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Lexington - 8/17/2017 16°.14’S.145°.32’E Headed to Lizard Island



We just spent two nights in Port Douglas Marina, actually the Reef Marina. I was surprised at how big and busy it was. It was a moderately large marina with a lot of big motor cruisers and even more excursion boats of any and all kinds. There was an 18 foot pontoon boat to rent to cruise up the river to fish, bird watch, or look for crocodiles. There were dive and snorkeling boats that were huge aluminum catamarans, guessing 125 feet by 75 feet holding hundreds of the crew’s closest friends to go out on the reef diving or snorkeling. It was booming at 7:30 in the morning and dead at 7:30 p.m. There were condos and resorts all over the place. We may have found where they got the idea for Hilton Head. We choose to rent a car and drove to the Daintree National Forest. It is a large expanse of land up the coast for many miles. There are lots of tours, hotels, restaurants, insect museums and whatever else you can imagine. We went to the Mossman Gorge area and did a walk in the national forest and a tour about the aboriginal culture. The walk in the rain forest was nice. It could have had more education. I would have loved to have had a recording of much more detail than the limited signs conveyed. The tour that was guided was more interesting to me. Our guide was part aboriginal and part Scottish. When I asked directly, he said he was looked down on somewhat by pure blood aboriginal people and European whites alike. This part of the park and the tours was set up to help the aboriginal people. There was a quota system to ensure that a high percentage of employees were aboriginal. There was a training center to educate the aboriginal people to qualify to work in the system. Our guide was fortunate that his grandfather was Scottish and was literate. His mother was an aboriginal native. His grandfather took up the cause of the aboriginal people and got a lot done legislatively. With that all in mind it was a shame that the pure blooded aboriginals looked down on our guide because in their eyes he was a “half cast”. It is hard to get beyond how we are taught as children. It is hard to get beyond relating to people different if they look markedly different (skin color). It will not be solved by removing a few confederate statues or banning far right demonstrations. I truly do not know the answers and sort of wish I had not written this post with no good conclusion. Just think about it in your own way. Please do not comment because I do not want to stir the pot. The photo is of our guide. May fair winds fill your sails with kind thoughts towards everyone!

Bob


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