Monday, August 11, 2008

Mission Beach

All photos Copyright (c) 2008 Wendee Holtcamp
This was the sunrise the first morning I got to the Sanctuary Retreat, and wrote the entry describing my amazing glorious morning!

Not a great photo but this was the view out my window at the Sanctuary Retreat. Amazing!!!!

Native Australian water lillies. Notice the dragonfly! I thought these lillies are so beautiful!

The cassowary love spa. Cassowaries will come and play in the pond - they love to play in the water. Adrian Walker (see below) showed me this pond and said he's seen a male and female in there together and calls it the love spa! Ha ha!

Rainforest seeds collected by C4 (Community for Coastal and Cassowary Conservation) for planting in their nursery, and then used to reforest rainforest.

A cassowary walking by the Sanctuary Retreat. It isn't a good pic (out of focus)... but you get the idea of what they look like. This isn't a tame bird - it's completely wild. I got some better ones today but haven't had time to upload them.

A large pile of cassowary poo.

Fan palm in the rainforest.

An amethyst python - a little guy (about 5 feet long)

Adrian Walker, a local naturalist in Mission Beach, who helps people with their "snake problems," by catching them and releasing them back into the wild.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Wendee! Glad you got to Sanctuary...did you get one of the fancy rooms where everyone (well, maybe the cassowaries and an echidna or two...) can see you naked in the shower..!?

Looking forward to the course..

Happy travels.
Jo

Unknown said...

Yep I did have one of those rooms and showers - they are cool! I think, I hope anyway, that they built them so no one can actually see you from a trail or something??? The Sanctuary was just lovely, I want to go back some day!

Anonymous said...

He He! Hope your going to write an article for a US Mag on Sanctuary...the publicity would be great for them! Did you know that before Cylone Larry, there was no view of the ocean from the porch!?
Safe travels homeward bound - sounds like you are more than ready to get back.