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!

Pyramid Photos

The Pyramid- part of the Great Dividing Range in Eastern Queensland.

At the top-clear view.

At the top- the clouds kept rolling past.

Student mode.

The above title is my excuse for the lack of updates- back to the lectures, quizzes and papers. Since my last update, we've had:

- Bird call quiz- so glad to have this done. Imagine 30 students cramming the 24 hours before the quiz, playing the same thirty bird calls over and over. If the bird calls weren't actually being played, the students imitated them at all other times using their own wacky memory tricks. Close your eyes and think of someone singing "I'm a little bronze cuckoo" in a high pitched voice. Over and over.

- Field Excercise Paper for Tim (natural resources management)- mine was about using wood density of trees to predict level of cyclone damage. It was interesting, although the ratio of field time to paper writing was lower than other FEX's. On the plus side, my contribution to the lab portion was sitting at a computer and tracing 30 leaves with my cursor to calculate area.

- Botanical Identification Quiz- Using a computer program that we had been shown previously, three samples were given to students and we had to identify them based on leaves, fruit and seeds. We were required to turn in a list of eight of the characteristics that we used for ID. This was a little bit of a give-away since we could use "NE Queensland", "Tree", and "Leaves present" as three. Fine with me though, 30/30!

-Exam 1 (NRM)- Encouraged to cram by the schedule- review session scheduled two days before the exam with study time built in the afternoon and evening before. I think it went okay!

-Exam 1 (Ecology) and Exam 1 (Socio-Econ & Env. Policy)- Tomorrow! That's why the pictures for the post will come later!

Three friends and I have also taken to playing cards at every possible break, the favorites are Euchre and Hearts. Bus stops, picnic tables, beaches, rainforest, we've played cards everywhere. I've also been burning through the Centre's library in free time, reading some great Australian novels.

In big exciting news- I have climbed my first mountain! The Pyramid was 900 meters (3000 feet!) straight up, climbed two days ago. There were no switchbacks (the reasonable way to go up a mountain) so it was like climbing stairs made of irregular boulders for three hours (up). The view from the top was amazing, and we were in the clouds. I could see the ocean and houses were only a millimeter large. On the way down my legs felt like jelly, and the last half of the way down the weather turned sunny = sunburn. Needless to say, totally exhausted Sunday evening. Pictures will be included in the next post, hopefully. In two days I take off for mid-semester break with two friends for the Whitsundays for five days.

Catching up on Photos

A selection of plants from the botanical gardens.
Don't ask... I don't know what they are.

(that right- lobster claws hanging from a perfectly normal plant)

My cabin- the snake habitat is underneath it.

Another intense boomerang-in-action shot.

Didgeridoo-Aboriginal instrument- at Chillagoe.

Friends Brittney (L) and Christy (R)

No Show Hamish

Last night got very exciting- the students were all briefed about an incoming cyclone (hurricane). Cyclone Hamish was forecasted to just stay along the coast (I'm slightly West of the coast) but had been very unpredictable. The staff told us that it was very possible that the cyclone would just give us rain but that if it turned and came inland we could have 150-200 km per hour winds, so we were going to prepare the Centre. Previous to that, all of yesterday afternoon we had known that a cyclone was coming, but we had only been told that it would rain a lot and that our tree planting for the next day was canceled due to severe mud. So, last night after supper we were split into groups and given tasks to prepare the Centre for the potential cyclone.

Students and staff put x's of tape over all of our (already strong glass) windows, took everything that was loose on the porches and put it in big sheds- which was a lot of stuff since we basically live outside. Some students had to walk the property to check for dangerous stuff laying around. My job was to super-stock the 2 bathrooms inside the Centre, because if the winds were bad enough all 30 students + 10ish staff+a family that lives on site would all be living in three [small] rooms. After that was finished, we returned our cabins to continue cyclone-proofing. We had to pack all of our belongings into garbage bags, move our beds to the middle of the room (our four bunks got very cozy) and pack our daypack with essentials, passports and clothes to have down at the Centre if we had to leave our cabins in the middle of the night.

Well, when I woke up at six am I was happy that I wasn't going to be required to live in a small room with lots of people, but my next thought was 'Dang it. My clothes are all in garbage bags shoved under my bunkmate's bed'. So I proceeded to go down the Centre in my pj's to brush my teeth and complain about the lack of cyclone with the other students. We are probably going to be stuck with a week of rain, but at least my assignment that was due this morning at 7:30 was delayed!

Chillagoe

Back from another adventure! I've spent the past two days on a super-field trip, the Chillagoe camping adventure. Chillagoe is a mining town a few hours west of the Centre, semi-Outbackish. Truth be told, it's probably the closest to the Outback my allergies can handle. We left Tuesday morning and drove to Dinbulah (about a halfway point) where we received a 'bush tucker' (that would be food gathered by Aboriginals) lesson from a local Aboriginal man and his brother and then they gave us boomerang and bullroare- a string and piece of wood that you whip around to make a helicopter noise- lessons. Even with the wind, the boomerang was easier to throw that I expected, and I got both the regular and hunting (three points) boomerangs to return.




Continuing onto Chillagoe, the driving conditions became a little primitive. Dirt roads and lack of air conditioning meant very dusty and dirty passengers, so we went for a swim in a local creek. Extra-careful due to a recent sighting of a brown typan (very, very dangerous snake) we played water polo with our professors.
Then we set up camp, had supper and conked out under the stars. The next day we combined field lectures with an afternoon of caving and more creek polo. It was an experience for sure, with a visit to Balancing Rock (take a guess what it could look like) and a cave where I kept smacking my head. By the way, Chillagoe is mostly savanna (trees and grasses) with rocky outcrops which support a Dry Vine Thicket (a type of rainforest, believe it or not). It was incredibly hot the whole trip, a sweating-in-the-shade type of situation. Today, we had a brief geological tour before re-experiencing the hot and dusty drive back. Showering has never felt so good. Only a week and a half before mid-semester break, my classes are heading into crunch time. I'll try to put up pictures when I've got a little bit of time!

Mamu, Josephine Falls and Cairns

What an exciting weekend! We started on Saturday morning by driving to the Mamu Canopy Walk at Wooroonooran National Park. The 30 students and couple of staff spent two hours helping to plant rainforest trees where recent construction destroyed some. After packed lunches, we walked along the canopy walk-suspended up to twenty feet. The grand finale was a canopy tower, where we climbed 6 flights of stairs to a very impressive view- the canopy was placed on the side of a mountain. Then we went to Josephine Falls, where we swam and went on the 'slide'. Up river there were some huge falls, and some smaller ones were downstream. In the middle there was a shallow pool (with some distance before downstream) and a mini-falls rock that you could sit at the top of and slide down, it was awesome.

We drove to Cairns after the waterfalls where we checked in at the hostel and headed to the Rugby game. It was the most relaxed professional sports game that I've been to, with high school stadium sized seats along one side, and a grass ampitheater around the rest. I sat in the grass with some friends and tried my hardest to understand the game, by the end I think I got most of it. On Sunday three friends and I caught a bus to the botanical gardens, which were great. Lots of cool flower pictures and huge leaves. The rest of the day in Cairns we ate at very nice cafes, ate gelato and swam at the 'Lagoon' which was actually a very nice, free controlled beach. Time for class!

My backpack in action. So handy in Cairns where four of us piled our stuff into it, and then I conned someone else into carrying it...

The Lagoon