I recently spent three nights in Sydney with a couple other girls from my program, Becca and Amanda. Lucky for us, Becca has a close friend, Courtney, living in Sydney at the moment, so we stayed with her for the weekend. She showed us around all the places one is supposed to visit while in Sydney. Of course, our first stop was Circular Quay, which is where both the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House are. I was surprised to find that the Opera House is not, actually one big building, but a few buildings positioned close together. As expected, we took lots of pictures in front of Australia's icon from every angle until our cameras tired of capturing the same shot over and over. After we had had our fill of tacky tourism for the day, we went inside some old building close by. I don't know what the name of the building is and if we hadn't been with Courtney, we would have seen no reason to go inside. We followed Courtney assuming we were just going to the lou or something, but to our surprise, there was a mini replica of the city of Sydney sitting a foot or two below our own feet protected by a ceiling of glass.
Courtney took us to Bondi Beach, where she and I ate a full rack of ribs... each! from a restaurant called Hurricanes, a local favorite. We wandered around the city taking in the sights. There was an art exhibit going on throughout the entire city ( I think it was called "Art and About"). Perhaps the most interesting piece we saw was a giant bike, at least 30 ft tall, made entirely out of parts from regular sized bikes. She showed us Manly Beach, which is similar to Huntington. We took the Ferry from Manly back to Circular Quay so we could look at the Opera House from yet another angle. We asked a man to take a picture of the four of us in front of it, but he only managed to get the corner of it in :P. One of our evenings, we went back to the Opera House so we could watch the sunset behind Harbour Bridge. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, but the view was still very beautiful. Another night, we trekked over to Darling Harbour to watch a fireworks show. There were so many fireworks, it would have had Jared saying "is it the grand finale, yet" non-stop. I also managed to meet up with my friend Todd, who lives in the suburbs of Sydney for a coffee and chat.
After Sydney, I made my way into the Outback, sort of. We drove West for ten hours and were still about another days drive from the very beginnings of the actual Outback. Carnarvon Gorge was beautiful and we were lucky to be there during a particularly rainy season, because it meant the weather was not too hot and the wild flowers were blooming everywhere. Speaking of... did you know Australia has a native wild hibiscus species? And it's edible? I sure didn't!
We spent the majority of our time hiking around the gorge. One of the hikes required five or six river crossings each way, which would have been no big deal since there were large stepping stones leading the way across... except for the fact that high rainfall had caused the water level to rise well above the stepping stones. Every time we came to the river, we would take our shoes and socks off and forge through. Everyone moved very slowly since the current was fairly rapid and there were big rocks hiding just out of visibility waiting to stub any unsuspecting toe. At one point the water was nearly up to out butts. Some people slipped and got entirely soaked... and of course, being the kind people that we are, the rest of us laughed at them. We got smart by the time we were making our second pass at all the crossings and just left our shoes and socks off until we reached the end of the trail.
Just like at Girraween, there were kangaroos everywhere. We saw quite a few joeys with their mothers and some huge males. There were pretty faced wallabies and kookaburra. I spent some time waiting patiently by the platypus pool hoping to catch a glimpse of one. After a few attempts, I finally saw one! Actually, I saw the tip top of its head before it ducked quickly below the surface, but hey, that's more than most people can say. :)
One morning we woke up at the leisurely hour of FOUR AM so we would have enough time to hike to the top of Boolimba Bluff for the sunrise. Half of the hike was, quite literally, straight up a huge flight of stairs so that by the time we reached the summit everyone's knees were shaking. Unfortunately, we missed the sunrise by about fifteen minutes, but the morning mist hid the sun from us anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered much when we showed up. Even though we missed the sunrise, we were happy to have conquered such a grueling trail and the view from the top rivaled the view from our sunrise perch in Lamington.
Tonight, at 11:30 pm, I hop on a bus for my final field trip during my stay in Australia. My destination is the Heron Island Research Station where my class mates and I will have the opportunity to conduct our own research projects as well as dive on the Great Barrier Reef. I'll talk to you all in ten days!
~ Jessie
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Aaaaaaah!
Here's a brief outline of what the last month of my stay in Australia looks like.
I spent the second weekend of October in Sydney, flew back to Brisbane that Sunday morning and left for Carnarvon Gorge the next morning (Monday). After a ten hour bus ride, my class mates and I arrived at the Gorge where we spent five days forging rivers, hunting platypuses, and doing field work. After another ten hour bus ride, this time in the rain, we were back in Brisbane, again. All time unoccupied by lecture during the next week was spent working on a scientific report about the research I had done while on Straddie. That paper was due last thursday. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and today were spent working on a paper for my Australian Studies class, which I just turned in, as well as studying for the Marine Bio final I have on Wednesday. Currently, I'm taking a break from school work to, finally, update my blog. Then it's back to studying. I leave for a trip to Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef late Thursday night and need to have most of my research for a project testing the effects of sea cucumber toxins on bacteria done before then. Then I'll spend ten labourious days snorkeling and diving among the corals; I know, my life really sucks ;) When I get back from Heron on November 7, it's back to the grind stone to spit out a scientific paper on my Heron Island research, write a paper and take a final for my Terrestrial Ecology class and write up a research proposal before Friday the 13. I guess I had to earn those 21 units at some point. haha
My detailed account of Sydney and Carnarvon will be up soon. The pictures are already up, though. So take a look and enjoy!
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk130/Jess_E_Rose/?albumview=slideshow
I spent the second weekend of October in Sydney, flew back to Brisbane that Sunday morning and left for Carnarvon Gorge the next morning (Monday). After a ten hour bus ride, my class mates and I arrived at the Gorge where we spent five days forging rivers, hunting platypuses, and doing field work. After another ten hour bus ride, this time in the rain, we were back in Brisbane, again. All time unoccupied by lecture during the next week was spent working on a scientific report about the research I had done while on Straddie. That paper was due last thursday. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and today were spent working on a paper for my Australian Studies class, which I just turned in, as well as studying for the Marine Bio final I have on Wednesday. Currently, I'm taking a break from school work to, finally, update my blog. Then it's back to studying. I leave for a trip to Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef late Thursday night and need to have most of my research for a project testing the effects of sea cucumber toxins on bacteria done before then. Then I'll spend ten labourious days snorkeling and diving among the corals; I know, my life really sucks ;) When I get back from Heron on November 7, it's back to the grind stone to spit out a scientific paper on my Heron Island research, write a paper and take a final for my Terrestrial Ecology class and write up a research proposal before Friday the 13. I guess I had to earn those 21 units at some point. haha
My detailed account of Sydney and Carnarvon will be up soon. The pictures are already up, though. So take a look and enjoy!
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk130/Jess_E_Rose/?albumview=slideshow
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Stradbroke Island
I thought it would be a good idea to spend a little time each evening, during my stay on Straddie, writing about the day's activities so I could post my blog in a timely manner soon after my return to Brissy. ... if only thought was all it took. Anyway, I think it goes without saying, I didn't follow through with my idea so now I have to think back on what I did to give you the full story. I'm going to switch things up a bit this time; the day-by-day mini journal won't really work well for this trip so I'll just give you the highlights.
The first thing we did after setting our stuff down at the Moreton Bay Research Station was hop in a little power boat with our snorkel gear and go exploring around a tiny mangrove island just off the coast of Straddie. The waters of Moreton Bay are interspersed with high latitude reefs which aren't as extensive or colorful as the reefs at lower latitudes such as the GBR, but but are no less beautiful. We all swam about and poked around one of these high latitude reefs for a couple of hours before getting too cold and heading back to the station. I'm sure we were an amusing sight to any onlookers; upwards of forty people all wearing masks, snorkels, and fins swimming in every which direction and occasionally ducking below the surface.
The reef wasn't very deep; only about six feet down, but the difference between what I could see at the surface and what I saw when I dove down was quite surprising. Floating like a dead person across the surface, I could make out shapes and see some really cool brain corals maybe a few larger fish, but once I dove a few feet it was like the whole reef had transformed. There were little fish hiding in crevices and filter feeding tube worms poking their fronds out. I wouldn't say the snorkel was as spectacular as my dive off Straddie a month or so ago (mainly because I didn't see any sharks or turtles), but it was different. There are different organisms living in six foot deep waters versus 40 foot deep waters so it was a great chance for me to see the diversity of Moreton Bay.
Of course, not everything is as hard to get to. We also spent a good amount of time exploring the rocky and sandy shores near the station during low tide. There were tons of nudibranchs, bubble snails and flat worms all over the sandy shore and the rocky shore was infested with crabs. Someone caught an octopus with a net; it was quite small and didn't look like anything too exciting, but it ended up being a blue ring. You can't really tell that blue rings are blue rings until you piss them off... so, naturally, we pissed it off to find out if it was, in fact, a blue ring and it changed from brown to bright blue in an instant. (no scientists or helpless marine creatures were harmed.)
Another great way to see what lives in the sea is to go seine netting. A seine net, at least the one we used, is about thirty meters in length with floats attached to the top and a lead weight on the bottom. Basically, you stick your foot through a loop attached to the lead line then walk through the water for a time. Eventually, you, and heaps of other people to help, drag the net toward the shore and end up dragging marine organisms in with you. The seine net brought up a few small sting rays, a guitar fish, some puffers, sea cucumbers, itty bitty squids, prawns, eels, and tons of other creatures. We collected them all out of the net and after a short while of playing with them, we released them back into the ocean.
This field trip marked the start to my scientific research as a marine biologist. We were broken up into groups to come up with and conduct our own research projects. My group decided to compare the crab population densities and diversities on a rocky shore frequented by people versus a rocky shore seldom visited as well as look at the percent algal cover and number of gastropods, little snails, on each shore. Over the course of four days, my group went down to the rocky shores during morning low tide to count gastropods, estimate percent algal cover, and catch crabs. Each day, we spent one hour catching as many crabs as possible and tossing them in a bucket for safe keeping until we could ID, sex, and measure them. No crevice was left un-inspected and no rock left unturned in our hunt for crabs.
Since it was raining most of the time, we brought the crabs back to the station to sort them by species and gather data on their sex and size. There was a little difficulty at first with identifying some species, but, luckily for us, Peter Davey, the crab expert, just happened to be staying across the street from the station for a few days with his wife. He managed to sneak away to have a look at our crabs and helped us ID the species we weren't sure of. After all our data was collected, we returned the crabs to their home shores then I sat at my computer inputting everything into excel. I spent a large portion of my evenings looking up scientific papers to cite for the paper that I eventually have to write about our mini study. ( I was working on it earlier this evening, but then decided my blog would be a more worthwhile endeavor. Don't worry, the paper isn't due until the 21st. so I've still got plenty of time.)
These projects took up the majority of our time on the Island, but we did manage to play around a bit. A few of us went out for a snorkel over the sandy shore we had previously trampled over during a break in the rain. There wasn't a whole lot to see, but we did get to swim with a huge school of shinny fish. Being mature university students and adults, we pretended to be dolphins and chased the school around for a good half hour watching them move as a body of one. It was big fun indeed! hahaha. Later in the week, about half of us went on a little sand boarding excursion. That was a lot of fun too. I guess sand boarding is kind of like snow boarding or skate boarding, but only in the sense that you stand on a board with one foot in front of the other. Steering is weird; you put all your weight on your back leg and use your front leg to decide where to go, which is extremely difficult. I did manage to ride down the hill standing up on the board quite a few times... so yay!
Our last day on Straddie, we ventured over to Point Lookout to have a wander around the cliffs and beaches. From the cliffs, we saw some turtles and dolphins in the water. And in the distance, we could see whales breeching and spouting. We stopped off at a gelato shop then continued down the beach. After swimming for about an hour, we loaded onto the bus and came back home to Brissy. But only for a short while; I'm flying to Sydney tomorrow afternoon for a three day weekend then on Monday heading to Carnarvon Gorge for our final Terrestrial Ecology field trip. Life in Australia is busy! But I love it.
<3 Jessie
The first thing we did after setting our stuff down at the Moreton Bay Research Station was hop in a little power boat with our snorkel gear and go exploring around a tiny mangrove island just off the coast of Straddie. The waters of Moreton Bay are interspersed with high latitude reefs which aren't as extensive or colorful as the reefs at lower latitudes such as the GBR, but but are no less beautiful. We all swam about and poked around one of these high latitude reefs for a couple of hours before getting too cold and heading back to the station. I'm sure we were an amusing sight to any onlookers; upwards of forty people all wearing masks, snorkels, and fins swimming in every which direction and occasionally ducking below the surface.
The reef wasn't very deep; only about six feet down, but the difference between what I could see at the surface and what I saw when I dove down was quite surprising. Floating like a dead person across the surface, I could make out shapes and see some really cool brain corals maybe a few larger fish, but once I dove a few feet it was like the whole reef had transformed. There were little fish hiding in crevices and filter feeding tube worms poking their fronds out. I wouldn't say the snorkel was as spectacular as my dive off Straddie a month or so ago (mainly because I didn't see any sharks or turtles), but it was different. There are different organisms living in six foot deep waters versus 40 foot deep waters so it was a great chance for me to see the diversity of Moreton Bay.
Of course, not everything is as hard to get to. We also spent a good amount of time exploring the rocky and sandy shores near the station during low tide. There were tons of nudibranchs, bubble snails and flat worms all over the sandy shore and the rocky shore was infested with crabs. Someone caught an octopus with a net; it was quite small and didn't look like anything too exciting, but it ended up being a blue ring. You can't really tell that blue rings are blue rings until you piss them off... so, naturally, we pissed it off to find out if it was, in fact, a blue ring and it changed from brown to bright blue in an instant. (no scientists or helpless marine creatures were harmed.)
Another great way to see what lives in the sea is to go seine netting. A seine net, at least the one we used, is about thirty meters in length with floats attached to the top and a lead weight on the bottom. Basically, you stick your foot through a loop attached to the lead line then walk through the water for a time. Eventually, you, and heaps of other people to help, drag the net toward the shore and end up dragging marine organisms in with you. The seine net brought up a few small sting rays, a guitar fish, some puffers, sea cucumbers, itty bitty squids, prawns, eels, and tons of other creatures. We collected them all out of the net and after a short while of playing with them, we released them back into the ocean.
This field trip marked the start to my scientific research as a marine biologist. We were broken up into groups to come up with and conduct our own research projects. My group decided to compare the crab population densities and diversities on a rocky shore frequented by people versus a rocky shore seldom visited as well as look at the percent algal cover and number of gastropods, little snails, on each shore. Over the course of four days, my group went down to the rocky shores during morning low tide to count gastropods, estimate percent algal cover, and catch crabs. Each day, we spent one hour catching as many crabs as possible and tossing them in a bucket for safe keeping until we could ID, sex, and measure them. No crevice was left un-inspected and no rock left unturned in our hunt for crabs.
Since it was raining most of the time, we brought the crabs back to the station to sort them by species and gather data on their sex and size. There was a little difficulty at first with identifying some species, but, luckily for us, Peter Davey, the crab expert, just happened to be staying across the street from the station for a few days with his wife. He managed to sneak away to have a look at our crabs and helped us ID the species we weren't sure of. After all our data was collected, we returned the crabs to their home shores then I sat at my computer inputting everything into excel. I spent a large portion of my evenings looking up scientific papers to cite for the paper that I eventually have to write about our mini study. ( I was working on it earlier this evening, but then decided my blog would be a more worthwhile endeavor. Don't worry, the paper isn't due until the 21st. so I've still got plenty of time.)
These projects took up the majority of our time on the Island, but we did manage to play around a bit. A few of us went out for a snorkel over the sandy shore we had previously trampled over during a break in the rain. There wasn't a whole lot to see, but we did get to swim with a huge school of shinny fish. Being mature university students and adults, we pretended to be dolphins and chased the school around for a good half hour watching them move as a body of one. It was big fun indeed! hahaha. Later in the week, about half of us went on a little sand boarding excursion. That was a lot of fun too. I guess sand boarding is kind of like snow boarding or skate boarding, but only in the sense that you stand on a board with one foot in front of the other. Steering is weird; you put all your weight on your back leg and use your front leg to decide where to go, which is extremely difficult. I did manage to ride down the hill standing up on the board quite a few times... so yay!
Our last day on Straddie, we ventured over to Point Lookout to have a wander around the cliffs and beaches. From the cliffs, we saw some turtles and dolphins in the water. And in the distance, we could see whales breeching and spouting. We stopped off at a gelato shop then continued down the beach. After swimming for about an hour, we loaded onto the bus and came back home to Brissy. But only for a short while; I'm flying to Sydney tomorrow afternoon for a three day weekend then on Monday heading to Carnarvon Gorge for our final Terrestrial Ecology field trip. Life in Australia is busy! But I love it.
<3 Jessie
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)