 220, is quite interesting.  The land is equally interesting and simply beautiful.  The dry and hot climate lights up the golden grasslands under open Eucalypt forests and it is gorgeous.  The group spent two evenings at Balancing Rock, a spectacular structure in itself, watching the sunset from towering sharply eroded limestone spires.  It was a surreal experience that made the whole group truly appreciate the place we were in.  On the full day we were in Chillagoe a small group of us hiked to see the sunrise at 5 in the morning and the same evening we watched the sunset from Balancing Rock again.  It was an amazing day to see the whole passage of the sun and know that we had lived so much between those times.  If ever in northern Australia, add Chillagoe to your list!

A Jungle Visitor

Although it has been three weeks now since we have been in the Wet Tropics we had a siting today that was quite the welcome.  Another of the students came running to the main center and announced a python on the path that had eaten something.  Obviously, all work was dropped and we followed him back along the path.  Our expectations were surpassed by far though when we saw a 3½ meter Python on the path that had eaten something the size of a small watermelon.  It had consumed the animal earlier that night probably and our professors thought it was either a brush turkey or possum by the size.  After we all watched it for ten or fifteen minutes it got sick of us observing him and he managed to move surprisingly quickly back into the brush towards a small sunny clearing.

The Daintree

Here only a half meter little one

Our four day trip to the Daintree was a large success except for one very elusive creature we are determined to spot.  This is the Cassowary.  The Daintree being one of the wettest and lushest of the Australian rainforests is home to Cassowaries.  We stayed at Crocodylus Hostel which, in my book is a five star hostel, has sightings commonly as does the Daintree Discovery Center which we visited on three different occasions. Our visit to the Daintree was in no means in lack of spectacular creatures though because we came across both a large tree snake and four meter salt water crocodile while on a riverboat tour and a Water Dragon while at the hostel.