It’s me back again. Phew, what a couple of weeks. My trip to Australia was at the end of a 10 month career break. I enjoyed myself enormously but on my return I started a challenging new job. I have very much been thrown in at the deep end and it has been tough time with long days and lots of travel. A couple of days off now and time to post again. It is only a brief rest as I’m driving my daughter back to university tomorrow and back to work on Monday.After Sydney we fly north to Cairns in tropical Queensland. My first visit to the tropics and there was so much to see. First stop was a mangrove boardwalk just south of Cairns airport. What an amazing experience. The mangrove here starts quite sparse with predominantly grey mangrove.
It then gets thicker and thicker.
Near the tideline is an impenetrable thicket of roots and stems.
It got quick dark and even scary. There is a near constant popping sound. This is made by the pistol shrimp but I didn’t see any. I did see Fiddler crabs. Here’s a male about to disappear into his hole.
Mud crabs which proved particularly difficult to photograph as they were all either covered in mud or well hidden under the mud.
I’ve since learnt that mangrove mud is one of the most productive habitats in the world. A teaspoon of mud from the coastal forests in northern Queensland contains over 10 billion bacteria. One scary fish in the dark gloom in the mangrove was the mudskipper. They slither and splash all round often pausing above water.
Looking in at the mangrove from the outside it is easy to see how thick it is.
More information of the Mangroves of Australia here:
http://www.mesa.edu.au/mangroves/default.asp
for best wishes with the job. I'm going to need it!
