1 Trip Down

I just got back from my Arcadia mini-Reef/Rainforest trip today. I had so much fun! It would take forever to go into detail about every little thing that we did, so I will just talk about a few of them in this post. Snorkeling was amazing..even more so than the first time that I went because this time we went to 2 different reefs. It was a little scary at first again because the boat was anchored further away from the reef...so I had to swim in the open ocean a little ways before reaching the shallow waters by the reef. Also, I was a little nervous because the staff didn't advise us to wear stinger suits this time...but since it is getting closer to the end of marine stinger season and there aren't that many dangerous jellyfish near the reef anyways I wasn't too concerned about it. It was a really sunny day when we snorkeled this time so the reef looked even prettier..there were many colors of coral; purple, green, blue, pink....and so many brightly colored fish and other critters. I saw at least 10 clown fish which were so adorable darting in and out of their anenomes. We spent a few hours at the first reef and then we left for the second reef, which was a little smaller but there were sea turtles and white-tipped reef sharks. I got a photo taken with one of the sea turtles...it was so cool getting to swim next to such a graceful creature!
The next day we had breakfast with dozens of different species of birds...and I think that the rainbow lorikeets ate more of my food than I did! They're quite cheeky little birds and I enjoyed having them fly down and sit on my shoulder as I ate. We saw many other Australian animals at the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary...including kangaroos, tree kangaroos, wallabies, freshwater/saltwater crocodiles, snakes, lizards, cassowaries, emus, cranes, and of course koalas. I was excited to see a cassowary because they are relatively rare nowadays because dogs have killed most of them and they also get hit by cars. Cassowaries are huge and stand as tall as a grown person..and they can be dangerous as well because when they feel threatened they will kick and they have huge claws on their feet. So we couldn't get close to the cassowary, but we were able to pet and feed the wallabies and kangaroos. I really liked getting to pet the roos..but the whole time I kept thinking about how the lodge serves kangaroo sausages every Sunday at the BBQ :(. In Australia, kangaroos and wallabies are kind of like deer in the states...people eat them, they are hunted, and often are hit by cars.
We also went on an Aboriginal guided hike near Mossman Gorge that I found to be very interesting. The tour was informative about the Kuku Yalanji tribe of tropical North Queensland and we learned about how they live off of the land. We walked right past a variety of stinging trees and plants which was a bit intimidating because if you lean against or brush past them you can have intense pain for up to a year until you shed through the affected layers of skin and any time you get wet you will have excruciating pain. If you touch the other stinging tree you can go mad because you will keep over-heating and itching. Needless to say, I don't touch ANY plant or animal when I'm hiking. The Aborigines found uses for a variety of the toxic and stinging plants though....including forms of punishment and also to poison fish. Roy, our guide, showed us a variety of his tribes' tools and items such as shields, shelters, music sticks, and spears. He knew so much about so many different plants and their possible medicinal or food value. The sap from some trees can be used as bandages while leaves from another can be used to make soap.
We went on the crocodile river tour again on the Daintree River but this time we saw a huge male crocodile named Scarface. The guide told us that the largest crocodile ever recorded was 8 meters long and weighed over 2,000 lbs and was 120 years old. We also got to see some tree snakes this time so that was something new...and there was a white-lipped tree frog in the boat.
Cape Tribulation was beautiful and we stayed smack-dab in the middle of the rainforest right next to the beach. There weren't any stores or anything and the road was a bit dodgey..but that's the type of place where I like to be so I loved it. I posted 5 new albums worth of photos on my photo site today...so feel free to look through those!

G'day!

Sorry that I haven't posted a blog in a couple weeks...I leave for my first mid-semester break trip next Thursday so I've been working hard trying to finish all of my assignments that are due the week we come back as well as the week after (since I have a 3-day field trip the following weekend after break). Since nothing too exciting has been happening I won't post a blog until after I get back from both trips, which won't be until early May...or possibly the night I get back from the first trip. Anyways, I thought that I would post the itineraries so that people can see what I'll be doing! Hope all is well back home and miss everyone so much!

Trip #1- Arcadia Trip: Mini Reef and Rainforest Trip (in/around Cairns)-
Thurs. April 24- Arrive in Cairns city, night at Gilligans (a hostel)
Fri. April 25- snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef for the day, dinner at Rhino Bar in Cairns city
Sat. April 26- Breakfast with the birds (literally eat breakfast surrounded by tropical birds in the rainforest) in Port Douglas, guided Australian animal tour, mangrove and crocodile tour, Cape Tribulation
Sun. April 27- Mossman Gorge, Kuku Yalanji Cultural Centre (local Aboriginal people will take us on an interpretive walk and teach us about their food and how they live off the land, back to Cairns Student Lodge by 3:30pm

Trip #2- Australia Zoo/Fraser Island Trip-
Tue. April 29- flight from Cairns to Brisbane, day in Brisbane, night at Mantra Mooloolaba accomodations
Wed. April 30- Australia Zoo for the day!, zoo safari tour, depart for Hervey Bay where we will spend the night
Thurs. May 1- depart for Fraser Island, stay at Kingfisher Bay Resort
Fri. May 2- Fraser Island
Sat. May 3- depart for Hervey Bay, flight Hervey Bay to Brisbane, flight Brisbane to Cairns

A Busy Week!

This past week has been busy, I had a lot of assignments due this Friday, but I've finished them all early which feels great! Today in my Indigenous class we had another guest speaker from Kuranda, but this one focused on Aboriginal culture and customs. He discussed how there were 5 neighboring Aboriginal groups around his particular group; some lived in the rainforest and the others lived on the coast. He mainly discussed the process of becoming a man, which I found to be very interesting and different from the American process of coming of age. The men are cut across their chest and the more cuts one has, the higher their status is. The most elite men also have cuts down their arms. A young adult's marriage is arranged by their grandparents and if they do not marry their chosen wife they will be stabbed in the thighs with spears. This may seem a bit harsh, but the punishments for disrespecting an elder and the chosen wife's family are severe. The chosen wives are usually very young and have just reached puberty when they are set to marry men sometimes a decade or so older than them. If a man's brother dies, he has to marry that wife as well and raise the children as his own brothers and sisters so that his brother's legacy lives on. The chosen wife is always from another group and it often takes the man a few days to walk to her location. Along the way there he is expected to hunt and prepare meat (usually kangaroo meat) for his future wife's family. After he arrives, his future father-in-law will throw spears at him and he is supposed to block them, which shows that he is brave and ready to become a man. The guest speaker brought in a variety of interesting Aboriginal objects, such as art, boomerangs, a spear and spear thrower, and also a device which was used as a communication device because it makes a loud whooshing sound when it is spun around. He also discussed some of the herbal medicines that his people used from the rainforest.
I have been reading some biographies from the library about Aborigines and I have found them all to be very moving and insightful. If anyone is interested in this topic and would like to do some reading, I'll post a list on the bottom right hand side of my blog site with some of the authors and titles. I'll also post a list of all of the towns that I have visited or will be visiting so that people can keep track of that as well! I have posted a lot of photos to my photo site....although it takes too long to post all of them...but I randomly add a few pictures to some of the old albums so feel free to look at those. I'll post the link here again: Australia Photos