Mission Beach and Cassowaries

Hello again

This week’s adventures included lots of wet weather. Last weekend we went to Mission Beach to go camping and gather data about conservation in the town. It was nice to be in a town and able to get away from the rainforest for a bit. We visited C4, which stands for Community for Coastal and Cassowary Conservation, and learned about their environmental organization. That night we were free to venture into town and have fun. Unfortunately the rain followed us, so we woke up to a wet tent. On the way back to the center we stopped by another rainforest preserve and I FINALLY SAW A CASSOWARY! It was very exciting. I advise anyone who doesn’t know what a cassowary is to google it. The next day we had off, so we went to the tourist town of Kuranda to go to the markets. There I went to the “koala gardens” where I got to hold a koala and feed pademelons and wallabies. They also had a wombat, which is a super cute but kinda pointless looking animal.

Since then its been back to doing schoolwork. We’re focusing on fauna this week, so we hunted skinks this afternoon and will focus on catching and dissecting cane toads and recording microbat calls tomorrow night. It should be interesting.

Back from the Outback

Hey y’all!

Since my lasts update, I’ve finished up my Sydney adventure and returned to CRS. Sydney was awesome, though im glad to be back. Sydney included lots of going out, visiting 2 aquariums, Sydney wildlife world, the city Skytower, and Manly beach. I finally got to see the elusive cassowary (but sadly it was encaged behind glass). The city is beautiful even though it rained at least a little bit every single day. I wish the weather would have been nicer so we could’ve enjoyed the beach more. Instead we did lots of shopping and took a lot of much needed naps.

Back at CRS, things have been much more relaxed than the last half of the program. We gained 7 new students, one of which is even from the UW. Exciting stuff! This half of the program is more researched based, so it involves more field work and analyzing in the lab. It’s definitely not as intense as my science courses back home, but it involves more bio and ecology. We spent the past few nights in Undara, which is in the Outback. It was amazing! The vegetation there was less lush than the rainforest, but it was much warmer and clearer. We did field sampling in the dry rainforest and went through some lava tubes, which are like caves made from the last volcano eruption. We also saw kangaroos, kookaburras, and a lot of wallabies. We had campfires both nights and I even slept sans tent, just under the stars one night. The sky was unbelievably clear. The next morning a few of us hiked up to a bluff and sat on the rocks to watch the sunrise. It was an unreal experience and makes me want to go camping a lot more when I get back to the States.

Other than that, it’s been a lot of fun having more free time in this part of the program. We’ve started a nightly ritual of watching True Blood and Dexter after dinner. I didn’t realize how much I miss watching good tv with good company. I’ve also tried to start running program for my last few weeks here. It’s hard to believe I’m already over halfway done with my time in Australia. I’ll miss it when I return home to the States and have to find a real job…

SYDNEY!!!!

ello mates!
Sorry for the ridiculously long drought between posts. The past week has been full of writing my final paper and studying for my final exam. Before finals we went to the Daintree National Park. It was one of the prettiest places I’ve seen so far. On the way to the Daintree, we stopped by a golf course to take pictures of a mob of kangaroo. We also saw black cockatoos along the side of the highway. At the Daintree we stayed at the Crocodylus Hostel, which was pretty much just elevated tents. On our first day there, we went on a croc cruise and saw a snake and a few crocodiles in the water. Over the next 2 days we went to 3 different beaches, 3 each more beautiful than the last. We had more lectures and toured more parts of the rainforest as well. We saw one of our professor’s eco-friendly houses (in the rainforest) and a palm forest she helped reforest the buffer zones on. Sadly, we never found the elusive cassowary (google it. It’s a huge weeeeeird bird.) After we got back I spent most of my time studying and writing my paper. Then we spent the weekend in Cairns. There we went out on the town Saturday night then snorkeled the reef on Sunday (which happened to be the 4th of July). Snorkeling was absolutely AMAZING! I saw a sea turtle, sting ray, a giant clam, a ton of huge clownfish, plus other random fish. I even got to hold a purple starfish! The waves were wicked though. It was overcast and the waves were crazy choppy. All in all, 10 of the 18 people I was snorkeling with ended up getting sick on the boat ride back. Sad day. After we got back to CRS (the Center for Rainforests Studies, my home away from home) we had a 4th of July celebration, complete with brats, potatoes salad, cake, and sparklers. The next night was the official last day of the first session. We spent the night singing around the campfire and saying our goodbyes. It was really sad to see some of my friends go. Now that the 1st session is over, its break time for the next 6 days. Seven of my friends and I are taking our holiday in Sydney. We got in yesterday and spent the day looking around our part of the city and recovering from our 4 am airport departure. Last night we went to a comedy club and saw 2 comedians who were surprisingly funny. Today we played tourist and took the train to the Circular Quay and saw the legendary Opera House. We even got tickets for a performance Friday night! I’m super pumped! We also went through the botanical gardens and walked more around the Darling harbour.
That’s about all so far, hopefully I’ll update again before I leave Sydney. The internet has pretty much died back at CRS, so it’s hard to do updates there. (It will unpredictably give reception, and even then not everything will load. It made things pretty impossible to do my research paper.)