Rainforest Day

Hi! This morning I got up early... dark out... to run and watch the sun come up. I found a trail along the water... lots of travelers sleeping on the beach. At one point I ran by a forest and the sounds from all of the different birds was DEAFENING!
After breakfast we had a debriefing meeting at the James Cook University. It was interesting to hear from the people who went to the needle exchange program. Apparently they will inject heroin FOR you here to prevent overdoses... as well as adminster methedone (sp?) to wean people off drugs. Brothels are also legal here, so the women are tested every 3 months. Interesting to note that the incidence of HIV is much lower here than in the states. Then we heard from the best speaker so far--a zoologist and applied entomologist who is also the world expert on Boxed Jellyfish. He is going to be on the Discovery Channel in a few months! We learned that the most feared species in the Great Barrier Reef is jellyfish--not SHARKS. Australia is home to the world's most venemous snake, spider, fish, and animal (male playtypus).... but the most venemous species by far are jellyfish--the Boxed Jelly in particular. If it stings you, it takes about 2 minutes for you to be dead as dirt. (The chances of this happening are the same as being killed in a car crash though). There is also a syndrome called Tirukaji Syndrome in which the effects of the sting are not manifested for 20 minutes. But when the symptoms do arrive, they are as painful as having a knife dragged though your skin. This pain does not subside for the next 20 minutes!!! Court and I were like, man, maybe we should have spent the $5 or whatever for the skin suit yesterday. Oh well! Life on the edge! This guy is totally fascinating and has a website:
www.jcu.edu.au/stingers.
After the presentation, we took a bus ride up a windy mountain into the rainforest to the mountaintop town of Karunda. Karunda is a village located at the top of the Barron Gorge in the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves of Australia. We shopped around the markets and had the best lunch in the world: BLTs on Focaccia bread. It was the best sandwhich I have ever had.
Karunda's main feature attraction is the SkyRail that takes you over the huge canopy bed of trees in the rainforest. The rainforest here is a world heritage site along Australia's eastern coast that stretches for over 901,600 acres. The most extensive area of subtropical rainforest in the world, CERRA's inhabitants include more than 200 rare and threatened rainforest species. It is amazing how tall the trees are! The competition for light and lack of space in the rain forest keeps driving them up and up!
We were able to get off the sky rail for a quick walk on a boardwalk though the forest. When we got back on, we came over the mountain in view of the entire GREAT BARRIER REEF! Our time at the rainforest ended with the simple act of planting a baby tree and leaving our mark in the soil.
The only bad part of the day is Court and I didn't get to ride the sky rail together and had separation anxiety. I kept turning and talking to her out of habit. But she wasn't there so now everyone thinks I just like talking to myself!
So we're off to a presentation on the aboriginies and a pizza party.
I carried my laptop around all day looking for a place to post pictures. The kiosks don't allow me to put the cable into my laptop so I will keep trying!
R