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!