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Transcription: [00:10:51]
there are believed to be more than 500 islands and cays along the Barrier Reef
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that had never seen the footprint of any Robinson Crusoe.
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It's a very beautiful section of the earth and a very inexpensive one to visit.
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Wild goats, as we mentioned a moment ago, are found here in considerable numbers.
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And as we come to the southernmost end of Brampton,
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we see that there are some stiff tides upon occasion,
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and you have to gauge the time when you will cross from one side of the island to the other.
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Returning to Brampton just before sunset, we go out onto the Barrier Reef for fossicking,
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and that's the word that they give when you're going out after coral.
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Now ladies and gentlemen, up until very recent years it was believed that coral was a plant.
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It is not a plant. It is an animal, and is a cousin of the jellyfish.
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Coral, the aggregation of limey skeletons of untold numbers of tiny sea animals, take a multitude of forms.
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They are found in all waters. Even as far north as the fjords of Norway.
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But the reef-building type only thrives in tropical shallows.
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During the daytime, the corals will retire to their stone houses.
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But at night, or with the rising tide, they will stretch out tentacles
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to poison and bring plankton to their mouths, which they feed upon.
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A two-hour journey from Brampton Island back to Mackay,
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and then in our plane to the far north, in Northern Queensland, to Cairns.
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At Cairns we will take a little boat, 16 miles to Green Island.
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And Green Island was discovered by Captain Cook in 1770.
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And more tourists have visited it than any other island or cay on the Barrier Reef.
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Each morning at 9:30 a boat heads for Green Island, getting there at 11,
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and leaving the island returning to Cairns at three in the afternoon.
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A magnificent sandy beach, and here you can get a