Camping in Cardwell

                There are so many things I don’t appreciate until I’m at the end of a camping trip: showering, wifi, cell range, electricity in general…despite this, this past week, which I’ve spent camping on Cardwell Range (yes, its technically a cow pasture…but a really pretty and woodsy cow pasture with a swimming hole) has been pretty awesome.  In case you don’t already know or haven’t guessed yet, this is not a typical semester abroad program.  This week, class consisted mostly of hanging out, swimming, learning how to live and work together, and listening to campfire stories.  To make the trip legitimate and keep some impression of actually having class, the stories were Aboriginal dreamtime stories, and were accompanied by talks about current and past issues surrounding Aboriginal life.  Along with that, every day we did one “educational activity”:  Monday we painted our own boomerangs; Tuesday we took a boat cruise and went fishing; Wednesday we got stuck, rebuilt a bridge to get out of the campsite, went to an Aboriginal museum, and visited Wallaman Falls; Thursday we learned how to throw spears; Friday we saw Aboriginal cave art and saw another waterfall; and Saturday we learned how to make fire the difficult way, and played an intense game of all my cows (guys  vs. girls) on the two hour trip home.   Rough life, right? 

                Along with my classmates, program leader, and excursion organizer, we were also camping with an Aboriginal elder named Russell, his son, Darren, and his granddaughter Immagen.   Uncle Rus (all Aboriginal elders are called uncle and auntie) and Darren were the ones giving us talks by the campfire at night, and they taught us a lot during our daily activities.  Immagen, who is a very mature 11 year old, was there to learn with us.  Instead of just taking one large shuttle bus, like we did on the orientation excursion, we took three Jeep-like cars with extra back seating and trailers attached.  We were all a bit confused until we started driving through the farm property, and we all toppled on top of each other because the road was so bumpy.  Naturally, we all started singing the Indiana Jones theme song.  Every night we cooked our own food, which turned out shockingly delicious every night: stir fry, curry, BBQ, Breakfast for dinner...we always ate by the campfire in the dark, which means we all probably ingested a few mosquitoes, but not too many.  Painting our boomerangs was fun and relaxing and an awesome way to spend our first day of “class”.  The boat trip was also fun, but almost lulled us all to sleep (except when we saw a baby croc, that was cool).  I was a little bit nervous about fishing as a vegetarian, but all that happened was that fish ate my bait and didn’t get hooked, so I felt good that I was at least just feeding them.  One sad thing was that we set fish traps in a river near our campsite, but unfortunately 9 turtles, and no fish, got caught in the trap and drowned.  The night that happened it rained, and Darren told us it was because of the turtles.  Uncle Rus, Darren, and Immi believe in a lot of things I can’t convince myself are real: ghosts, spirits, and signs from nature like rain after killing and not using animals. 

                The first waterfall we visited (Wallaman Falls) was huge and beautiful, and we hiked all the way down to the bottom.  The trail was pretty steep in parts, and getting back up was pretty rough, but seeing the waterfall at its base was kind of worth it.   Spear throwing was pretty cool though, and was something we had all looked forward to a lot.  I expected to be pretty bad at it, but I turned out to be one of the better girls in the group on the first try.  We were aiming at three cereal boxes ranging from about 10-20 meters away.  Ironically, it was mostly us vegetarians who got close to hunting down those cereal boxes.  The only person who hit a box, did it while aiming at a different cereal box (he also used to be a vegetarian).  I was also nearly successful in fire making, which, again, I did not expect to be good at.  I would have succeeded but my coal split in two and lost enough heat to ignite the coconut husk. 

               

                We had several random holdbacks during the trip, almost entirely caused by the ridiculously bumpy road.  Our trailer broke part of the bridge we use to drive in and out of camp, and we had to spend an hour rebuilding it ourselves.  At one point, we had to drive up a hill that was at least a 45 degree incline, and our driver was not all that confident.  Consequently, when the car stopped moving forward, she put the brakes on, and the car started sliding backwards.  Luckily, everyone riding in the car thought this was great fun (for the record there wasn’t anything for us to crash into behind us), and we, of course, sang the Indiana Jones theme song again.  Then the Jurassic Park theme song.  Finally, we got to the bottom of the hill safely, and another driver replaced ours to get us up the hill.  Surprisingly, the things everyone, including me, was most worried about: no showers no bathroom no clocks (we were on “Murray Time”), were the least problematic.  We thought we would miss the things we didn’t have, when, in reality, the things we focused on were the things we did have: an awesome swimming hole, surprisingly delicious food, good fun and adventures, guitars for campfire songs, etc.  We swam most days which helped us not to smell too horrible, we had a nice little seat over our hole in the ground, and a tarp around it for privacy.  Not having to worry about the time was partially a relief, and helped us with our interesting look into how Aboriginal life used to be.

               Overall the week was pretty great.  We each got an Aboriginal name which Uncle Rus gave us based on our personality, behavior, and mannerisms.  Mine is the Willie Wagtail (called gingery gingery in the Aboriginal language), a favorite and friendly bird of Australia.  They mostly sit on the ground and shake their tail feathers back and forth.  Apparently, this was very fitting since I am also “close to the ground”, and I think Uncle Rus noticed me fidgeting and twisting around at some point while standing up, and, well, that was it, I was named right then and there.  Here are Willie Wagtail videos for you to watch while you continue to procrastinate whatever you are supposed to be doing right now, particularly the first one shows just how awesome I am in animal form (look up intelligence of crows and it becomes even more impressive):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2JVSyPXBCE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eE6Ab-gE6s&NR=1&feature=endscreen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCulkE4knoY&NR=1&feature=fvwp

A lot of other people got bird names, but there were several other animals as well, and one girl was named after the rainbow.  Everyone’s names fit them, even if just in a small funny way.  My favorite is our program leader, Tony’s name.  He is the Koala Bear, because, as Uncle Rus puts it, he is “big, cuddly, and hairy”.  Another cool part of the camping trip was that we had to make our own fun, instead of sitting on the internet all the time or watching movies.  We pretty much talked and played games and ended up acting like elementary schoolers, because, well, it was more fun than acting like adults I guess.  Through these games, especially the question ball and never have I ever, we actually got to know each other a lot better.  It’s weird, because we’ve only known each other for a month, but we spend all our time together, so we’ve all been friends pretty much from the beginning.  It was sort of backwards from how things normally go: we were friends before we actually got to know each other. 

                So, after a fun week in the bush, I’m now back in Cairns, learning and preparing for our next excursion starting Friday, where we’re going out to study the rain forest more in depth.  As one of our projects, we interviewed Uncle Rus in groups about topics we were interested in, and then created a survey to give random people in Cairns on the same topic, so that we could compare.  My topic is on childhood, and we walked around surveying people today, which was interesting.  Some people were actually nice and really interested in our studies though, which I found extremely surprising.  We got 13 surveys in about an hour by just walking up to random strangers.  I feel like if I tried that in Boston, after an hour we would have had no surveys, and a much harsher experience.  Unfortunately, we were only allowed two cameras for the whole group during the camping trip, so check facebook for photos I’m tagged in.  Also, I might be stealing someone else’s camping photos and post them in my album, so check for that if you’re interested.

First Excursion/Homestay

Sorry this is like 20 posts in one...

A couple notes:  Alright, so it’s getting more and more difficult to consistently find free internet, so I’m going to be writing posts in a word document and posting them when I can.  Also, my camera kept dying, so unfortunately not everything is in picture form on my facebook yet, but I have a new battery now and I’m working on stealing my friend’s pictures though to put up and fill in the gaps.
 
Last week was our orientation excursion to the tablelands which was pretty incredible.  It actually feels like I’ve been here for a really long time already because I’ve done so much these past two weeks, which I guess is a lot better than feeling like it’s going by too quickly.  Last Monday we drove to Port Douglass, which is a really nice little town with a long gorgeous beach with incredibly warm water considering it is “winter” here (like 75 degrees F), and great waves for body surfing.  Just a warning, if you are ever in Port Douglass, don’t turn the wrong way and go to the other beach.   You may end up tanning next to a croc instead of the old fat guy in a spedo (we saw our first croc along there while on the bus, we all cheered). 
 
Tuesday was a walk through the Daintree National Park forest lead by a Kuku-Yulanji (an Aboriginal tribe which live(d) in that particular area) man.  It was pretty awesome just walking through a fairly mature rainforest, but it was even better seeing it through an Aborigini’s eyes.  By the river at Mossman Gorge our guide showed us how to make and apply paint the same way Aboriginal hunters do to identify themselves as Kuku-Yulanji.  After he showed us how, someone asked if we could paint our arms too, and our guide said it would be fine.  Although I really enjoyed learning about the Aboriginal culture, I wonder if these tours, and us tourists with traditional symbols on our arms, might be offending some Aboriginals who were not paid rainforest guides.  That afternoon we got to go croc hunting (I felt slightly like Steve Erwin, except in much less danger) from a boat taken out by a guide who talked most of the time about the Mangroves.  There’s nothing wrong with Mangroves, but I was much more interested by the 15ft croc swimming on the other side of the river.  We also saw baby crocodiles along this really narrow part of the river, and stayed there until mommy crocy showed up, when our guide/driver decided it was time for a quick getaway. 
 
Wednesday was my birthday, which was absolutely awesome because it was the day we got to do all fun stuff.  In the morning we went to a wildlife sanctuary near Port Douglass, which was kind of like a zoo except with all the local animals us tourists want to see.  We got to feed and pet kangas and wallabies, and my favorite was this little wallaby who ate very slowly while holding onto your hand.  We also got to see a bunch of different birds, including the very dangerous cassowary (colorful relative of the Emu, and the bird Kevin from “Up” is modeled after).  Lastly we got to hold Cody, the Koala Bear, who must have known it was my birthday, because he decided to leave me a present.  Next we went to Yungaburra to a great hostel called On The Wallaby, with a super nice owner who told us to call her mum, and the softest comforter I’ve ever had.  Before dinner we went down to the river and got to see a ton of platypuses swimming around and hanging out.  At dinner we had one of the two cakes our leader Tony got for me (so delicious), and then it was time for night canoeing.  If you have never been night canoeing, go ASAP, it’s like day canoeing but ten times more exciting.  If you have never been day canoeing either, go spend an hour outside…then go night canoeing.  We couldn’t see anything but the stars, which were completely gorgeous, and whatever our torches (aussie speak for flashlights) were pointed at, which is what made it so exciting.  You never knew what or when you would find something in the trees.  We saw several tree kangaroos and brush tail possums, and towards the end, we found an echidna, a pretty rare find on this type of trip even though they’re not an endangered species.  Our guide, a crazy young aussie who wasn’t even wearing shoes, let us all pull up on the bank and get out to look at the echidna, which he pulled out of the ground with its bare hands (those spines looked sharp), and held it for a good ten minutes while trying unsuccessfully to get it to uncurl so we could see its cute little face.  Unfortunately, echidnas are not stupid, and know, even when you turn off your torch and stand there silently, that you’re still standing there.  It probably didn’t help that, while waiting, we all pet it’s paws and took pictures (well, not me because my camera battery was once again dead).  All in all though I think I left my teen years in a pretty unique and amazing way: I got to see both monotremes in the wild, feed a bunch of adorable marsupials, and hold a koala bear.  I can only hope that future birthdays come anywhere close.
 
Thursday was…I want to say interesting but it wasn’t, really.  We did this exercise called the drop off, where everyone in the group was dropped off in a separate location in small towns throughout the tablelands.  We were told we should try and get to know the town and talk to as many locals as possible, and that we would be picked up 4 ½ hrs after our arrival.  After an unexpected 3 ½ hr bus ride, I was dropped off in the last town, called Malanda, with three other students (although we were told not to hang out together as this would defeat the point of the exercise).  Malanda is a tiny town, like really, really tiny.  There are a few shops, a large old bar, a “waterfall” (which is manmade and proportional to the size of its town), and a dairy farm which gives tours at 9am.  So I walked around and around and looked at all the shops, found the information center outside the dairy farm, looked at the town map for ideas on what to do, ate lunch, and realized I still had almost four hours to kill.  As instructed, I went in search of friendly locals.  In a small clothing shop, I started talking to the woman working there.  After trying to explain why I was in Malanda (she was a bit confused, I don’t think it’s a huge tourist hit), I asked what there was to do.  The response: “ummm, let me think…NOTHING”.   She wasn’t wrong…
 
Friday was bird watching and a trip to Lake Eacham, where we saw a wild python.  Then Saturday was our first day snorkeling on the Reef!  It is pretty awesome…I’m not quite sure what else to say about it though.  It pretty much looks just as beautiful as it does on the NatGeo channel, except that seeing it through my own eyes was, of course, way cooler.  We got to see giant clams, a shark, lots of sea anemone with clownfish, some sea cucumbers (whenever you’re depressed or having a bad day, just google the sea cucumber), huge starfish, huge fish, colorful fish, Christmas tree worms (which inspired the idea for a plant on the planet Pandora in Avatar), of course tons of corals, and probably about a billion other things.  I was really surprised that the fish let us get pretty close to them without swimming away.  I guess I expected to be treated by them like other wild animals generally act, with fear and caution.  The fish mostly ignored us though, so instead of being a dangerous invader I was just another thing in the ocean with fins.

I have been staying with a host family for over a week now, which has been pretty good for the most part.  My host parents are really nice, and have this crazy dog who will chase his tail all day unless you stop him.  Both my host parents are foodies and excellent cooks (my host dad is actually a chef) who love healthy, delicious tasting food, and have been making me the most amazingly yummy vege meals.  They are also extremely into sustainable living which is really cool.  These two weeks during our homestay we mostly just go to lectures and work on our suburban bird project, which has involved a lot of early morning bird watching sessions.  Fortunately, my host dad often makes us cappuccinos in the morning, and breakfast is either cereal with fresh mango (from the tree in the front yard) and banana, or something delicious my host dad cooks us.  Unfortunately, we have to bird watch in people’s front yards as part of our project, which gets really awkward and frustrating when all the guard dogs realize you’re there, start barking, and the neighbors come out and start questioning you on why you’re walking around the street with binoculars and a notebook.  I actually think it’s kind of amazing no one on this program has ever had the cops called on them while doing their bird watching (at least they haven’t as far as I know).  I have seen some really pretty birds though…

Cairns Botanical Gardens/Orientation

Tried to post this yesterday but the internet stopped working:

 

Here are the pictures I promised! This morning we took a hike through the Cairns Botanical Gardens. I was expecting planted, organized rows of organisms, but instead we were hiking through an actual rainforest conveniently located in the middle of Cairns. To be honest the beginning was slightly frustrating: all uphill, and my camera would not behave which meant that some great shots ended up as blurs. Luckily I did get some decently clear pictures on the second half of the hike. Maybe it was endorphins kicking in, or the settling in of the fact that I was actually, finally in a real rainforest, but the way down was much more enjoyable (and easier downhill). While on our hike we saw green ants, and our instructor dared us to lick its butt because it supposedly tastes tangy! A couple people actually did it, turns out its more sour than tangy haha!  We also saw our first Wallaby on the way back, unfortunately it ran away before we could get pictures though. After our hike we ended up in a picnic area where our home stay coordinator had brought us delicious brunch, consisting of local fruit and scones. I ended up trying passion fruit for the first time, decided it’s not my favorite but it’s definitely not bad. After that we had short meetings with a couple of our group instructors, and had the rest of the day free. The rest of the day was pretty relaxing, and after dinner we explored some different parts of downtown Cairns. Unfortunatly I am having trouble uploading photos from the hike, but they're all on my facebook album so check it out! 

 

Here's what I wanted to post for today:

 

This morning we decided to go to a Father's Day street celebration (yes, Father's Day is on September 2nd here) which was pretty fun. There was an entire street blocked off where there were tents with vendors everywhere, and other random entertainment, like the entertaining women dressed up like synchronized swimmers from the 80's who wanted nothing more than to pose in pictures with us. About half of the vendors were selling plants because it was at the botanical gardens we were at yesterday, but the other half were locals selling their craft. There was also food, music, and a petting zoo. After that we had a very long orientation lecture, mostly safety information we are required to go over. The hostel we are staying at provides free BBQ on Sundays, which was surprisingly good since it was free hostel food. This week we are doing an orientation excursion to Port Douglass and the Tablelands, and just as an fyi I will not have internet again until Friday night. Sorry this is post is kind of lacking in interesting content, but I didn't want to wait until I got back on Friday by which time I'm sure I will have forgotten everything. See facebook for pictures of the Father's day celebration today!

  

Arrived!

After over 25 hours of travel, I am finally FINALLY here, in Cairns, Queensland. It is supposedly winter here, but when we arrived at around 9:30am it felt around 75 degrees outside. Wish New England winters were this pleasant! After settling in at our hostel and going out to lunch (found a delicious small vegetarian place) we had a group meeting with one of our leaders/coordinators, Tony. He gave us an introduction we were mostly too jetlagged to listen to, then since we need to stay up in order to get over our jet lag quicker, we took a walk down to the Esplanade, a GORGEOUS park/beach area with a live band playing (I will take pictures next time I go). We also explored the area around our hostel (downtown Cairns) before dinner.

Most of the time so far I feel the exact same being here as being somewhere else, but it’s the small random unfamiliar things that remind me. On my Dallas-Brisbane flight, when I handed my empty food tray back to the flight attendant and told him "thank you", his response was "cheers, love". That and the three whole seasons of the big bang theory on demand pretty much made that flight for me. After I got over the shock of all the accents (yes it was a shock even though I knew it was coming), there's the lingo. I've been on Australian soil for less than 24 hours, and already I've learned take-out is take-away, granola bars are muesli bars, the elevator is the lift (already knew that one at least), I and every single person around me are "mate", the response to "thank you" is "cheers", flip flops are thongs (I'm not sure what thongs are...), texts are SMS, and a drug store is, well, not like a 7 eleven. Another thing I notice is the birds and trees are all different from most I've seen before. Other than palm trees and plain grass, I don't recognize any plants, and the only birds I recognize are seagulls (although they're smaller here, more like pigeons). The birds are everywhere making strange bird calls I've never heard in my life. It's really lucky everyone on my trip is interested in ecology because it means I'm not the only one who stops to look for the bird responsible for the strange calls.

This is all I can write right now as I am completely exhausted, but I'll try to get some pictures to post next time.