Fooled by the Stars ...

Oh my gosh I’m full. I picked up a kilo of shrimp at the store the other day and cooked up a batch for dinner tonight. I’d intended on cooking/eating the whole thing tonight, but failed on two accounts. First, it wouldn’t all fit in the pot. And secondly, by the time I finished eating the first half, there was no need to cook more. The dozen or so jumbo shrimp I’d already eaten were more than enough.

I’d worked up my appetite hiking an area called “The Boulders” about thirty miles south of Cairns. A blurb in my guidebook described it as water-worn boulders near the town of Babinda. I’d finished tourist shopping in Cairns and thought I’d give it a try.

The trailhead sign told what tropical flora and critters to look out for. And as I was describing the little red and green lizards to my mini-movie camera the biggest butterfly I’ve ever seen in my life flew into view. It was like something you see in a museum. It was huge. Then there was another; and then there was a different, smaller one. I’d walked into butterfly heaven. I spotted four different kinds, the largest being as big as the circle formed by touching both thumbs and index fingers together and the smallest was about the size of a quarter.

The boulders were impressive too. They’d been worn down by the massive amount of rainfall this area receives each year. They’ve stopped calling the Melbourne Drought a drought, because the local news says their dryer weather pattern is predicted to last fifty or more years. But up here it rained over eight meters last year. This is the tropics.

On the way back to the trailhead, I was poking at a climbing palm to see if it had a thick, hard surface when a six inch long stick cricket launched from his hiding place (in plain sight), bounced off my chest and flew up into the trees. I knew to keep my hands and feet away from murky waters and anything that moved. But how about the things that can move, but don’t?

Back at the hotel, I headed out to the pool area to swim off some of that dinner. In addition to the two pools outside my flat, there’s a 100 meter lap pool further down, and finally another smaller one in the very back. I swam ten laps yesterday and am feeling it in my shoulder today. So today’s swim was simply breast strokes and back crawls.

Moving at a slower pace, I was better able to enjoy the wildlife surrounding me. There’s all manner of frogs here. And a spider that dwarfs the largest of butterflies has set up home along the wall of the next unit down. But tonight’s entertainment wasn’t insects or amphibious reptiles. It was the birds.

In addition to the playful squawks of the smaller birds, there were calls from three distinct (four actually, but I’m pretty sure the fourth was answering the call from one of the other three) larger ones. It sounded like a Tarzan movie out there as I swam slowly back-and-forth.

I was enjoying the scene so much, I lost track of time and forgot to count my laps. And, while I was out there doing my slow crawls the stars come out. I’d seen Orion as I walked back up from the beach last night, but wasn’t sure I’d be able to find him again from this limited vantage point. Finally, it got dark enough that Orion’s belt became clearly visible directly overhead.

Having found one familiar constellation, I followed the belt over to where Taurus the Bull should be, but the brightness of a planet was blocking the view. I figured it was either Venus or Jupiter. And while trying to decide I caught myself laughing out loud. The bright object down Orion’s belt wasn’t a planet; it was Sirius, the Dog Star. The southern hemisphere had fooled me again. I was looking at Orion upside down. A crescent moon was blocking out an upside down Taurus, and Gemini was behind the trees out of sight. The Southern Cross must be somewhere nearby. Where’s that 4th Grade astronomy book when you need it?