06.18.10

My routines in the morning have been pretty regular, and quite out of the norm for me. I am not a morning person, but considering that I am laying on the hard ground, am inside a stuffy tent that barely fits two people, and am woken early by birds, sun, and fellow campers, getting up early has been hardly a choice. Against my will, I have been waking up around 8am every day. Some days I am even ready to get going at 7! It has been kind of nice though. I like having the whole day to do things, even if it means taking care of a few emails and writing blogs for an hour or two in the morning waiting for my slug to get out of the tent.
One thing that has been very apparent to us as backpackers and campers is that nights are very useless to us. When you are camping, there is nothing to do when the lights go out, especially when your only light force is a wind-up headlamp that lasts for maybe 30 minutes. If we have electricity, we may spend some time on the computer, but that only gives entertainment to one person. Sitting on the ground normally limits that to 20 or 30 minutes worth of time before your neck starts pinching and your legs fall asleep and cramp. Going to bars, and doing anything that requires money, is out of the questions. Watching movies on the computer could be an option if the tent wasnt so tiny, but even then, your not likely to find a movie rental place to close to a caravan park. When the lights go out, so does everything and everyone else, which means the only thing we have left to do is sleep. Though I have been waking up early, we have also been going to bed fairly early as well.
Well, John and I decide that today we would go to the beach. It was the perfect day for it too! The sun was hot and there were only a few clouds in the sky. I wake up and head off to the bathrooms to clean up.
I was putting away my toothbrush when I felt something hit my foot. I figured I just dropped something from my toiletry bag and looked down briefly but didnt see anything but a leaf. Slightly confused, I looked back up and thought about it a little more. I was sure something dropped on my foot. I looked down at the leaf and thought huh, that could be a creature. I bent over a little, stared a little bit longer, and thought yeah, that leaf looks a lot like a frog! I stood back straight, having thought I looked hard enough at the leaf to realize it was nothing more then a leaf. The it occurred to me..we are in the rainforest, it very well COULD be a frog! So I squatted all the way down and stared at the leaf. It was a green tree frog! He must have hopped on my foot.
It was my first real, WILD tree frog sighting. I love these cute little guys. They dont look warty and slimy like other frogs do. He was on the shower side of the girls bathroom so I assumed that he may have been attracted to the warm humidity. I had an additional toiletry bag that was empty so I used that as a means of transporting him back outside. I would have held him, but, the general rule of thumb in Australia has been to not touch anything. The most deadly, poisonous and harmful creatures are the least colorful, smallest and un-assuming ones (all the different spiders, jelly fish, different corals and shells, snakes, etc).
When I was reading the book about foraging wild plants, it had said that the number one rule to eating wild plants was to never even touch it if you couldnt identify it as easily as you could tell the difference between an apple and an orange. I have applied that theory to animals as well. One of natures most cunnings tricks are the animals and plants that mimic harmless ones, and in turn are actually quite dangerous. I could easily tell that this frog was more exotic, and had assumed it to be a harmless tree frog, but wasnt 100%, so I was careful.
I got him to jump into the bag and I walked him back to the tent. We are in the very back of the resort and surrounded by the least amount of people and the most forest, which is where we would be the most safe.
On my way, he jumped out of the bag and onto my arm. When I went through my wild animal certification and licensing for Noah, I was taught to never shake, wiggle, or make quick movements when an animal, of any size, is on you or near you. It just makes things worse. Normally, they dont want to harm you, but if you scare them, they will out of instinct. Nor, do you ever let an animal go (or drop it) if you are handling it and it bites you. You then put the animal at greater risk, and sometimes make the bite worse by trying to pull away. You just hold on to the animal and stay relaxed. I could keep going on and on about procedure and protocol, however, my point is that even though poisonous was in the back of my mind, I was fairly sure he was safe. Plus, the poison is on their backs, so I was alright, as long as I didnt touch his back.
I carried him on my arm till we got to the tent when he jumped onto the side of the tent door. He hopped all around, until I got him back in the bag. It was when he got on the tent that I got a good look at him and could tell he was just a tree frog. John got a good look and then I put him on a tree close to our tent.
I was so excited to have this little frog jump on my foot. Silly, and stupid, but animal encounters are always fun, especially when you get to see wild creatures in their natural habitats. The tree frog on my foot had put me in an exceptionally good mood!
Once John got all ready, we started to head out. On my way, a little inch worm fell on my arm! Dont worry, I wont write 5 paragraphs about our encounter : ) I have seen inch worms several times in Ohio, but it never gets boring. I love how they stand up and sway back and forth before they decide to set back down to make one more little inch. I let him crawl on me for a second, most amused, and then found a nice leaf for him to inch away on. Its going to be a good day!
Not all the creatures out here are all that nice. A few things we have noticed is that there arent as many birds as we have been seeing. In the morning you can hear a few, but you dont see them flying around. There wasnt one seagull on the beach either. There arent that many bats either. I have noticed a few at night time, but not nearly as many as Cairns or Brisbane. We have started getting bug bites as well. The one night, I noticed both my hands and forearms were covered in what looked like chicken pocks! John thought that maybe I was having an allergic reaction to something. I wasnt irritated or itchy, so I didnt think they were bites, but they next day, all the redness was gone and all that was left was a little bite. Must be these little gnat things, because I havent noticed any mosquitoes, and all the bites are generally very tiny.
We are in the southern base of Crocodile country, so though they arent common in the area we are in, there are warning signs everywhere for straggling crocs that have been sighted.
However, the ocean we are swimming in is home to the worlds deadliest creature, the box jelly fish. They get to be about the size of a thumb, with their tentacles that are able to grow as long as 30 feet! These practically invisible jelly fish have the most potent, most painful, and most quick acting venom of any other animal. They are terrible difficult to study because of how hard they are to keep in captivity. If the so much as bump into a glass wall, they die.
The waters we are in are normally scrapped with a net in the early morning to see if any box jellies are in the waters, but they are out of season. No need for nets or warning signs, thank goodness. There are other jellies in the water, and plenty of vinegar stands throughout the beach, just in case you get a harmless sting.
Well, John and I head straight to the beach. Normally the sand on a beach is very light, dry and fluffy, but I notice right away how the sand is dark and wet. The beach is narrower, so I just assumed it was the high tide and early morning. Once we got closer, I start to see these tiny balls. Billions of them. All over the place. Covering the entire place. They look like dippin dots, except it is sand, not ice cream. At first I didnt even realize it was sand. I thought it was something else, like maybe something from seaweed. I touch it, and it breaks down. Sure enough, it is sand. I was in awe! I could not believe how many tiny balls there were! It had to be crabs, it had to be, but I wasnt convinced unless I could see them.
We did notice little holes and a large collection of balls near the hole. We laid down at a flat piece of sand where there were no balls and laid out. I couldnt relax though. I was too intrigued by the dippin dots! I just sat there and watch. It didnt take long before I spotted the crabs. They are SO camouflaged it was hard to stay focused. It was like looking at an optical illusion. Turns out, there is hide tide, every night. The water covers most, if not all of the beach. Putting all these crabs under water for a few hours, having them to shuffle in the sand to stay covered and protected. When the tide moves back out in the morning, the little crabs clear their little holes by putting the wet sand in balls and throwing it out! The moving water gives them lots of oxygen when they are under sea, but these ambidextrous breathers have a hard time doing much of anything under a compact of wet sand. They have to clear a hole in order to get oxygen, but prefer to stay in their holes, in the wet sand, to keep their gills moist. Because the sand is underwater all night long, during the day, it still stays very wet. In fact, everything we lay on when we are on the beach, gets soaking wet as well.
We were on the beach for only an hour when we got a phone call. It was Terry from Zinc. It was a restaurant that we actually past on our way to the beach. I had pointed it out to John and told him it was one of the places I had applied to last night before going to bed. Terry was excited to hear from me and wanted me to come in right away for a wait staff position so of course I did. Right off the beach, I went into this fancy place, hoping for a job. He had showed me around and mentioned how short of staff he was. He wanted me to come in for a trial run that night! The best part is that it is just down the road from Dougies. PERFECT!
We quickly run around town to grab black shoes and black pants. We get back home, I get ready, and off I go!
Zinc is one of the nicer restaurants in the area. Known for its finer menu and artistic display of food, it also caters to off-the-beach guests, and families traveling with kids (most people wouldnt bring their toddlers to a 5 star restaurant that serves liver pate and pork belly).
What can I say though. A first day is a first day. Is it ever good? I have so much experience in the field, and it definitely showed. However, things are different here then in America. The finer restaurants I have worked at always had to follow strict hygiene rules. You never put your fingers on a plate, nor do you ever carry a hot plate. You contaminate the plate when you hold it between your fingers, and carrying a hot plate can be dangerous for many obvious reasons. If you do carry a plate, you carry it from the bottom, however, all hot plates need to be carried and served with a large tray (which is a juggling act all in itself). You can easily tell what kind of standards your establishment follows by how they carry your plate.
Well, Rads, the lady training me, was less then friendly. Holding the plate, as I had known from the states, she yells at me that I am holding it wrong. She spent a good minute wiping the sides of the plate down, and then I go and put my fingers all over it. Good idea huh? I just did what she told me.
Another girl from Germany had started working the same night. Her name is Sonja. Pretty blonde girl, but was having a hard time with the language barrier. She asked me to clarify a few words out of the menu, you like seared and sourdough. She also explained that she was having an equally difficult time getting her RSA because she didnt understand a lot of what she was reading. Needless to say, she was having a hard time.
We were at the wait station which is just in front of the kitchen, and just behind table number one. The kitchen is not behind doors. Instead, the two walls that face the restaurant have a large slit in it that serve as a waiting place for the food once it is ready. (we also call it the pass) You can easily see inside, and you can easily hear all that is taking place. And just as closely the wait station is to table number 1, so is the kitchen.
My job was to run food. I had to know all the table numbers and chair positions. There is a caller who waits at the kitchen pass to clean the dishes with a napkin, then calls off what table number and what position the food will be going to. All this happens, right behind table number 1.
Well, Sonja and I were folding napkins, and in doing so, having normal human conversation. Where are you from? How long have you been here? Etc etc. We were talking just a bit above a whisper, when Rads comes storming past us like a tornado. She quickly whips around, and says, You need to be quite, no one at table one wants to hear your life story!. What is funny about this is that she said it much louder then we had been talking, and she was right next to table one. Table one was now looking at us.
Not to much longer after that incident, Rads, and her crazy running around; she accidentally trips right by the kitchen and yells OH SHIT!..right by table one. Funny, because I am sure if that was one of us, we would have gotten fired on the spot.
I was angry that she yelled at us. She could have nicely told us that we werent supposed to talk, but for whatever reason, she had to be disrespectful. I dont care if I am working as a doctor, a nurse, a waitress or the person who scrubs your toilet, there is never a reason to be disrespectful. EVER!. I have no tolerance for it.
I some how managed to survive my first day, and walked back to the resort, exhausted. We celebrated my new job with some bubbly and then went to bed. The hard ground wasnt looking so bad to me at this point.