Brisbane

Since Jordan (my roommate from Towson) came to visit we planned a nice trip to the city. We stayed in a backpacker and hit the town for some fun. We visited all the popular spots and walked ALOT, but it was a really good time so it hardly felt like we went sooo far.

The city really reminded me of a mini London. It was pretty with lots to do. We walked to the main shopping strip called Queen's St. It had all the name brands and UGGS galore. I think Corinne was in heaven. We also walked through the tropical botanical gardens on the river. It was so pretty! It was full of palms, hibiscus and bamboo. At one point we saw some guys walking tight ropes tired to palm trees. They were doing tricks on it so Etienne and I applauded them. When we did this they invited us over to try! Of course I couldn't turn down a chance to do something new and weird!

So we walk up and take off our shoes. Then this super cute Aussie guys says "hold my hands" (I'm thinking ummm OKAY!) He helped me up onto the slackline and helped me to walk across and turn around. It was soooo fun and all 3 guys were really cool and willing to help all 5 of us learn to do it!

Later we went to a market and stopped by a pub for a drink and some live music. The band was pretty good and they loved us because we sang along to most of their songs. Especially me since I love music, he asked for my name and dedicated a Matchbox 20 song to me! This pretty much made my day!

That night we had dinner and met some other people at the backpackers. We actually got to know some of the staff and they invited us up to their room after the bar closed. It made for a fun and inexpensive night. The next day we went to town where we layed around and hung out at the artificial beach till we had to catch the train home.

Best $5 Trip of My Life

We drove sometime like five minutes and found a few birds, then suddenly I spotted a large bird bedded down in a tire rut in the sand. I pointed it out and was slightly ignored by the professor (who just kept driving) so I repeated myself. At this moment I didn’t know what happened because suddenly my face was smashing into the seat ahead of me. The professor had SLAMMED on the brakes and started exclaiming about this bird I found. He said “I thought you were talking about a coconut, but that’s a Beach Stone Curlew….that’s the most rare bird in all of Australia!!!” Meanwhile I am recovering from the impact (this is why you should wear a seatbelt…but I couldn’t see the birds with it on) and thinking about how I had no idea what I just pointed out because I have never gone bird watching before and definitely not for Aussie birds.

So basically the professor told me that “I’ve seen it all now and all bird watching from here on would only be downhill.” He explained that he has only ever seen three of this species in his entire life and another professor said her mother was a professional bird watcher and had never seen one. So I felt quiet accomplished and figured it was a good omen what was to come with the rest of the trip.

Continuing on we bounced along the surf and beach in the back of the 4WD spotting and recording birds. We ran into some pretty interesting stuff along the way too!
1. We found a ship that washed up from the January Brisbane floods.
 2. We ran the carcass of a dead Dugong (a aussie species of manatee…it was quiet comical when everyone said it was a cow and Corinne and I were sooo confused because it didn’t have legs and was laying on a beach that had no cattle…we didn’t realize they mean a sea cow)
3. A few minutes we found another dead Dugong, but this one was fresher and you could see all the gashes on its back from propellers. It’s somewhat unbelievable to see the harm we cause these creatures.
4. The last of random discoveries was a dead washed up Sunfish. This is by far the biggest fish I’ve ever seen. 7ft tail to mouth 5ft dorsal to pectoral fin. CRAZYYYYYY
5. DINGOSSSSSSSSSS!!!! Sooo amazing! They are such a beautiful wild dog! Second favorite animal i've seen in AU, behind kangaroos.

We finished up our bird sampling for the day and went back to camp… The Uni owns a bunch of cabins on the island for students and staff while on research trips. We moved our stuff in and headed out for a little off roading fun! We jumped in the 4WD and took off through this entirely sand track wide enough for only a single car. We blazed through deep sand trails bouncing all around. It was sooooo fun! (We were flying might I add, Aussies don’t believe in driving slow! A moments I was trying to hit the brakes from the passenger seat!)

We stopped at few lakes which our professor informed us were some of the world’s cleanest lakes and were unique because they are some of the world’s perched lakes. Meaning the lakes occur above the water table. And are depressions with a hard, impervious base of organic matter and sand, form a catchment for the rain eventually creating a freshwater lake. They were beautiful and crystal clear.

At the end of the day we had a bonfire and hung out for a while and hit the hay. In the morning we continued our adventure counting birds and looking for unique sightings. We spotted some dolphins and a couple of rays. We completed our sampling and stopped to climb Indian Pointe (named by Captain Cook). It was a beautiful climb to the top of a cliff that over looked beaches on either side, massive sand dunes 100’s of feet high and the ocean! We could look out and see the stunning clear water and WHALES! The whales are migrating this time of year and they passed by just in time for us to get a great view! Finally we stopped a massive shipwreck from the 1930's that was taken in a cyclone.

The trip was truly amazing and one of my most memorable trips since I’ve been here in the land down under!

Home of the Crocodile Hunter

Corinne, Jordan, Etienne and I visited the Australia Zoo yesterday! It has been a personal dream to visit Steve Irwin’s Zoo since I was a young girl. I like to consider the Irwin family and my own family to be the basis of my studies and future career in wildlife conservation. I remember night after night sitting around the TV watching this crazy Aussie chasing after any and every species he could get his hands on, even if it was deadly. He has been an inspiration and hero throughout my life. Despite his death I see his family continues to carry his legacy.

The zoo was great we saw everything from Aussie Wildlife to worldwide species. We also attended the Animal Planet Crocoseum to see the staff hand feed crocodiles. (I remember seeing the Crocoseum being built on the Crocodile Hunter when I was little). The experience was amazing and I loved every second of it.

"I have no fear of losing my life - if I have to save a koala or a crocodile or a kangaroo or a snake, mate, I will save it."  –Steve Irwin

Hell's Gates

Jordan came to visit Corinne and I here on the Sunny Coast so we are on a month long expedition to see and do everything we can. We planned to start off the visit with something easy like a visit to a popular beach and shopping touristy area.

This plan failed because we are all a bunch of broke college kids so shopping isn’t really an option and the beach is cool but we were not really dressed to catch some rays. Soooo we decided we would make an adventure out of things and hike the Noosa National Park.

Well needless to say we were not really prepared for this plan either, considering Cor was wearing flip flops and Jordan and I were not really wearing walking attire either. But that wasn’t going to stop us from having fun. So we set off on the trail with about 3 to 4 hours till the last bus departed back home.

The hike was not too much of a challenge so despite our poor planning we continued our voyage! The trail ran along the coastline to the ocean on a path etched into the cliff-like hill. It was so beautiful! Both directions as far as you could see surfers speckled the shoreline’s water.  

We trekked our way from one rocky point to the next, passing intervals of sandy beach coves. At one of the points Cor spotted “something in the water!” (I think she was hoping it was a shark)It turned out to be several dolphins surfing the waves as they pushed their way into the shore.

We walked on and found our way to a place named “Hell’s Gates”.  I was the first to reach the top of the hill’s crest. It was quiet breath taking when I found myself on the top of a cliff looking down on a rock formation that was capturing the ocean’s waves and sending them crashing into a U shaped
death trap.

After enjoying this amazing view, it occurred to us that we had two options considering our time restraints. A) We could come back the way we came B) Complete the circuit and end up closer to our bus stop. We decide that if we moved quickly we would be able to finish the circuit before sunset and in time to catch the bus.

Turns out the trails get a little confusing on the last half of the loop (or should I say loops). Luckily I have a decent sense of direction and decent map navigation skills. We didn’t end up where we intended, but I got the job done so that’s what counts. By the time we arrived back at the bus stop we were hungry, exhausted and our feet were insanely sore! But in spite of the second half the trip it was a great adventure!