Friday, June 4, 2010

Day 8: Binna Burra

Our first destination was a sub-tropical rainforest about 2 hours away from Brisbane. Driving in our big bus, with Ken behind the wheel, we made our way through the farming fields and beautiful ascending landscape. The first bus ride consisted of striking landscapes and starburst babies (yum). The climbing road winded around the mountain until it opened to buildings and The Lodge. Our accommodations consisted of about 6 girls in each bunkhouse that looked like a square with stacked beds. I was in the middle of the three levels so after some maneuvering and a slight circus trick or two I was able to get in bed. After eating a chicken sandwich provided, no time was wasted for class time. First, Barry Davis gave an Introduction lecture on the history of the national park (ROMEO LAHEYYY!) which was interesting but I won’t lie…the last 5 minutes of my notes are completely illegible due to fighting off narcolepsy. Next, we split into two groups to learn about non other than animal track, scat (droppings, poop, etc), and skull identifications, as well as plant identification. I am proud to say that I can identify which skull belongs to a marsupial or placental animal, if it’s an herbivore or carnivore, and that koala poo smells just like eucalyptus. Before our group dinner (scrumptious chicken, peas, and mashed potatoes…), my soon to be “family” of the trip went exploring a trail to an outlook. Starting out in daylight and seeing sunset was perfect, but we soon realized it was getting dark fast and we were in a rainforest…for the first time…in Australia. After taking one wrong turn, we were soon on track again and made it to camp for the ever-important dinnertime. With stomach full and food coma in order, I made my way to the area for our bush dancing extravaganza. Thinking that this meant aboriginal bush dancing, I was super excited, but ended up being really fun “pride and prejudice” types of dances that Barry taught us. The dances kept us hysterically laughing for at least an hour as we were dancing around, changing partners to dance with, and beginning the bonding process! And now zzzz

Day 9:

I love waking up in a sleeping bag. Something familiar and outdoorsy that makes you want to wake up and greet the day of adventure. Right? And so that is what I did. We went on a guided walk with Dan the Man to Tullawallal but to our dismay had to turn back instead of further hiking because they had to clear some fallen trees. For those several hours we took notes and took in the scenery. As we got into higher altitude, the Antarctic Beach Tree begun to be present, which was left over from when Australia was attached to Antarctica. ANCIENT….I was so happy to have some connection between these two continents! When all of our groups arrived back at the site, Man Michael (TA) suggested a hike that he knows of to a watering hole. The treacherous steps and slope going downhill in switchbacks were only a foreshadowing of the hike up. Yet, the hike was well worth it when we found a rope along the riverbank and a handful of us decided to try our luck at it. Ignoring the sign of “beware of eels,” I grabbed the rope and plunged in to the shivering cold water. Thank you dad for providing quick dry clothes in my life. The hike up was more of a run (as usual when following Man Michael). The next hike was one directly to our site that was breathtakingly beautiful and warranted many photos to be taken of course --since my mom is not there to provide! 9.3 miles done! All in good days work and couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear the rest of the day. That night, after Tanya’s great cooking out of the little trailer type kitchen, we went on a spider and spotlighting night walk. It was hard to be quiet as me and Bianca would sneak up and jokingly whisper “there’s something behind you, don’t move,” but I the hike in the dark was great…probably because we didn’t really see any spiders. I’m happy we didn’t. really. Therefore, needless to say I slept fairly well that night with no spiders on my mind and snug in my sleeping bag….tick-less and bug-less. :D

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