Done and beyond...

I finished schoolwork shortly after the last post, and spent the next few days with SFS having fun unwinding. We had a free day where we went to Atherton for the last time and played 'sport'. We usually played sport on our Friday afternoons out, and over the semester I'd become a decent ultimate frisbee player. Then our interns planned a 'magical mystery tour' day for us, including Nandroya Falls, Mongali Dairy, and the Millaa Millaa lookout. At the falls, we got into the freezing water and swam the short distance to under the falls. Unfortunately it was so cold that a friend had an asthma attack- good thing a classmate Laura and I were close to pull her over to shore. The view and hurricane-like experience was amazing though. Mongali Dairy had a fantastic teahouse and at the lookout we enjoyed the beautiful views and had fun taking pictures of us jumping off the fences. The next day was a debrief and we had a goodbye dinner- two of our classmates made a fantastic video with pictures and music and I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. That night I stayed up until 3 friends who were leaving on the early flight. I flew to Sydney the next day (Friday) with several SFS students.

So far, my travel buddy Nathan and I have walked all over central Sydney and seen the sights. On Saturday there was a fantastic (free) walking tour with a University student that ran it off tips, Nate and I were the only people who showed up, so we had a personalized 3 hours of Sydney facts and trivia. We went to a guided Opera House tour and went inside the concert halls and did some more exploring of the city. On Sunday we went to the Australian Museum of Natural History- my favorites were exhibits on skeletons (including marsupials) and dinosaurs. Then we headed to Chinatown and walked the bontanical gardens. Okay, maybe took a nap there too. Today we went to the Aquarium and Wildlife World, saw all sorts of animals including jellyfish, sea cows (we stood in a tunnel and they saw over), eels (big ones, Dad), koalas, and my personal favorite when a Cassowary chased a pademelon. This afternoon we went to Manly Beach (named because Captain Cook apparently thought the rocks were 'manly') by ferry. Each night we've been meeting up with the other 8-10 SFS students for supper and hanging out in the city, it's been really nice to reconnect with them after each day. One more day to finish exploring and then I'm on my flight home!

Reef Trip #2 and DR Wrap-Up

Last weekend I had my second experience on the Great Barrier Reef, and it was as fantastic as the first! We arranged to spend our open Sunday on the Reef- we booked as a 27ish person group on a ship that held over 100 day trippers. The ship took us out 60 nautical miles to two different locations. I had arranged (along with a lot of the other students) to do an 'intro dive' as well as snorkeling. The intro divers were split into several groups and I was in a later group so I went snorkeling first. I was a little gutsier this time around and was more willing to hold my breath and go under than I was in the Whitsundays. The fish hanging out in the reef were a little different from the Whitsundays too- individual fish were the same, but instead of schools of large yellow fish, there were schools of tiny sparkling blue fish. Cool all the same. After some snorkeling, my scuba diving group was called up. We had received a basic briefing on techniques and what the 'tests' would be.

They just strapped the gear on us, helped us sit down on the back of the boat, our instructor popped out of the ocean, told the four of us to put our regulators in and had us jump in. We knew from the briefing that there was a bar for us to hold on to right under the ship. The first breath under water was so weird, as were the bubbles that came out of the respirator as I breathed out. We were warned to not hold our breath under water- because of the pressure on the air in our lungs- I think it also helped me stay calm to keep taking slow breaths. We hung on as the instructor had us do the 'tests'- what to do in case water got in our masks and respirators. Then we were asked 'the $60 question'- an okay sign to keep scuba diving (or get a refund and just be charged the snorkel price). Of course I said okay- it was too cool to back out.

We started off with the instructor in the middle with the 5 of us linking arms. This was because it was a little difficult at first to control our buoyancy at first- the tanks made it all a little strange. After a few minutes, and although Elizabeth on one side of me kept sinking, our instructor let us go, and motioned for us to follow. It was unbelievable to stay underwater for 30 minutes, just slowly paddling around with our flippers. We got to touch coral (carefully) and the sand on the bottom of the ocean. We probably went 8 or 9 meters down. The dive company had an underwater photographer, and we posed next to a giant clam and an anemone with Nemos. When we were getting to come back up, I really didn't want to and would have rather stuck around under the boat- tons of fish were just hanging out where it was warm. Plus, the tank was a lot easier to handle when I was in the water.

I'm pretty sure this is me...

The second site one of the staff guys gave a snorkeling tour- image 50 or 60 snorkelers swimming after one guy with a lifesaving tube- which acted as a kind of tour 'umbrella' to gather us all. It was totally worth following him around like a... guppy? because I got to hold two sea cucumbers (image a giant dark cucumber, except an animal), one of which was spiky. I also volunteered to stick my hand in a giant clam (I wasn't really thinking...). The tour guy swam down to the bottom with my and stuck my hand in- the giant clam (a meter long?) shut. Don't worry, it didn't hurt. The inside of the clam is made of soft muscle, so it just felt velvety and creepy. All in all, the day on the Reef was a huge success!

This is Spencer, one of my fellow students, next to Wally. Wally is a Wrasse who hangs out at the second site. I got to pet him when he rammed up against my legs when I was sitting and putting on my fins. Don't worry- doesn't eat humans.

As for the rest of the week, the Directed Research projects have been in full swing. I was finishing up the rough draft of my 25 page paper early this week, prepared a 12 minute presentation, gave the presentation yesterday and I just turned in my 'final' rough draft. The real final draft is due tomorrow. What I really can't believe is that in a week from now, I'll be done with the program and traveling in Sydney!

Daintree!

Group picture of students in front of Daintree river/coast lookout.

This past week we had our last large trip. The Daintree is another Wet Tropics World Heritage Area just like the rainforests that surround the Centre, but it is further North and in the lowlands right next to the ocean. The Daintree is also a little bit different than the Atherton Tablelands because it is virtually undeveloped. The Tablelands has protected pieces of rainforest, but lots of paddocks and houses. Very few people live in the Daintree area, especially north of the Daintree river where the local shire council decided to not allow an electrical grid. Back to that later.

On our drive to Daintree,we stopped at Mossman Gorge, a rainforest State Park with a river running through it. After a long swim break wearing ourselves out with the currents, we were back on the road. Before taking the ferry across the Daintree River- no bridge- we went to the Daintree Icecream Factory where native fruits are grown and made into delicious ice cream.

River at Mossman Gorge- had to swim through a strong current to get to the rock.

We spent some time on the beach, no swimming because of stingers (jellyfish), and got settled in Crocodylus, the 'backpacker's resort' that we were staying at. On the way to the beach, one vanload of students got to see two cassowaries dart into the rainforest! Picture large cabins, but with a waterproof tarp for a roof and thick mesh for walls. The next day was packed.

The day started with a trip to the Daintree Discovery Centre, a privately run rainforest boardwalk and information center. There were lots of paths to explore, a platform tower to get a good view and a theatre with informative videos.

It's a statue, don't worry!

Afterward we went to a plot of 3b rainforest, mesophyll vine forest with dominant fan palms, in case you wanted to know (we had to learn all about rainforest types earlier in the semester). An entire rainforest with 15-20 foot tall palms overhead, and a ground layer that I could actually walk through. It was a really neat change.

The fan palms that dominate type 3b rainforest.

We got to spend a lot of time on the beaches and even on the famous Cape Tribulation. In the afternoon the group split in half and took turns visiting our professor's home and going on a Croc Cruise. Siggy, my ecology professor, and her husband live in the Daintree when she isn't teaching at SFS. Their house is amazing- running on its own power and water. There is a solar power tower, it has to be higher than the rainforest canopy. Their bathroom is located on a deck (there's no one around anyway) and they have to keep books in an old glass front refrigerator because of the humidity.

The Croc Cruise was equally fascinating. The Daintree River emptys out into the ocean, creating a portion of estuary zone. This crocodile habitat is lined by awesome looking mangroves. We were in a 20 person tour boat, and saw two crocodiles! The female was just hanging out on the shore, but the male was actually swimming. It was huge- over three meters.

Ocean-side of the Daintree.

Upriver- Queensland's 3rd highest peak!

Male croc

The last day, on the way back to the Centre, we stopped at 'Wild Wings and Swampy Things', a wetland nature refuge. It was very, very warm out. Since then we've jumped into a finals weekend. Saturday several assignments were due and we had our first final. The second and third finals were today (Monday).

Sunday however, we got a day off! Most of the students took off to make Didgeridoos, an aboriginal instrument. I was with the minority who went to Granite Gorge, a privately owned and awesome boulder covered creek gorge. Seven of us went, spending most of the afternoon at a swimming holes that we'd hiked to, playing in the (small) rapids and going up and over huge boulders to find more. Pictures of that will be in a seperate entry. Finals are done and over with, so it's time for me to take a break!

Picture from April Fools Day:

Easter- Mission Beach

Across the street from our campsite at Wongaling Beach.

After a long week of independently working on directed research projects, we left for our relaxing Easter weekend on Saturday afternoon. We were heading to Mission Beach, beach area about 2.5 hours south of the Centre. For the entire semester, we've been spending one of our two hours of free time Friday afternoons playing games of Ultimate Frisbee. It's a lot like soccer (same-ish size of field) with different strategy and crossing a line instead of making a goal. Our interns arranged for us to meet up with James Cook University, an Australian Uni which is in Townsville, at the halfway point of Mission Beach. The tournament, a total of four 1 hour games, took place yesterday-Australian Easter.

We hadn't played frisbee in about a month... so quite a few of the students were intimidated out of playing. Both JCU and SFS students registered as either beginner, intermediate, or expert, and we were divided on to teams in equal numbers. Apparently, also in relatively equal numbers of girls. I couldn't believe that a game as mellow as UF would be ridiculous enough to require females on either team to guard each other, and not the guys who might be more at their skill levels. Anyway, I was on a team with several JCU guys, SFS intern Kaitlin, and Quinn from SFS. Seven people play on the field at once- we also had two subs.

The defensive strategy is man-on-man defense, following one person around the whole time. Because the other teams had 3 girls and we only had 2, both Kaitlin and I were on the field for the whole hour for most games. I suppose it was a positive for our team- we covered all of our marks well enough that one of the team captains we played against privately asked us to back off of their girls a little so they could get the frisbee. Our 'hat' (mixed) team won all three of our mixed games- tournament champions. Then we played a short SFS vs. JCU game. In our defense, they had a much larger pool of experienced players to choose from, an all-star squad. We had beginners on our team (me). We lost 3-7, but held our own for a good while.

The rest of the weekend was very nice. The night before the game, we spent the night at a campsite right next to the ocean. I managed to resist swimming until after our frisbee games though, doing some body surfing and playing in the ocean with the other students. What a strange Easter!

April Fools and Homestay

I know, I know. April 1st may have been a week ago, but I've been keeping busy with my Directed Research project.

More photos for this blog will be posted in the next few days.

Last Wednesday started off with a bang when we discovered that our cabin door was latched from the outside. At 6am on my only sleep-in day this semester. I'm not completely sure why all of the cabins have exterior locks, but they turned out pretty handy for some pranksters. As our cabins are on 2 meter stilts, we only had 2 window exits onto the front porch. By the time we popped out a screen, I was awake enough to investigate other prank possibilities. In the girls' bathrooms the showerheads were missing so I went over the the boys' to borrow, and discovered that there was green dye in the showerheads. We decided to leave them for the boys to experience. I headed down to the Centre to get some breakfast and found that all 40-odd pairs of spare shoes that students leave down at the Centre were lined up one by one, toe to heel in a meandering loop down one side of the building. Both of the fridges were 'dressed up' with clothes magneted to them and hats with wigs set on the top. Also, the bell that is used to call mealtimes and classes was missing. It later turned out to be strung high between two trees on our driveway. Best of all, I was told to walk up to the carpark. All three vans' tires were removed- they were sitting up on blocks. The tires were on top of the carpark roof. A little later, the site manager turned on his ceiling fan and flour covered the room.

By the end of the day, I had learned how to put tires on (quickly too, we had to leave for a field lecture). It took a week to get the bell back.

Just a few days ago was homestay weekend for the students here. We were set up in twos, threes and fours and matched up with local families. I was assigned to 'the stained glass lady' with my friend Nate and another student, Sandra. The couple, Christina and Dermot, were very nice, smart, fun people. Christina is indeed the stained glass lady, teaching 5 classes a week to community members out of the studio behind their house. Dermot is a consultant on Aboriginal-Environmental issues, especially working to allow the management of Parks and protected areas by Aboriginal peoples. Neither was originally Australian, but I would trade this funky couple for any other Australian family. They loved to talk after dinner, once telling us how they embarked on a 3 month sailing trip to Indonesia with another couple, each couple bringin a baby under the age of 2. On a 30 foot sailing boat. In any case, we went on a few hikes and spent a fair amount of time relaxing with books and 'playing' in the glass studio. Christina also makes glass beads and after giving us a tutorial with the torch, she said we should feel free to 'play' to our hearts' content. I ended up with 15 or 20 glass beads and a small stained glass piece by the end of the weekend. I didn't really want to go back to a cabin full of girls and cooking for 30 after the weekend, but here I am.

My beads!

I've been keeping busy with interviews and distributing questionnaires for my Local Foods research project.

Lambshead

Another exciting weekend, I climbed my second mountain! The peak was called Lambshead, the highest peak in the Lambs Range, and it "presents a challenging adventure for the experienced bushwalker" according to guidebooks. It was certainly less steep of a climb than the Pyramid, a similar elevation spread over a 7km hike to peak (instead of Pyramid's 1km). Which meant that I could actually enjoy the view this time, not hyperventilate, and carry on a conversation.

Lunch time!

It was a lot of fun, with five different lookouts. Some were huge boulders with flat tops to sit on and a couple were basically cliffs that you could stand at the edge of. We took the most scenic lunch break ever at the top of the mountain and by the time we got back down it had been seven hours since the start. A few people almost got to do part of the hike again- one of our regular loners had not come back with the group. Search parties had been organized and were starting to be sent out as she turned up, not twenty minutes behind the last group to arrive. We took a dip at Davies Creek before the hour and a half drive back.

View from the top. Just over the mountain range past the lake, you can see Cairns (upper middle) and then the ocean.

As far as what I've been up to, lectures and directed research projects would be the answer. In addition to our second half of classes, we have a 4 credit class where the students divide according to research interest and conduct research. My project supervisor is the environmental socio-econ. professor and my project is about local foods in the Atherton Tablelands. I'm doing a case study instead of a typical scientific experiment which means that I'll be doing several sitdown interviews and putting out a few questionnaires. In fact, I've already done some surveying at the Yungaburra markets this past Saturday. The market travels around the Tablelands and is in Yungaburra once a month, so we used it for the research. The market was a great combination of arts and crafts fair, clothing stalls, and food from wholesalers (who buy farmers' leftovers). Back to research for me!

Whitsundays!

Warning.
MASSIVE blog entry!

All photos are property of Nathan Sell,
who has an amazing camera!

All of the students had mid-semester break starting on Thursday the 19th, we were dropped off in Cairns in the morning. My break group consisted of myself and two friends: Christy and Nate. We were off to a set of 73 islands associated with the Great Barrier Reef, the Whitsunday Islands. We stopped at the grocery and then caught a bus to the Wicked office. Wicked is a slightly sketchy camper van rental company, and the only place in Australia that will rent to a bunch of twenty-year-olds. The (VW-style) vans have slogans and paintings all over the sides often incorporating sex or swearing, and we were really, really hoping for a clean van. Not to mention an automatic- we requested but there were no guarentees.

Me driving the Wicked van. That's right, the steering wheel is on the wrong side.

After waiting quite a while at the office, we were told we were getting a 'standard'. We protested and they said 'standard' meant no air-conditioning. And then they checked and saw that we were assigned a manual. Then they said that some Americans coming in later had an automatic assigned, but they really needed it because they were American. Our response was, "WE'RE Amercian!" Finally, we convinced the office workers that we were pitiful and we were able to steal the automatic, which found out was supposed to go with some of our classmates. No regrets. Also, it was John Lennon on the side. No horrible slogans!


The road trip down was fine, after we adjusted to the left side. The only issues we had were drifting slightly off the road to avoid the oncoming traffic, but we had that sorted quickly. Not to mention our secret weapon, Nate, who is used to driving on the left side at home (US Virgin Islands). The drive was about eight and a half hours. We reached Airlie Beach by 9pm and cruised for parking. Our plan was to find a slightly deserted area, park, lock the doors and sleep. After grabbing some food we decided on a public parking lot that had a no camping sign (which every parking spot/lot had) but had ten-ish other camper vans. We were counting on safety in numbers. I woke up at 6am and bought a parking pass, which came in handy 20 minutes later when a Parks official rapped on our window.

I hopped over the front seat and opened the door. He said that it was nice that we bought a pass, but he was just warning all of the vans in the area that if they were camping a $150 fine per person was possible. He left, and we thanked our lucky stars that it wasn't a fining day. We swam in the swimming pool and used the outdoor showers and killed time in Airlie, a very nice little tourist town.

We boarded Habibi, our 70 ft sailing yacht, with the other 17 passengers. There were three expert crew- one good cook, a skipper and a jack-of-all-trades. We sailed out to our first overnight protected bay and had a barbecue. The ship was a little tight, but comfortable for our 2 day 2 night journey. It was windy the whole weekend which made for some bumpy and breezy sails, but the skipper kept us on the protected side of the islands. Our berths, while semi-private, were on top of/next to the engine which meant it was incredibly hot at night. We hung out on deck almost the entire weekend reading books and just enjoying the sights.

The berths!

Our first night on the ship.

Saturday morning we were up at 6, snorkeling at 8. We went to Manta Ray Bay first, and it was amazing.

Pre-snorkeling

There were huge meter long Wrasses, apparently friendly. All I know is that when Nate accidently bumped into my back, I freaked out, envisioning a over-enthusiastic giant fish. The coral coated the sea floor and was amazing beyond words. There were so many different species of fish, and a school would totally envelope me. After an hour and a half, we headed off to Blue Pearl Bay. It's nicknamed 'the Zoo' because of the number of fish. The coral was even more shallow- I could have kicked it while treading water! And probably 5x more fish than the previous site. And... I saw a shark! It was sneaking behind an equally large (meter) fish about ten feet under Christy and I. We were the only people on our ship to be so lucky.

Fish seen, in case anyone wants to surf Google pictures: Butterfly fish, Angelfish, Surgeonfish, Fusilier, Spotted Coral Grouper, Parrotfish, Wrass, and a 'reef' (tawny nurse) shark.

I had just seen a huge fish!

Me on the left, Christy on the right

Parrotfish. They eat the coral (with the algae) and produce sand. Not a fish I was letting my fingers anywhere near.

Who needs SFS? I'll go to Zebrafish and Fusilier school.

That afternoon we went to Langston Key, a beach-island. It was also beautiful, with crystal clear water. After parking in Nara inlet, checking out 2,500 year old Aboriginal paintings in the morning, we did a 'rip-roaring sail' back to the mainland on Sunday. It was fast and so exciting!

Langton Key- a mostly sand island with crystal blue water!

Nara Inlet- caves with 2,500 year old Aboriginal paintings

The drive back was fine- we stopped at Tully Sunday night. This was a planned stop... which requires a backstory. By chance over Christmas break, Mom and I watched this off the wall documentary about a quirky sculptor in Queensland who built a giant Golden Gumboot. The sculptor got into a fight with the guy who designed the matching frog. We watched the whole thing, and then wondered if everyone I met would be as strange.

As Christy, Nate and I drove to Airlie, Nate noticed the sign for the Golden Gumboot along the way. I was very excited, but a little doubtful. So, we stopped in Tully on the way back and THERE IT WAS! We stayed the night at a campground and had a photo-fest in the morning. We drove to Cairns Monday morning, returned the van with a sigh of relief. It had been having some serious trouble turning over- Nate had to do a trick to get it to stay alive each time we turned it on. The rest of the day was spent relaxing at the Lagoon (public swimming/grass area) and eating gelato, waiting to be picked up.

THE BOOT!
Christy (L) Me (R)

And now I'm back at the Centre, after a long day of lectures. I'll post again as soon as something interesting happens!