DR, DR, DR!

The day after we came back to the center from break we began thinking about our directed research projects (DRs). This is what we will be doing until the program ends. We previously chose which professor we would like to work with, and now it was up to us to come up with a research question to start tackling. I was so lost for this! I felt like everyone else had squared away their ideas, and were all set on choosing a question, while I was still in the process of deciding what it was that I was even interested in looking at. There were restrictions as to what I could research, too, because we couldn’t have too many people on one given topic. It ended up being that I chose to look at herbivory (the act of eating leaves, for those who don’t know) in relation to leaf pH and leaf thickness among 13 tree species. Soon after deciding this, my group headed off to Undara Volcanic National Park and the 40-Mile Scrub National Park to begin our leaf sample collection and to take notes on herbivory.

Undara and 40-Mile Scrub
10-11 November 2010


Undara was a lot of fun! Eleven of us squished into the van for a 3-hour drive into the dry rain forest. Along the way we collected firewood, which we later used for a bon fire that we roasted marshmallows over and told stories about ourselves and our past experiences. It was great to sit next to the warmth of the fire and breathe in the smells of summer, hear the crackling of the wood and see the smoke from the fire be swept into the sky and consumed by the stars. While collecting wood we found a skull of an animal, which we were pretty sure was a pig because it had tusks. That was neat… it was just like what I imagined to see when I think of dry, desert-like areas.


When we pulled into the camp site we saw a group of wallabies foraging in the grass. There were small ones, bigger ones and even some with little babies in their pouches! They were very watchful. The stopped and looked at us, waiting, and then continued eating the grass. There arms are so short, which I guess is an adaptation that suits them well. They lick their forearms to obtain subcutaneous evaporation to cool themselves down. That’s pretty neat if you ask me!


After checking in, we headed out to our sampling site, where we walked quite a bit off of the path to begin our research. We did this so that people wouldn’t see us conducting research. It’s a typical permit regulation thing that has to happen… we don’t want to bother others by sampling within a National Park. When we arrived, we were in a section of semi-deciduous dry rainforest. We broke up into our groups and started collecting data! I paired up with AJ, because we are both looking at herbivory, and started going around to all of the trees that we needed data for, including the python tree, lantana and brachychiton, among others. I had fun getting to know the trees and being outdoors doing actual research. It became a lot easier to identify the different trees from a distance and with ease by the end of the day!


After the 40-mile scrub we went to another site to find the same species. This place was more difficult to sample because the ground was covered in rocks, which made it difficult to walk without rolling our ankles. We had to be very careful of that and also had to be especially careful and mindful of snakes.


We then took a nice walk up a volcano to watch the sun set. It was a pretty quick hike which took only about 20 minutes total. When we looked out into the distance we could see miles of continuing dry rain forest and the sun setting across the horizon. We watched the sky turn from light blue to purple to orange to red and finally dark blue. We sat on a bench at the top and watched, letting our minds go free.


That night we had a barbeque and sat around the fire, as I described earlier. We were pretty early to bed because we had such a tiring day. The next morning was one of the best mornings that I’ve had in Australia. I loved waking up to the warmth of the sun on my face, to the pretty-faced wallabies and the grey kangaroos foraging outside of my tent, hearing the cacophony of the kookaburras from a nearby tree, watching the rainbow lorikeets talk across the bushes and searching for berries and hearing the click of the cicada wings before they started their song. It was so peaceful that I couldn’t help but be happy and be living in the moment.


The next morning we collected more data at the 40-mile scrub and then made our way back home. Shortly after we returned from Undara, our project proposals were due, and we began collecting data on the samples we had taken. I spent the next week in the lab taking pH readings of about 300 leaves and leaf thickness data of about 400 leaves. Needless to say, there were some nights during that week that I started confusing time with pH readings… and would read the time on the clock as 9.30pm and the pH readings as 5:04… that’s when I knew it was about time to put the meter down, unplug the microscope and go to bed.

Winding up to wind down...

so it's been twenty one days since I've last written... which means that it's been about twenty one days since I've had a moment free. We've started our directed research projects, which means that we've been spending the majority of our time in the lab... I am with Rohan's group, and my project is looking at leaf thickness and leaf pH in relation to herbivory. So far it has been really difficult setting up my own experiment, researching appropriate methods and finding time to do approximately 15 million pH readings with one single moldy pH meter. It's been interesting though... every day I find another problem with my experiment, and have been forever expanding upon my problems and experimental error section of my paper... hopefully everything will turn out alright, though! The other day I had a break down as I was counting the amount of hours I would need to spend in the lab collecting data on the samples I've collected... it turned out to be 600 hours. I got so overwhelmed that I just started crying. Rohan helped me to alter the experiment so that I am only collecting data on 2 leaf samples per species instead of 30 pH leaf samples per species and 150 thickness leaf samples per species. That made my life SO much better. So I spent most of yesterday and all of today in the lab taking pH readings and going crazy. 

I do believe that I owe a post about our mid-semester break trip to Magnetic Island, about collecting samples in Undara and about our last Cairns weekend trip…so here it goes!

Magnetic Island

30 October- 4 November 2010

 

So we got home from the Daintree, and then had approximately one day to study for our final exams. Friday we had our final exam for Tim's class, and then Saturday we had Siggy and Rohan's exams. They went pretty well, except they were all so crammed together that it was really stressful. After our last exam we all hopped in the vans and headed out to Cairns (haha, that rhymes!). On the way I felt so relieved that classes and exams were over and that I was going to get a break from almost everyone at the center and enter into real life again! In the van ride into Cairns we were driving along the road being followed by thousands of flying foxes (spectacled, grey and red) leaving the city to go find food in the forests. It was awesome watching their silhouettes fly by. The sun had just set so the sky was a rich bright blue. I had my head out the window just to feel the wind and watch the bats, the mountains and the forests roll by. I felt relieved by the end of that ride. 

When we got to Cairns we found a locker for our big bags because we weren't staying overnight. We ended up going to Gilligan's for the live band and 2 for 1 drink specials! It just so happened to be Halloween night, so all of the crazy costumes were about! At one point we danced with a man dressed as I don't know what, wearing assless chaps... it was ridiculous! So at about 11:45 we headed over to the bus station, where we got onto the midnight bus to Townsville. As soon as I got onto the bus I passed out... I was asleep before we even moved! The ride there was miserable... although I slept through most of it, all I wanted to do was be in a bed asleep with a pillow and a blanket, and not on a bus sitting up straight.

When we arrived in Townsville (at about 5:30 in the morning), Marcus and I walked through Townsville to find a place to eat. It was pretty early, so nothing was really open and we had to walk pretty far. We walked across a bridge and ended up at a small min-mart convenient store type of thing. We got two meat pies each and sat down on the curb in front of a hotel and ate them while we watched the town wake up.  We only decided to settle for meat pies because 1) we're poor and 2) the awesome buffet breakfast next door cost $22.00! That's ridiculous... while we were on the curb Marcus noticed that I had lost an earring... I must have lost it on the bus... it was the one that I had just bought at the Yungaburra Folk Festival, too. :(. Oh well! After eating, we went inside the hotel and fell asleep in the lobby chairs for about 20 minutes. After that we decided to mosey back and fall asleep in the park under giant fig trees filled with Australian king parrots. We had alot of time to spare, because our ferry wasn't scheduled to leave until about noon. It was a very relaxed morning.

So we boarded the ferry and made our way to Maggie Island. When we arrived (about 25 minutes later) we got on a bus to Arcadia, Alma Bay. The ferry docked in Nelly Bay. We walked from the bus stop to our house, which took about 5 minutes. The house was called Magnetic Blue, and it was indeed magnetic blue colored! It was beautiful inside! There was first a car port, and a downstairs with two bunk beds and a queen-sized bed and a full bathroom... and then an upstairs with a very open deck, kitchen, dining area and living room, and a room with two bunk beds, a room with one queen-sized bed and another full bathroom. It had all wood floors and had cool colored accent walls. There was artwork all over. The deck had a dining set and a hammock, where we often sat and had a drink and talked for a while or just took a nap. The kitchen had a garage door type of thing that allowed there to be a breeze throughout the entire house. It was gorgeous!

The first day Marcus and I took the Nelly bay walking track from Alma bay, which took us about 2.5 hours and was about 5.4 km. The hike was surprisingly hot! I didn’t realize that the vegetation there was more similar to Chillagoe than the rainforest I was expecting. It was a very up hill walk, with a small dirt track and a lot of rocks. We heard rumors that there were a lot of death adders at that time, and to be careful… luckily we didn’t see, or feel, any! There were a couple of lookouts every once in a while… the view was fantastic! We could see out across the sea for miles and down below at the few roads, and the beaches and bays…for  the entire walk we were surrounded by ocean views. 

We could actually see where the reef was out in the ocean, because there was a thin strip of clouds above it, from where the reef was producing aerosols. We didn’t think to look for koalas, but apparently the island has heaps! I reckon there were a few, but we just weren’t keen enough on finding them. We did see a rock wallaby, though… and cool lizards and skinks. When we finally arrived in Nelly bay, we walked around for a bit, had lunch at a picnic table and went swimming at the other group’s house! All-in all it was a pretty perfect day!

The next couple of days we made lazy days and took our time going to beaches, going to Nelly bay and getting groceries, and going to a place called the X-base at night. We explored the island by hopping on a bus with our day passes and going to Horseshoe bay and Picnic bay and having a drink on the water. I got an apple margarita, which was very sweet, but very good! At Picnic bay we went to a thrift store where I found Drop Dead Fred in VHS form! Hopefully I’ll be able to convert it to DVD and then have Drop Dead Fred, only one of my favorite childhood movies of all time!! The X-base is a whole other story! It’s located right on the beach, so you can see the stars and the ocean from just about every table. They have various games and competitions where you can win discounted or free drinks. It was fun twice, but then got sort of boring.

We had great meals every night… Marcus cooked delicious stir fry one night, and even wore an apron. I cooked penne alfredo another night, and it was delicious. Thanks, dad for teaching me that one!

The end of mid semester break came all too soon… although it was so much fun I guess we had to go back. We left on the 6:00am bus to go to the 6:20 ferry to catch the 7:15 Greyhound back to Cairns. On the way we saw a cassowary, and I found $5 in change! When we got to Cairns we just walked around… had lunch (tuna, again…), and just chilled. We went to an art museum. It was pretty interesting… there were a lot of prints and movies and such. I’ve definitely seen better… but it was a good way to spend a good chunk of the afternoon! While we were there there was some sort of controlled burn off in the distance… smoke and ash was rolling through the city, making it somewhat difficult to breathe. We couldn’t even see out across the ocean it was so smokey! We decided to duck into random stores to get away from it… and ended up having fun even doing that. 

Then it was time to meet the vans at the esplanade, have pizza and head home… we were very tired by this point, but also pretty refreshed. I wished it had lasted about a week longer... but it was an awesome break anyway!

I think that my favorite part of the trip was taking that long hike. It was really challenging for me, but seeing the beauty of everything really pushed me along and made me push through to the end. My shirt turned a different, darker shade of purple by the end from all of the sweat, and it was extremely hot and dry, but we made it. It was invigorating!

More excursions!

Yungaburra Folk Festival

22-24 October 2010

Friday night we had dinner at Moni’s house. Her house is very nice. She has 2 cats and SO MANY PILLOWS. The food was great!! We had fajitas with cheese, sour cream, chicken, CILANTRO and guacamole! We also had chicken wings that Charlie, Marcus and I basically devoured. Later that night we went out to the Folk Festival to check out the town of Yungaburra for a while. We had some drinks at the pub and met some friends that we know from the Peeramon. We were back at Moni’s by 10 in order to leave for the Center, because we were to be up early the next day to go back to the folk festival in order to set up our tents and begin our volunteer work.

Saturday morning we arrived at the camp site in Yungaburra at about 8 am, set up our tents, and then went to the volunteer desk to check in. We volunteered for 8 hours so that we could camp for free. The weather ended up being perfect! Sunny and warm and perfect weather for wearing flowy skirts. The Yungaburra markets were going on again because it was Saturday, so we strolled around there for a while, and we also checked out all of the other tents and festivities that were set up. There was an awesome tye-dye tent where I got an awesome long-sleeved brightly colored shirt. I also got awesome leaf earings from a little jewelry stand! They were so pretty… and then I lost one on the bus ride to Maggie Island L. There were food tents set up, lots of jewelry tents and very hippie-dippie styled clothing, artwork and jewelry stands. There were so many different venues where live music was constantly playing, and people we to be found every where you looked. It was such a happy, relaxed time! Saturday I worked at the Whistlestop café, where our artwork from the environmental art project was hung up! They looked so great all laminated. I also worked at the ticket booth selling tickets and at the Chapel checking wrist bands. I met a lot of cool locals who were all there volunteering with me. At night Marcus and I sat with a bunch of people listening to a band called the Blue Ruins. They were so good! This girl played guitar (backwards… she played a left-handed guitar on her right side…?) and her father played back up guitar and she sang. Her voice was amazing! We danced on the lawn and just enjoyed the music. We also got to dance on a HUGE dance floor to a live band. We danced like crazy! We were jumping and spinning and sliding, and having so much fun. I didn’t want it to end!

Sunday we did more of the same… we ate, we drank, we volunteered and we just had fun in the sun. That night there was a free volunteer party at the end of the festival, with live music again and free food! We all went, ate, chatted with the people we had met that weekend and then were brought back on a bus.

What a great weekend!

Daintree

26-28 October 2010

The drive to the Daintree rainforest was a little bit longer than the Chillagoe trip, but actually felt shorter… we stopped in the town of Mareeba, in another town for a field lecture from an Aboriginal woman named Robin, and at Mossman Gorge before arriving in the Daintree. She talked to us about Aboriginal land use agreements and the native title claims that her tribe went through in order to acquire rights to land and such. It’s such a difficult process that I guess I never really thought about before. Currently they are working towards dividing up the Cow Bay area into various land use agreements and such. While at that town we went to a thrift store and I bought an Australian flag hat for only $0.50!

We stopped at Mossman Gorge and were allowed to tour the place on our own. We took a free bus to the gorge from the parking lot, because it is illegal to walk on the streets. It was so beautiful there! Although Marcus and I went off on our own on what we thought was a circuit path… and then ended up getting somewhat lost. But it was alright because in the end we met up with Kenyetta and Natascha, who knew the correct way back. We followed the path along the rapids of the river where there were rocks and boulders, and saw huge golden orb spiders again and crazy, winding fig trees that looked like they would provide the perfect hiding places for hide and seek.

Once we arrived in the Daintree there were so many cassowary signs and speed bumps with rocks in them to seriously deter people form speeding. We got our rooms and our roommates and had some announcements. We were staying at a hostel, where Sophie was my roommate in a two bunk bed room. It was nice to have the room to ourselves! That afternoon, though, I saw a spider crawling on the wall… not a small spider, but a HUGE spider with orange stripes on its legs. I tried to catch it with my disc, but then it crawled SO FAST up the wall that I couldn’t reach it… and then once it was nearly to the ceiling, it lunged itself off of the wall and onto my pillow! Ah!

We got a chance to go to the beach, where I took some great pictures and we played some Frisbee and went for a long walk collecting rocks and shells… it was so beautiful and looked like it was exactly out of a movie. I actually started singing “born free, as free as the wind blows…” at one point, because it looked just like the scene from Madagascar where the rainforest meets the ocean, and the first sight you see are palm trees, white sand and blue waters.

The next day we got a chance to get a welcome to country ceremony performed by Robin at Cow Bay. It is a very rare ceremony that doesn’t often happen to such a large group. She brought us over to the creek that flows into the ocean a little way down the beach. First she stepped into the water, showering her arms and face with water while she spoke to her ancestors in her Aboriginal language. She then asked each of us to step down into the water. When it was my turn, she asked me to step down, and then asked for my name. She continued speaking to her ancestors, telling them my name and showering my arms and face with water. When she was finished, I stepped to the other side of the creek, and she did the same thing for each person in the group. Now her ancestors know each of our names, and will allow for safe passage through the Australian land. What an amazing experience!

Later that day we got to go to the Discovery Center, where we saw an absolutely beautiful rainforest! It was type 1b, which is very complex and has highly specialized life forms like palms, ferns and epiphytes. They had metal diprodonts and crocodiles that roamed this rainforest millions of years ago scattered along the boardwalk. They were absolutely massive! The flat-faced kangaroos at the time were something like 3 meters tall! That’s a 9-foot tall kangaroo!

We got a chance to walk through a type 3b rainforest, which is dominated by fan palms, and is a part of Siggy’s property. She has been maintaining it and catching feral pigs on the property for a while now. It was really amazing to see such a difference in the rainforest types… the fans completely closed the canopy, and radiated bright lime green light throughout the forest. Also on Siggy’s property we got a tour of her house, which is completely sustainable. We learned about how they built their solar panel tower, how every wall in the house makes a difference with the amount of sunlight that can penetrate, their use of few resources to build the house, and how leaving out unnecessary walls can save money and resources! Their bathroom consists of a lone toilet on their veranda and a lone tub. The septic system is all completely sustainable, and they use the compacted sewage for fertilizer on their land! Apparently after 6 months it no longer has a smell… hmm.

Then we went to the mangrove boardwalk, where we saw tons of mangroves with their prop roots, which they call stilt roots here. I had never seen rainforest mangroves before. We walked on a boardwalk through a swampy area littered with snorkel roots and other roots and soft-looking deep brown mud and a low tide. The walk ended at a sort of look out, where the swampy area that we had been walking through met the river, and crocodiles could often be found. 

We also got a tour of an exotic fruit farm. When we arrived there he had fresh squeezed lime juice ready for us, and gave us a brief history of the farm and how difficult it is to grow fruits because of changes in the weather and economy. We got to taste the Davidson plum, a very tart deep red fruit and the jackfruit, which sort of smells like wet socks and feels like goo, but actually tastes pretty good! There was one other fruit that was the best one there! It was called rollinia, and tasted like a mixture of banana and mango. It was so good! After the tasting, we walked through the farm and looked at the sugar banana trees, the jackfruit trees, and many more.

On the way back to the hostel we spotted a cassowary on the side of the road! We stopped the vans for about 10 minutes to get a good look at it. It was eating a dead animal on the grassy area on the edge of the forest, and had a baby cassowary next to it! The cassowary has such a beautiful color to its crest—majestic blue and bright red contrasted with a dark black body. The baby was light brown with black stripes. 

The next day we went on a board walk of the 1a forest, where we spotted bryophytes, relict species and a red-bellied black snake. Awesome! We also went on a boat on a crocodile tour! We all hopped onto this boat, which brought us up and down the Daintree river. Our tour guide taught us about the tree species, the mangroves and all of the different types of fauna that can be seen there. We got to see a tree snake first, which was cool… but then we spotted a female crocodile! She was hanging out in the water next to a log. She was very difficult to spot at first with her perfectly camouflaging brown, black and tan coloring pattern. I was glad that we got to see that! 
As we continued up the river, I just watched the passing trees and looked back at the wake we were making in the water. I was so happy just to be there and was enjoying every minute. The next bit of nature we saw were tree frogs hanging out in a tree by the water’s edge. They were such a bright green! It was a perfect picture—something I only ever imagined in picture books or on TV shows, but some how it was real life and I was seeing this with my own eyes… I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was! All-in-all we had an amazing trip and got to see and explore so many things. That was by far my favorite excursion yet!

and still  more to come...

Sensory overload!

So let’s see where I left off… I think I promised an entry about the Chillagoe trip… and then somehow I got distracted and too busy for life, and so I actually have way more entries than that! So we went to homestays, then took a botanical quiz, then went to Chillagoe, then took three exams, had a “mitigation threats” presentation, handed in our third field exercise, then went to the Yungaburra Folk Festival, then went to the Daintree, then handed in another essay for Rohan, took three more exams, finished classes for the semester, and went on mid-semester break to Magnetic Island. whew!

And so it begins…

Chillagoe

12-14 October, 2010

So we all piled into the vans at 8 am on Tuesday, 12 October and headed west towards the dry country. It took only about three hours for us to get there. We drove on a long dirt road dotted with cattle and wallabies, and through red dirt clouds from the vans ahead of us on the "highway". We stopped along the way to talk with two locals who are working towards protecting the Walsh River from being dredged by a local company who wants to take out sand for building purposes. They were very educated about the topic, and were totally against the whole project because of the wildlife that it would disrupt. That was a neat point of view to see...

When we got to Chillagoe, it was very hot. Apparently it was alot cooler than it had been in previous years, though, because it has been so rainy... apparently also the wettest dry season that Australia has seen in years. While in Chillagoe we got to swim at the Weir, which had a very shallow pool on one side, and then the water flowed over an edge to a faster flowing water spot on the other. It was great to get out of the heat, especially after a long day of driving. We played Frisbee and threw around a tennis ball with everyone and Tim and the interns. Tim made up a game called “weir ball”, which was fun.

We saw so many cool rock formations, and got to climb on some that sounded like metal when banged together, we saw other granitic rock formations and green ants that if you squeeze their butts it tastes like lime.

Over the next couple of days we had various field lectures. One was at an awesome cave formation that provides microhabitats and refugia for plant and animal species to go to. We explored the caves and climbed up the rocks and found passageways into other areas. It was very cool in there, which was a nice break from the heat. Also, we had a lecture at the old smeltering facility. That was a fun place to see how the town was once built up on mining and now is a ghost town because the economy couldn't support itself on mining alone... and there was nothing else around it to actually sustain it otherwise.



So now it basically is sustained on tourism and a little bit of farming. The old rocks and such are still at the smeltering place, because now it is deemed a national park. You could see the different colors in the rocks from where it was melted down, and all of the variations in the types of rocks. 

One field lecture that Siggy brought us on was called "snorkeling", but wasn't much snorkeling at all...we had to first climb underneath a barbed wire fence and then up a huge hill to the top of a dry, rocky lookout. All you could see around us were hills with dry grass, dry trees, the hot, shining sun and limestone rocks. This area was once covered completely by water, and the limestone rocks were 400 million year-old coral reefs. So this was the extent of our snorkeling trip... dry... hot... not wet... not refreshing... but still interesting. And, we could see the kangaroos hopping around all over!

The first night we had a basic barbeque... but the second night we got to eat at the pub, where they had all sorts of pasta salads, potato salad, tomatoes, and I got the barramundi on the barbie! it was SO GOOD! Then we stayed out at the bar and had some drinks.. and finally walked back to the camp site later on. Both nights we slept out under the stars with the flying foxes and the birds.. and the spiders... and the ants.  We watched shooting stars and just talked into the night. The first night of sleeping was great! It was warm, and I didn't get eaten by ants or mosquitoes or spiders! But then the next night... some people had been eating Pringles on the tarp that I slept on, and left them there... but I didn't know that.. and I woke up all night from ants swarming on my face and arms and legs! An also, at some point during the previous day I was bitten by something strange. The bite started off looking like a puffy bug bite, and then turned into a constantly growing pussing, swollen, infected mess over the next couple of days.
Leslie was constantly monitoring it by drawing an edge around it to see if it got bigger… and sure enough, it did! It grew until it was hot to the touch, basically consumed the back of my left upper leg and hurt to walk. Once I started feeling nauseous, Leslie took me to see the doctor. He didn’t seem too concerned about it, which was a good thing… but at the same time I was really nervous about my leg! So he gave me amoxicillin with some acid stuff in it, and it went away gradually… the picture isn't even the biggest stage...

I do still have a scar from where it was!

The drive home was pretty fast. Although before we actually exited Chillagoe we spotted a wedge tail eagle eating a dead kangaroo in the middle of the road! Siggy stopped the vans, got out and dragged the kangaroo by its tail off of the road and onto the grass, and checked its pouch to see if it had any babies... Siggy to the rescue!