Sunday July 24th, 2016; Efland, North Carolina

Hello everyone!

By now y’all should have made it back to your final destinations!

We want to thank all of you once again for making this a wonderful trip and a seminal experience.  Our month was intense:  now seek to take some time off for yourself and reflect on your experiences.

As we were on our landing approach to Los Angeles airport I (Alex) was looking out the window down on the sea of homes that make up the LA basin.  I realized that this was just another place with the same challenges and the same hopes as Australia.  I then wondered what a 1-month “Study Abroad Program to the United States” would be like?  What cities would one visit and what places would be on the itinerary?  What plants and animals would be covered in such a class?  How would a foreign visitor read and perceive American colonial history?   How would the group engage with America’s First Nations, and with other marginalized minority and economic groups?  We had experienced the middle of an important National Australian election – how would an outsider experience America’s current election?  What would they learn about America and its people?  More importantly, how would a foreign student on a 1-month Study Abroad program be changed by their US experience?  What would they treasure, what would they remain puzzled about, what would they share with their friends and families?

It is said that we travel not to learn about other cultures but to learn about our own through contact with the unknown.  We hope that our Duke in Australia experience was such a moment for you.  We have our own social, economic, and cultural challenges in the US and we hope that by having thrown a focused and often critical eye on Australia, you have gained new ways to think about your own country.   We would hope that your view of  “common sense” has been challenged – what seems totally obvious in one country might actually be viewed as completely askew in another.   We find this to be a direct challenge to so many things we hold dear: an uncomfortable position to be in.  Revel in that discomfort, it is what makes you grow as an individual.

Next time you walk through that city park, the Duke campus, or the local forest preserve, stop and think……and perhaps learn to identify a plant, an insect..perhaps that “creepy” spider (no worries, chances are the latter will be much smaller than their counterparts in Australia…;)).  Learn something about it, log it, remember it, make it part of your own experience.  Maybe even get out that hand lens and take a closer look at your own “probably-not-so-ordinary” home world.

Have a wonderful rest of the summer and keep in touch.

Alex and Hannah

As many of the members of the Duke in Australia group could probably attest to, I am not what one would call a “morning person”.  That said, I woke up on the morning of the last day we would spend in Daintree as groggy as usual with no real capacity to even think for myself.  When I finally managed to get to the restaurant of PK’s Jungle for breakfast, I could still barely eat my cornflakes because that was asking just too much.  However, one thing did dawn on me that morning.  Today would be the last day we would venture out into Australia as a group.  There were some other privately scheduled activities that smaller groups had signed up for, but today would be the last day that we would walk on Australian soil as a group with Alex at the head, probably leading a discussion about rocks (something that I had come to appreciate at this point).  With that in mind, I decided that I wanted to make a point of appreciating everything today had to offer, no matter how small.

After leaving PK’s Jungle behind, we pushed on to Daintree’s Discovery Center, which is located in the middle of the rainforest.  I immediately could see that this Discovery Center was like no other equivalent I know in America.  The center is actually a part of the forest itself.  Its built around the environment so that each tree and plant can be appreciated without disturbing a single individual.  As is the usual with many of our tours, we were met at the entrance by a guide who had by now led us through the entrance of the center.  One of the first, and most profound things he told the group is that of the 19 families of primitive flowering plants that exist in the world, 13 are housed in Australia.  Of those 13, 12 exist in the Daintree Rainforest, which is a testament to the forest’s level of maintained biodiversity.  I can say with confidence that the biodiversity was evident even to the untrained eye.  There were so many different varieties of trees all around us that it was almost impossible to take it all in.

A particular group of plants that was extremely prevalent in the forest consist of epiphytes.  Epiphytes are basically plants that require other individuals for support in order to grow.  One of the most common of these is vines.  There were so many vines that it was actually hard to find a tree without one winding its way up the tree’s trunk in order to reach the sunlight.  While the vines are largely parasitic, they do serve an important function in tying the forest canopy together, which is conducive to a humid environment.  Increased humidity is one of many conditions that the plants of a rainforest require in order to grow properly.  As a fun fact about vines, they generally grow clockwise in accordance with the sun rise and set.

(photo credit: Emilio Feijoo)

One other observation that the group made collectively was that there was an abundance of fruit in the forest in all sorts of shapes and sizes.  Funny enough, 80% of the fruit found in the Daintree rainforest is actually poisonous to humans.  However, many of the varieties do look appetizing due to the assortment of vibrant colors.  Vibrantly colored fruit is often an advantageous trait for a tree if there are many animals around to consume the fruit.  Animals are often attracted to a fruit that stands out from the rest of the tree.  The more noticeable the fruit is, the more likely it will be eaten.  The purpose of this for the plant is purely seed dispersal.  For instance, the Cassowary will swallow the cassowary plum whole and carry the seed up to 20 km. before dropping the seed.  The plum itself is a bright violet color, and is one of the preferred foods of the cassowary.

Fruit of the rainforest. (photo credit: Emilio Feijoo)

As we made our way along the cat walk that snaked its way through the forest, we finally came to set of stairs.  At the top, we found ourselves overlooking the forest, which extended for quite some distance in any direction.  The view was breathtaking to say the least.   Photos would never be able to capture beauty of any of the views that we have had the privilege of appreciating in Australia, no matter the camera.  While we were up above the trees, our surroundings were made that much more magical by closing our eyes and listening to the sounds of the forest.  Often times, we would here the calls of a variety of birds, all which our guide could name instantly as soon as he heard them.

View out over the canopy. (photo credit: Emilio Feijoo)

Bullockornis. (photo credit: Emilio Feijoo)

Diprotodon. (photo credit: Emilio Feijoo)

Our next stop in the Discovery Center was the Jurassic walk.  This was especially interesting because animatronic versions of much of the commonly known mega fauna that used to roam Australia were on display.  This included a wide range of dinosaurs and massive marsupials.  One such marsupial that we all took pleasure in seeing was the Diprotodon, which is basically just a huge wombat.  When I say huge though, I mean huge.  Diprotodon was easily the size of a small truck.  This thing was also pretty ugly to boot.  The fact that it was technically a wombat made it somewhat amusing in that wombats are relatively small and cute in the modern era.  Diprotodon was rather fun, but I have to say my personal favorite was the Demon Duck of Doom, which was basically an oversized chicken.  The name alone was enough to send me into a fit of laughter.  It didn’t help that it didn’t live up to its name at all.  Its size was on par with the rest of the mega fauna, but its features were so utterly ridiculous that no one would every think it menacing.  In my opinion, the Demon Duck of Doom was basically a giant dodo.

Strangler Fig. (photo credit: Emilio Feijoo)

The tour was concluded with a look at the strangler fig, which is the forest’s oldest known plant.  It’s been estimated that the plant is about 500 to 600 years old.  As the name might suggest, the strangler fig is actually a vine of sorts.  Though it is parasitic in nature, the strangler fig serves as important food source for many animals in the area.  In addition to food production, it also drops a large amount of organic matter, which goes on to become soil that fosters the growth of new plants.  There is definitely a lot of give and take with this plant, but I believe that its presence is largely beneficial, especially given that provides so much food to the animals almost year round.

Stinging tree (heart-shaped leaves in center of picture). (photo credit: Emilio Feijoo)

Though the strangler fig was interesting, I have to say that the most interesting specimen we encountered was actually nearer to the beginning of our tour.  This individual, known as the stinging tree, is commonly regarded as the most painful Australia.  It’s easily identifiable due to its beautiful heart shaped leaves.  The tree has silica spines that line its exterior.  Each spine is segmented, and within each of those segments is a type of poison.  Among those toxins is a neurotoxin, and so this tree can do some serious damage to whoever has the misfortune of stumbling across it.  Our guide knew this all too well as he was that unfortunate someone who stumbled across this tree.  He had accidentally knocked his thigh up against the side of the tree, breaking off many of those spines in his leg.  The pain he felt could not be accurately described with words.  The worst thing one could do after being stung by this tree is wash out the toxins with cold water.  Naturally, that’s exactly what he did, being that he was acting on pure instinct.  This caused his pores to close on the silica stingers, releasing even more poison into his system.  I had to feel bad for him at this point.  Funny enough, he finished his work for the day, and returned home to self-medicate, and so I had a tremendous amount of respect for him right from the get-go.

Immature pods on a cocoa tree. (photo credit: Emilio Feijoo)

The second half of the day was filled by a brief, but sweet trip to the Puglisi farm.  I say sweet because this farm produces just two things: sugar cane and cocoa.  Upon arriving, we were first greeting and then shown a short video giving us the basics on sugar production.  Based on what I saw, I found it interesting that there seem to be nothing unnatural about the refining process of sugar.  That is to say, sugar refining simply removes impurities that could even be harmful if consumed.  Technically, brown sugar is no better for you than fine white sugar.  That was pretty noteworthy to me since there is a widely held (at least I think so) assumption in America that brown sugar or raw sugar is somehow healthier because it’s more natural, when really there is little to no difference.

I was also surprised to find out just how eco friendly the Puglisi farm is.  Almost nothing is thrown out.  When portions of a plant can’t be consumed, they are often turned into fertilizer for the next generation.  In the cane plant, the leaves at the tops of the stalk were commonly fed to horses back in the day.  Now they are still used, but more as a fertilizer since horses are no longer required on the farm.  Another interesting byproduct of sugar refining is bagasse, which is the fibrous material within the cane stalk.  This fibrous material now has a refining process of its own and is being used a dietary supplement called Kfibre.  In cocoa trees, the pods are what is often used as a filler for the fertilizer.  Recently, they have started using the white skin that surrounds the beans inside the pod in teas and soap.  A completely separate crop that the farm also produces that I was unaware of until I saw it is vanilla.  I had never seen vanilla before so I was surprised to find that it actually grows as a vine and the vanilla beans come from the vine’s flowers.

Vanilla plant. (photo credit: Emilio Feijoo)

After the information session, we were shown a portion of the crop, as well as what the machinery looks like.  Because machinery tends to be expensive these days, the Puglisi farm actually finds that it makes more sense to have an outside company do much of their harvesting.  That said, they don’t have too many harvesters, but the one they do have is absolutely massive.  I believe I compared it to a transformer of sorts in that it looks like it has legs at the front.  Their tractors are also quite cool in that they are extremely eco friendly.  They use a combination of diesel and urea in order to produce little to no emissions.  I believe we were told that you could hold a white handkerchief up to the exhaust for several hours while the tractor is running, and still have a white handkerchief afterwards.

Trying out the tractor. (photo credit: Emilio Feijoo)

By the day’s end we had finally made it to Cairns.  We receive a short tour of the basics in Cairns, and then immediately went to a place called The Woolshed for dinner, simply because we were told that it is frequented by Americans (and any slice of home we can get at this point is appreciated).  I return to the hotel absolutely exhausted as usual.  As I lie in bed, I am forced to think about how much I’m going to miss Australia.  However, the blow will definitely be softened by my return to the America and to my home.

This morning, I woke up and started preparing for the most physically challenging day of the trip. I am of course referring to our trek up the aptly named Mount Sorrow. Not everybody went on this hike. The only ones of us who did were Jana, Bella, Ryan, Kendrik, Connor, Jose, and myself. Anyway, as I was saying, I had to prepare for a tough day. First, I made sure to put on jeans because of the many leeches we expected to run into on our trip. Then, I went to the restaurant in PK’s Jungle Village to fill up my water bottle and buy myself a bottle of PowerAde to help stave off dehydration. At breakfast, we were given our packed lunches which consisted of another bottle of water and a chicken wrap. Now fully prepared, we set out on our hike.

The hike started out fairly uneventful. We had to first walk the approximately 1.1 kilometers from PK’s to the start of the trail. Upon seeing the path, our eighth member, Emilio, decided to turn back, but the seven of us listed above decided to press on. Despite a sign warning that this hike was only for “experienced bush-walkers with above average physical fitness”, we still set off for 7 hours of tough hiking. That first kilometer only gave us a general idea of what we were in for. It was definitely a steep uphill slope not made any easier by the rain we received the day and night before, but it would turn out to not be the worst part of the hike. We were in a lowland rainforest filled with all sorts of vines. Some of the spikier vines got caught on our clothes and in our hair. During this first kilometer is when we saw the most wildlife. For a while here, Jose was leading the group and he stumbled upon a Boyd’s forest dragon crossing the path. It scurried up a nearby tree where it blended in pretty well. We all managed to get a good look at it but we unfortunately failed to get a picture. We also saw a cane toad which just sat there as we stared at it.

Cane Toad. (photo credit: Kendrik Icenhour)

Leech. (photo credit: Kendrik Icenhour)

The second kilometer was definitely the easiest section of the Mount Sorrow hike. It began with a slight downhill before switching into a slight uphill before the tough uphill. Now, when I say slight, that is just in comparison to the rest of the hike and I do not mean slight in the traditional sense of the word. It was still a decent incline. The only really difficult part of this kilometer was hopping over the many logs and trying not to slip on the wet roots that were almost constantly underfoot. It was at this point that we first ran into another hiker who warned us that there was still a ways to go. By this point, we were in more of an upland rainforest ecosystem. The only wildlife we noticed here were the leeches as this is when we first discovered several on our clothing. We used this part of our journey as a sort of rest before the worst final section of the uphill portion of our hike.

Connor on the rope. (photo credit: Noah Over)

Everybody resting for a second during the steep section. (photo credit: Noah Over)

The last kilometer and a half were without question the most physically challenging section of the hike. It was extremely steep for almost the entire section. There were several safety ropes placed along the path to prevent us from falling off the edge as well as a rope we had to hold onto to pull ourselves up to the next section. We decided to take this section one person at a time to avoid putting too much pressure on the rope. Along this section, we noticed some huge ants carrying what Alex believes is a grasshopper when we showed him the picture after our return. We had also entered more of a wattle forest as we approached the summit. By this point, I was leading the group and I remember being the first to see the metal platform at the top of the mountain. Upon seeing it, I had a feeling of accomplishment wash over me. Despite taking numerous water breaks, we managed to ascend the mountain in a little over 3 hours.

Group picture at the top with the pants in the background. (photo credit: Kendrik Icenhour)

Group picture at the top with the clouds in the background. (photo credit: Kendrik Icenhour)

At the top, we took numerous pictures. They were mainly all of clouds because that is all we could see. While that view was disappointing, you could tell we were proud of ourselves. We had managed to hike to the top of 680 meter high summit. After clearing ourselves of leeches for the umpteenth time, we broke out our chicken wraps and ate chunks of them because we had to balance our hunger with the awful taste of these wraps. Before starting our descent, we took a couple group pictures.
While the ascent may have been more physically challenging, it does not make it the easier part. On the way back, we had to pay close attention and slow down in the steeper sections to prevent slipping. Unfortunately, we were not entirely successful as Connor did fall and cut his hand open on a rock. In his defense, pretty much all of us either fell or stumbled a couple of times. Luckily, we ran into another couple of hikers who were outpacing us on the way back down. They managed to have the clouds clear up for them for a few minutes and snapped a picture of the amazing view we could have seen. We did manage to acquire this picture from them before continuing on our way. We were all too focused on not falling to pay attention to the wildlife at all on the way back down. Personally, the only parts of nature I paid attention to on the way back were the trees and vines I was grabbing onto for balance.

Actually good view from the top. (photo credit: Random Hiker)

Group picture at the end of the hike. (photo credit: Kendrik Icenhour)

At the bottom, we snapped another group picture before heading back to PK’s. Once back at camp, we all showered while checking for leeches. Kendrik found one that had fattened itself up with blood on his foot and there was still plenty on clothes. We also tossed all of our mud-covered clothing into the wash since we were heading out the next day before hitting up the café next door as our reward for such an accomplishment. After that, I cannot speak for everybody else but I just relaxed for the rest of the day since I had already spent my energy for the day. Overall, I believe everybody was fairly pleased that they went and they all felt accomplished despite being tired and sore.

A wise royal blue tang fish once said, “You know what you’ve got to do when life gets you down? Just keep swimming.” While I don’t suggest taking her words too literally (it’s Australia, and swimming is a great way to die), it certainly helped me get through some “rough seas” today.

Royal Blue Tang. (photo source: Bella Rivera)

Following another delectable breakfast at PK’s Jungle Village, our captain delivered the news: wind conditions had created waves nearly 4 feet high at the Great Barrier Reef, and it was no longer safe to go on our snorkeling trip. After shedding a tear or two (or 42… but who’s counting?), I kept my head above water long enough to enjoy a few pieces of cake by the ocean. After some failed yoga poses and dancing in the rain, we took some group photos and headed back to our cabins. Though it didn’t clear my mind, the view definitely helped calm my nerves until we received further news.

Storm over the rainforest. (photo credit: Bella Rivera)

Walking along the Daintree beach, it’s impossible to ignore the thousands of circular sand mounds created ghost crabs. These crabs, like many others, process the nutrients (particularly carbon) from the sand and greatly contribute to the carbon cycle. I appreciate the carbon cycle just as much as the next person, but walking on that beach at nighttime is a bit of a nightmare. Thousands of ghost crabs practically fly across the sand, and you practically have to walk sideways to avoid them.

Ghost crabs. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

Ghost crab homes. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

Thankfully, after a few hours of shifting trips around, we were able to fix our bookings. During the free days in Cairns, I’ll now be white water rafting, bungee jumping, and resuming the search for Nemo at the Great Barrier Reef. Shout out to Natalie and Tash of the PK staff for calmly dealing with the frenzy of students begging for refunds and rescheduling. Once we had our ducks in a row, several of us jumped in the pool for a bit before the beach hike. As a Floridian accustomed to jumping into every body of water I see, it was comforting to swim without the fear of crocodiles. It was also a bit of a flashback to my childhood, as we poorly reenacted scenes from Disney movies and played pool games.

One of the first sights along the Cape Tribulation hike were the waves breaking; though that’s a scene typical of most beaches, these waves instead peaked several feet into the ocean. As it turns out, this is the location of the Myall reef, a famous fringe reef composed of brown, coral-like algae. These algae produce calcium carbonate, which harden in mounds that become the reef. This particular reef has reached equilibrium of erosion and growth, which make it appear dead to the untrained eye (given it’s “bland” brown color and lack of expansion). Unfortunately, the tide wasn’t far enough down for us to catch a glimpse of the reef. Zero for two with the reef sightings today.

Coralline algae. (photo credit: Bella Rivera)

While the Great Barrier Reef developed somewhere around 10,000 years ago, the Myall reef is somewhere around 1,000 years old. Generally speaking, fringe reefs first appeared about 8,000 years ago, when the Earth saw its highest temperature and sea level since the latest ice age. Roads and development in the Daintree area specifically have since increased sedimentation flow, which weathers away at the Myall reef. In the future, the erosion of this reef and others like it will strengthen the impact of longshore currents on the beach, likely weathering them into a narrow or even nonexistent coastline. It’s a sad time for reefs worldwide, and I’m grateful to be touring the Great Barrier Reef before it’s too far gone.

The Daintree beach sand contained several elements that we were able to identify with the help of a hand lens. The translucent or glass-like material was quartz, which was plentiful and likely originated from the granite-based mountains nearby. Similarly, the traces of muscovite probably came from the mountains. A large group of us plan on hiking one of these steep mountains tomorrow, appropriately named “Mt. Sorrow”. The sand’s overall brownish color came from the lithic fragments, while the black and orange particles came from mafic minerals. The classic white color of the sand came from shell fragments. This combination of materials led us to identify this sand as clastic, meaning that the sand was derived mostly from land, rather than materials brought in by the sea.

Very dramatic views of Cape Tribulation. (photo credit: Bella Rivera)

As we neared the rising shoreline, we caught a glimpse of a tidal bore (where the freshwater meets the saltwater). Peeking out of the water was a saltwater crocodile, one of the many water-dwelling creatures in Australia that could strike at any moment. Speaking of which, we also came across the Portuguese Man O’ War, which is an incredibly deadly jellyfish. I easily spotted 20 of them on the return to camp. How comforting.

Our local estuarine crocodile. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

Man o’ War. (photo credit: Bella Rivera)

Ironically enough, as we learned about the tides, we discovered that we could no longer cross the area we needed for the remainder of the lesson. The rising tide quickly covered the remaining land strip and blocked off the path. This same tide also prevented us from having discussion later this evening. Though we planned to have a bonfire, the greatly reduced shoreline swallowed our proposed spot and the rainfall alone probably would have prevented a successful fire. Geology in action, once again.

Tidal inlet. (photo credit: Bella Rivera)

As a whole, PK’s Jungle Village has been quite the experience so far. As a self-identified arachnophobe, I came to Australia in hopes of getting over my fear (by exposure). Though I’m still not fond of Charlotte or her web, I’ve come to appreciate them much more. The giant golden orb spiders outside my cabin, which we’ve now named Eve and Steve, are larger than the palm of my hand. Most other spiders I’ve seen, even during our rainforest night hike, pale in comparison.

Eve. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

Steve. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

Not a single thing went according to plan today. The reef trip was cancelled, the tide cut off our hike, and the rain postponed our class discussion. But that’s okay. Despite its highs and lows, it all seems to be going just fine. Like Dory said, all you’ve got to do is keep swimming (just not in the water, in our case). What will the future have in store for us in Cairns? We’ll just have to see.

Although my entire cabin got roughly eleven hours of sleep, none of us were ready to start our first full day in Daintree: all six of us hit the snooze button as soon as our alarms went off. After saying “Good morning” to the giant Golden Orb spider right outside our door, I slowly made my way to breakfast. For the first time on this trip, all of us had the morning off to relax and catch a much-need break from an incredibly packed, but amazing, itinerary. After all, most free days in Sydney were spent frantically finishing our term papers. Some of us went straight back to bed, while others hung around the pool and played cards. A few adventurous people went to a nearby swimming hole that was deemed crocodile-free.

Group photo on the beach! (photo credit: Jana Woerner)

In preparation for our Great Barrier Reef snorkeling trip, Alex and Hannah took us to the beach in the afternoon for a lecture on reefs. As somebody with little background knowledge in marine ecology, I always thought that reefs were simply rocks that had corals and sponges living on them. However, reefs are actually build by the skeletons of dead organisms, including archaeocyathans, sponges, bryozoans, and corals. Since the Great Barrier Reef is famous for its corals, we spent most of our time discussing these “upside down jellyfish with skeletons.”

An idyllic lecture location? We were grateful for the shade. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

Corals are part of the phylum cnidaria, which are classified by the presence of cnitocysts. These harpoon-like structures fire toxins into the skin as a defense mechanism, making some cnidarians more dangerous than sharks – some organisms, such as the fire coral, mainly just lead to a lot of irritation, whereas some organisms, such as the man-of-war jellyfish, can actually kill you.

These organisms may be harmful to us, but more importantly, we are incredibly harmful to them. Modern corals have a symbiotic relationship with dinoflagellates – both organisms benefit from their interactions. Dinoflagellates can be both heterotrophic and autotrophic, meaning that they can get their energy from tiny organisms they catch or directly from the sunlight through photosynthesis. Since corals stay close to the water surface, they provide dinoflagellates with the perfect home and lots of sunlight. In return, corals receive up to 60% of their energy from these dinoflagellates, making them extremely dependent. In fact, many corals are not able to survive without dinoflagellates.

Furthermore, corals are also very sensitive to temperature, as well as nutrient content within their surrounding waters. As we continue to contribute to climate change through burning fossils fuels and emitting greenhouse gases into our atmosphere, oceans continue to warm up. Although this temperature increase seems relatively small to us, corals are unable to withstand temperature changes greater than 2°C, making these small temperature changes deadly. In terms of nutrient content, corals are adapted to scarce quantities. As more and more nutrients are deposited in the oceans due to fertilizer run-off, corals become stressed.

When corals get stressed, they expel the dinoflagellates they depend on. Although not enough research has been done on coral reefs, scientists believe there are two major reasons for this stress response. First, corals try to conserve their resources during stressful times, and thus stop growing, a process that dinoflagellates help with. Second, these dinoflagellates also get stressed and produce toxins in response. Since dinoflagellates give corals their color, the ejection of dinoflagellates turns corals white, a phenomenon known as coral bleaching. Eventually, these corals will starve to death.

Sticking to our theme of “everything in Australia can and will kill you”, we spent the second half of our lecture talking about all of the animals that we shouldn’t touch while we’re snorkeling by the reef. The scorpion fish stood out the most to me: if it stings you, its toxins mess with your nervous system in such a way that everything hot feels cold to you, whereas everything cold feels hot to you. In our case, the pleasant, cool water we would be snorkeling in would suddenly feel like as though we were submerged in boiling water. Although this may not necessarily kill you, these effects can often last for two or three weeks.

Throughout the entire lecture, all of us also experienced several mini heart attacks as we noticed a little girl repeatedly go into the ocean to play. Since the first day of this trip, we’ve been told not to go anywhere near the water, no matter how beautiful or inviting it looks. Why? The answer is simple: crocodiles. In this case, a 5 meter (roughly 15 feet) saltwater crocodile that has been spotted recently around Daintree. Luckily, we all managed to survive the afternoon without a crocodile sighting.

After a nutritious dinner consisting of chicken nuggets and fries (sorry mom!), we went on a night hike through the rain forest. After our guide mentioned that he had seen tree kangaroos on these hikes before, my group spent a majority of the time looking for any black tails that may be dangling from branches, a tell-tale sign that there might be a sleeping kangaroo. Unfortunately, we only found some kangaroo scats, as well as chewed leaves, both of which indicated that tree kangaroos were likely hanging out in the area earlier that day.

Instead, most of the animals we saw were insects, much to my dismay. A prominent creature was the Huntsman Spider – some of which were almost the size of my hand. These spiders are known for their hunting skills: rather than building webs to catch insects, they spend most of their time near the ground to attack any insects that get too close to them. In order to be successful hunters, these spiders are incredibly fast. In addition, they can move in any direction. As a result, Huntsman spiders are able to kill their prey and move back to their hiding spot within the blink of an eye. Luckily, we also saw three Boyd’s Rainforest Dragons, lizards that are only found in this rainforest, as well as several tree frogs.

A Southern Boobook Owl we saw outside our camp. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

(Dead) Huntsman spider being overtaken by fungus. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

Our guide, Jordan, hiding behind a buttress root. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

Boyds Rainforest Dragon (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

Tree frog. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

Butterfly! (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

Once we returned to our cabins, most of passed out from exhaustion within minutes, trying to get as much sleep as possible for another exciting day in Daintree.

Wow only a week left now until we depart back for the states and what an adventure it has been so far! I am here to report about Day 16 here in Australia where we were finishing up our stay in Sydney with a few fun activities. It was a rise and shine early morning on Saturday July 9th, we were off to the inner Sydney Harbor for an Eco-Kayak Tour and what a beautiful site that was. Multi-million dollar homes lined the shore of our kayak voyage and under the direction of Fernando and his crew we made a safe loop around the area stopping for tea, coffee, hot chocolate and biscuits about halfway through. It was so much fun!  Groups of two occupied the kayaks and it took us around 3-4 hours to complete the entire trip, you could say muscles were in the making during that morning.

Ready to go! (photo credit: Bri Kleiner)

Nice houses! (photo credit: Bri Kleiner)

En route! (photo credit: Bri Kleiner)

A lovely view. (photo credit: Bri Kleiner)

Despite being exhausted and a little damp from the salty spray and splashes from kayaking, some of us headed to Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens. Celebrating its 200th anniversary after having been established in 1816, the botanical gardens was nothing short of what could be called a trek. Aleksandra and I spent our free day there (from around 10:30am to 2:30pm) on a scavenger hunt through the gardens in order to complete our assignment. The assignment was to identify 25 plant species that were endemic (native) to Australia and were members of Genuses we talked about in class. To name a few in the pictures, we found a few Eucalyptus species, the rare Wollemi Pine, Norfolk Island Pine, Livistona australis, as well as Dicksonia antarctica. We hunted for as many different species as we could that we talked about, through the on-and-off showers that tried to break our spirits (It did not break mine as shown in my various silly faces). It was a tough challenge but we found 27 species, and narrowed down the 25 we thought were best to include. There were a few top ten garden highlights though that I definitely want to recommend though for future visitors to Sydney, Australia who may be reading this. Go to the Sydney Fernery, the Tropical Garden, the Aboriginal Tribe garden known as Cadi Jam Ora and also check out the free guided tours given by the tour guides in the information section of the Shops and Café area. The tour guides were extremely helpful when it came to pinpointing locations of various species and collections of plants that they thought would interest the garden’s visitors. In addition, they would give detailed background history about certain species of plants to those who were eager to listen.

(photo credit: Bri Kleiner)

(photo credit: Bri Kleiner)

(photo credit: Bri Kleiner)

(photo credit: Bri Kleiner)

(photo credit: Bri Kleiner)

(photo credit: Bri Kleiner)

(photo credit: Bri Kleiner)

We ended our Saturday at a classic rugby game at ANZ Stadium with the Bulldogs vs. the West Australian Tigers. We were given complimentary Bulldogs scarves (which are super warm) as well as the opportunity to take a group photo on the field with the Bulldogs! How cool is that? Definitely a great highlight of the trip, to experience the culture and climate of a sporting event in Australia. I still am not entirely sure of how the rules go, it looks like a mix of football and soccer, but I am sure I will understand the rules eventually! The Bulldogs ended up being victorious against the Tigers! What a great end to the game, and an amazing way to end the day. #DukeinAustralia2016 #GlobalEducation

Rugby! (photo credit: Bri Kleiner)

At the ANZ stadium. (photo credit: Bri Kleiner)

Proudly wearing our scarves! (photo credit: Bri Kleiner)

During the game (photo credit: Bri Kleiner)

On this morning I woke up excited for another day of fun, exploration and, of course, studying rocks! After a quick brekkie at Urban Nest we headed out to Botany Bay, the spot where James Cook first landed in 1770. Story says that Cook was so fearful of the Aboriginals on the beach that he sent the ship boy instead so technically the first British person to step foot on Australian soil was Isaac Smith.

Botany Bay! (photo credit: Melaney Mayes)

We took some time to explore the shore and looked at shells, rocks, and even a couple of starfish. Dr. Glass explained that Charles Darwin actually wrote a monograph on barnacles of all things because he was fascinated by their diversity and appearance. His study of barnacles eventually helped him develop his ideas of natural selection, demonstrating why it is so important to look at all organisms, not just those that are pretty or seem useful to us. Anika Richter, one of our very own, briefly became Aussie famous when a camera crew asked to film her looking at shells so look out for her the next time you are watching the Australian news (which I am sure you do all the time!)

Shells at Botany Bay. (photo credit: Melaney Mayes)

A sun star. (photo credit: Melaney Mayes)

And of course our day could not be complete without our daily dose of geology so we headed over to Sydney Head, which is one of the entrances to the Sydney Harbour. Dr. Glass was particularly excited about these sandstones because, in addition to all of the cool cross bedding, they also experienced columnar jointing, which is a super rare phenomenon that most geologists have never even seen. If you look at the picture you can see how a great deal of the rocks have taken on this rectangular look, with some being horizontal and others being vertical or even diagonal. No one really knows exactly how it forms but columnar jointing is almost always associated with volcanic intrusions or asteroid impacts. The theory is that after a volcanic intrusion the magma came up from below the joints so quickly and violently that the hot fluids shattered the sandstone and formed the columns.

Columnar sandstone. (photo credit: Melaney Mayes)

(photo credit: Melaney Mayes)

We also got to take a look at a couple of aboriginal drawings of sharks, whales and other fish. The paintings were originally done with iron but were recently outlined to preserve them.

Rock carvings over the original rock paintings. (photo credit: Melaney Mayes)

We also briefly went by the Bondi Beach Sewage Treatment Plant, or, more accurately, we looked at the vent attached to it because the plant is actually underground. It was built in 1893 to prevent sewage from building up in the Sydney Harbour and was the world’s only underground plant at the time. It was not the best looking (or best smelling) tower in my opinion but apparently attempts by the city to replace it were shut down by the community so at least the public likes it.

Sewage Tower. (photo credit: Melaney Mayes)

Next, we walked along a grass field that was built over the enormous 9.2 inch breech-loading Buckler Gun. Shortly after being built it was hidden underground with hydraulics to push it up for use. It was active throughout WW1 and WW2 but has never been shot. All of other guns made at the time were melted down but this has been named an archeological site and remains intact. From there we walked through a bit more of the city and, after briefly getting lost, we made our way back to the bus to head home.

View from Sydney Heads. (photo credit: Melaney Mayes)

Last but certainly not least, we settled down after dinner to watch a movie that would later be known as the strangest film ever written. It documented the surprisingly comical history of the invasive cane toad species, but really ended up being a movie on how the scientists and general Australian public alike were outsmarted by an amphibian.

Cane Toad! (source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/752470-3×2-940×627.jpg)

These charming guys were brought to Australia in an attempt to solve the problem of the cane beetle, which was destroying sugar cane crops. Not only did the toads fail to control the beetle population, since the beetles could fly and the toads could not, they also rapidly multiplied and quickly took over Queensland. Scientists considered introducing a new predator species to stop the cane toads as well as creating a native virus to kill them off, neither of which would have yielded positive results. The public soon resorted to squishing, shooting, and even freezing the toads as a way to fight against the never ending herd of amphibians. While I did learn a great deal from the film, I am still unsure whether it was supposed to be a documentary, drama, comedy or thriller. Actually, to be honest, I’m not sure it was even about cane toads because they spent a considerable amount of time on the story of Wallace the dog, who fell victim to the cane toad’s toxins. All of our hearts wrenched as we watched Wallace go through the hardest battle of his life. Fortunately, Wallace pulled through and made a full recovery, aside from some possible brain damage…

As usual, I decided to go to bed around 10 pm last night. All of my classmates except for one ventured to the immaculate Sydney Opera House last night to take in an Aboriginal dance performance, and then returned back to our wonderful hostel to diligently work on their term papers or animal presentations. Most of them were up awfully late.

This made waking up this morning at 7:00 am particularly hard. As I woke up and made my toast for breakfast, my friends would sluggishly walk into the kitchen and haphazardly begin making their morning meals. When we met to discuss a few scientific and historical papers regarding Australia this morning, 7 of our group of 20 were late. Needless to say, we were exhausted.

The weather in Sydney did not remedy this issue either. When we walked to our classroom within the University of Technology Sydney’s campus, we were met with a howling wind, a drizzle of rain, and a brutal cold. As we begrudgingly waded to our classroom, thoughts of coffee and pastries were the only thing on our minds. After a quick detour, we made our way to our classroom where we had a roundtable discussion about the evolution and adaptation of the indigenous flora and fauna of Australia.

When our class ended at 11:30, we broke to grab some lunch before we prepared to go to the Bondi Sewage Treatment Plant and walk around Sydney Heads. We met in the lobby of our hostel at 12:30 pm, and mentally readied ourselves to fight exhaustion for the next six hours. Fortunately, we were met with a surprise. Our thoughtful and gracious professors decided that we all deserved a day of rest. We are going on a full day of adventuring tomorrow, so a day to recuperate from the almost 3 weeks of hiking and learning is a magnificent gift.

However, I am in Australia, and I can “relax” at home. So, along with 4 other Duke students, I was determined to get the most out of my day in Sydney. We asked Dr. Glass for directions to Bondi Beach, we were going to go on the planned hike no matter how exhausted we were. We hopped on train and headed to Bondi Beach, with no expectations of what we were about to see.

Bondi Beach. (photo credit: Hunter McGhee)

There aren’t words to capture how truly beautiful Bondi Beach was. The picture above just does not do it justice. I’m not ashamed to say that I teared up when approaching the bay from our bus stop. It was magnificent. This was my first time seeing the Pacific Ocean, and gifted with this free day, free of notes, free of worries, free of constraints, I was able to take in the breadth of what stood before me. Rain was still drizzling down upon us, but at that point it didn’t matter. I heard the seagulls flying above, saw the waves crashing along the rocks, felt the spray of the ocean, and smelled the saltwater in the air. My senses completely shut everything else out except for the splendor of my surroundings.

Beach selfie! (photo credit: Hunter McGhee)

After throwing caution to the wind, we all took our hiking boots off and wading into the freezing water. And when I say freezing, I mean it. It was frigid. But it didn’t matter, neither did the rain. Next, after about an hour and a half splashing in the surf, we made our way towards the cliffs on the perimeter of the beach. Now, if you were to show me two rocks and explain why they are significant, I’d probably laugh at you. Until today at least. The geology surrounding the bay and along the cliffs had me dumbfounded.

A cave (photo credit: Hunter McGhee)

Sydney is built upon sandstone, a very soft rock. The water and sea breeze has weathered and withered the rocks into smooth surfaces and astonishing architectural forms. At the peak of the coastline there was a small naturally formed cave, where two large rocks are overlapping a smaller plateau of the cliff. The sandstone had been weathered differently in different places along the sides and ceiling of the cave. To me, the ceiling was equivalent to the Sistine Chapel, with nature being Michelangelo.

(photo credit: Hunter McGhee)

As you can see, I was captured by the magnificence. Nature as an artist was a common theme along the coast, with beautiful flowers appearing everywhere along our path. As we were leaving, we came across a collection of banksia trees. The banksia themselves were beautiful in their own way, they were by far the largest banksia species I have seen in my time here, and they happened to be flowering.

Hibiscus flower. (photo credit: Hunter McGhee)

This is a hibiscus flower we spotted along our walk up the cliff face after a small break in the rain.

The flowering brought about another example of the pristine magnificence of nature. As we were examining the trees, we heard a loud dissonance of chirps and calls from the limbs of the surrounding trees. When we looked above, we witnessed a beautiful display of color which rivaled Vivid, the Festival of Lights in Sydney. A flock of rainbow lorikeets had decided that banksia nectar was on the dinner menu. Now I was about as interested in birds as I was in rocks, but yet again, this location changed my point of view.

Everything in nature is an indicator of something. Nothing is just there for its appearance. That has been the most important thing I have gotten out of studying here in Australia. Nature is not something that is made for us to enjoy. It is a living entity, which is constantly telling a story. From the water in the ocean, the grains of sand on the beach, to the flora on the cliff faces, and the fauna scurrying around the ground, each entity in every environment is functioning together with one another in an unimaginable display of harmony. Needless to say, I will never forget my time here at Bondi Beach.

(photo credit: Hunter McGhee)

We had a pretty early start to the day this morning, but breakfast is key so Kendrik and I made some delicious scrambled eggs with green onions and tomatoes (shout out to my dad for teaching me how to make them long ago), and some kale at like 7 am. Once everyone was ready and coffeed up, we had a short class discussion on a reading, and then took the train down to Circular Quay. The trains and general public transportation here are so convenient and easy to catch, which happens to be a novelty coming from the land of late and unreliable buses back home.

The view of Circular Quay from the train station (including the Sydney Harbor Bridge and Sydney Opera House). (photo credit: Anika Richter)

To be completely honest, this day seemed to be the day that literally everyone in our group experienced a collective exhaustion and crankiness, but it was bound to happen at some point when you spend every waking hour with a group of 20 people right? So yea, it was just one of those days for our whole group, but maybe it was a necessary reality check to bring us back down to Earth from the fantasy land we had been living in the past 2 weeks.

Anyway, all downers aside, we had a day filled to the brim with walking tours and history. The plan for the day had been to take a tour of the Rocks (the area near the Sydney Harbor that had originally housed the first convicts, but is now full of stores and high-end restaurants), eat lunch, and then have another tour of the Hyde Park Convict Barracks. We started out our first tour in high spirits and, at least amongst the students, we all really enjoyed our tour guide. She was a charismatic woman of Aboriginal descent, and seemed to know so much about the local, historical Aboriginal culture. (Much to our disappointment, we later learned that some of her statements were not quite factual ~yikes~, but that is a different story for a different time and, for me, did not devalue the experience.) Even though it was cold and windy, I found myself completely engaged in her stories about Aboriginal rituals, the local plants and their uses to the indigenous people, and the basic history of the Aboriginal people of that region. At one point, to show how they used one plant, she put water on my hand and hit a flower called Grevillea against it, making a sugary, sweet nectar from it. She did lots of demonstrations with plants and tools, and I thought it was really cool to see how the original inhabitants of this land survived. We often become so far removed from our histories and the natural world, so I found it very grounding to be reminded that there is a way to live solely off of your surrounding, natural environment that people have been doing for thousands of years. Despite our excitement about this tour, however, we were all unaware of the fact that there had been a little mix-up in the tour we were supposed to take, so, rather than going off to lunch, we went on to the tour of the Rocks we were originally supposed to have.

By that point, I think everyone was hungry and exhausted from walking, and even Hannah and Alex seemed frustrated that the tour had not been what it was supposed to be. Nonetheless, we went on the next walking tour which had a very similar trajectory to the first, but rather than learning about Aboriginal culture and the invasion of their land, we were given the perspective of the European invaders. There were times when I found it extremely interesting to hear about the white settlers and the experiences of the British convicts as they made a new life for themselves in Australia, but I also found a lot of little things in the second tour that bothered me. For example, the Aboriginal woman had told us that whales were extremely sacred animals to the indigenous people, who would never hunt them, but if one was found dead already, every bit of the animal was put to use. She then discussed how the Europeans came and began a whaling industry, killing off huge populations of whales and using them only for their oil and ribs. Immediately after we had been told this though, the Euro-centered tour guide spoke of the whaling industry as a great economic opportunity and failed to acknowledge just how harmful it truly had been to both the ecosystem and the Aboriginal people. The disconnect of the second tour from the Aboriginal people in general seemed so problematic to me because, in a world that so heavily favors its white perspectives, indigenous people are rarely given a voice despite their integral role in the development of every early nation. The stories of the European invasion of countries like Australia or the United States cannot be told accurately if an entire half of the narrative is left out. Up until this moment, I had felt that every tour guide we had previously spoken to made sure to discuss the Aboriginal people’s role in the story, so that oversight coupled with the widespread exhaustion really wore me down in the moment.

Ruins and models of the original homes built on the Rocks—these are found in an alleyway behind current stores. (photo credit: Anika Richter)

Following our second tour, we had a short lunch, and then went to a third tour of the Hyde Park Convict Barracks. The little museum and our guide were, in my opinion, phenomenal, so I really regret that we all couldn’t give him the deserved amount of attention and enthusiasm that he gave us. The entire museum was essentially a display of the history of the building and the various convicts that passed through it. The coolest part, for me, was the portion of the wall that had the paint peeled off to reveal that the original builders of the barracks actually tagged the walls by signing the wall where they put in their work.

This is a model of the sleeping quarters of the convicts that stayed in the Hyde Park Barracks. There were two rows of tightly packed hammocks in this room. (photo credit: Anika Richter)

After an exhausting but informative day of walking tours, 18 of us had bought tickets to see Bangarra Dance Theatre perform at the Sydney Opera House, so we all got decked out in classy clothes and went to the world famous building. A few of us decided to get gelato before we went in even though it was FREEZING outside, so I got passion fruit, coconut, and macadamia dulce de leche gelato, and it was completely worth the numb hands. We then failed at getting any type of group shot in front of the opera house due to cold, wind, and our usual lateness (lol). The inside of the building was much different than I had anticipated because it was so confusing and had multiple theaters, but once we made it to the actual performance, it was incredible. Bangarra is a dance company that fuses Australian Indigenous dance with Contemporary dance, and, as a dancer myself, I was utterly blown away by the entire experience. I know we all felt the fatigue kick in sitting in those dimly lit, soft chairs, so if I could go back and see it again with a little more energy, I would in a heartbeat. It was honestly a once in a lifetime, bucket list-type experience though, and I wouldn’t change the night for anything!

Basically the only pictures we got in front of the opera house right before the show 🙂 (photo credit: Anika Richter)

Outside the opera house. (photo credit: Anika Richter)

Today I woke up and crammed all my stuff in my suitcase.  Our time in Katoomba was over – we were Sydney bound.

But not before we made one incredible pit stop at Featherdale Wildlife Park.  This zoo was a collection of almost every Australian animal I can name, and even more that I hadn’t heard of before.  There was so much to look at.  This place was a lot different from your typical American zoo where you see the same standard animals.  Instead of the usual elephants, giraffes, and flamingos, the Featherdale Wildlife Park was home to quokkas, echidnas, and dingoes.

Quokka from Featherdale Wildlife Park. (photo credit: Ryan Fitzgerald)

Echidna from Featherdale Wildlife Park. (photo credit: Ryan Fitzgerald)

Dingoes from Featherdale Wildlife Park. (photo credit: Ryan Fitzgerald)

There were tons of incredible animals at Featherdale Wildlife Park that I had never seen before in my life, but I was most excited to see the wombats.  My term paper for this course is on wombats, and it was just so exciting to get to see them in real life.  I’ll include some of my favorite wombat fun facts here for you just so you can see how awesome wombats are.  First off, they are the largest burrowing herbivores in the world and they have one of the most efficient digestive systems of any animal in the world.  The wombat’s rump is made of such thick skin that predators can’t even really hurt it by biting or scratching it there, so if they’re attacked, they just dive in their burrow and face their rump towards the predator.  Like all marsupials, wombats have pouches to carry and protect their young, but wombats’ pouches are a little different: they face backwards.  If they faced forwards, the dirt they dug up would go in there and suffocate their joey.  Wombats are amazing animals.  Three weeks ago when I was assigned them for my term paper, I just thought they were cute.  Now I think they’re way more than cute; wombats are survivors.  The three surviving species of wombats have all experienced dramatic habitat shrinkage since Europeans arrived in Australia.  One species, the Northern Hairy-nosed wombat was one of the rarest animals in the world in the 1980s when their estimated population size was 20-30 individuals.  With the help of conservationists and researchers, their numbers are now up to almost 200.  That’s amazing.  They didn’t have a Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat at Featherdale Wildlife park, but they did have the other two species, and it was absolutely amazing to get to see these animals here after having learned so much about them over the last couple weeks.

Me and my friend, the Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat. (photo credit: Ryan Fitzgerald)

Me and my other friend, Chester the Koala. (photo credit: Ryan Fitzgerald)

After we ran around Featherdale Wildlife Park on our own for a couple hours trying to see as many animals as we could while still waiting in the koala petting line several times, we gathered under a little pavilion with one of the zookeepers who brought out four of the zoo’s animals to talk about them with us.  First he brought out a shinglebacked skink named Mario.  He thought it was cute.  I did not. This lizard was pretty cool though because despite being a reptile, it gives birth to live young.  (Australia is so weird).  These lizards also mate for life which is really unique for reptiles.  Then he brought out a Tawny Frogmouth named Captain Feathersword, which was incredibly cool because this was one of the first animals we learned about in class upon our arrival to Australia.  We were all pretty excited to get to pet this amazing bird, which has some of the best camouflage I’ve ever seen on any animal.  Then he brought out a python named Stella, which was even less cute than the shingle-backed skink.  Just when I thought I couldn’t have liked this snake any less, the zookeeper told us that in the wild these snakes sit on the rocks by cave entrances and attempt to catch bats as they fly in and out of the caves.  (Again, Australia is freaky).  Thankfully the talk ended on a cute note with Gira the Koala.  The zookeeper pointed out an interesting fact about the koala in that its pouch actually faces upside down similarly to wombats.  While this pouch is a great adaptation for wombats, since it keeps the dirt out of their pouch and protects their joeys, it is actually ill suited for the koala’s environment.  As the koala sits upright in trees, this pouch opens towards the ground, and sadly sometimes baby koalas fall out of their mother’s pouches.

All too soon, we had to leave the Featherdale Wildlife Park.  From there, we headed to Sydney.  We arrived at our newest residence, Urbanest Sydney Central, and when we walked in, we were all really excited about it.  Not that the other where places we’ve stayed have been bad, but I think we all agree that this is our favorite place we’ve stayed so far.  When we arrived, we dropped our stuff off in our rooms, turned right back around, and went for a walking tour of Sydney to get our bearings and learn a little about the city.

Our tour guide was a super nice Sydneysider (that’s what people from Sydney are called) who gave us a quick introduction to the city and its history.  She told us of the explorers, sailors, and convicts who worked to establish both Sydney and Australia.  She also talked about the first 11 ships which came here, known as the “first fleet” in which convicts from Britain were brought to Australia to serve their prison sentences instead of sitting in British jails.  She was proud to tell us that her ancestors had come to Australia as convicts on the first fleet. Merely a decade or two ago, she said, people were embarrassed of their criminal heritage, whereas now people wear it as a badge of honor.

She also touched on the ways that Australia’s connection to the British commonwealth had influenced their political system.  Their government has some major differences from the political system we’re used to in America.  For one, in Australia you vote for a political party, not an individual when you cast your ballot.  Secondly, voting is mandatory.  If you don’t vote, you get fined.  This is true for all levels of elections, whether it be federal, state, or local.  Also, their campaigns only last eight weeks in an effort to limit the amount of resources and money spent on vote gathering as opposed to problem solving.  After a crash course on the Australian political system, we headed through High Park towards Sydney Harbor.

Sydney Harbor is picturesque beyond words.  I think we were all in awe as we stood there looking out on the water, realizing how lucky we were to get to be there.

The view of Sydney Harbor when we first arrived. (photo credit: Ryan Fitzgerald)

Over the course of our tour, the guide gave some great insight into Australian culture, and often talked about the modern relationship between Australians and Aboriginal peoples. She mentioned that all Australian textbooks had recently changed the wording of their histories so that instead of saying Europeans “colonized” Australia, they now say that Europeans “invaded” Australia.  Additionally, she told us that public schools will soon require their students in certain grade levels to take classes about local Aboriginal languages.  She pointed out that on the top of the Harbor Bridge were both the Australian national flag and the Aboriginal people’s flag.  The awareness that Australians seem to have of this dark point in their nation’s past is commendable in my opinion, and while the atrocities of history can never be undone, these signs of respect for the Aboriginal peoples are steps in the right direction towards a remedy for this horrific situation.

The Aboriginal peoples’ flag flying over the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  The black represents for the Aboriginal peoples’ skin, the red symbolizes the land, and the yellow is the sun. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

The tour was over, the view was beautiful, but we were all super hungry.  So we went to get our first meal in Sydney.  The tour guide recommended that we go over to a historic part of the city called The Rocks for food, and we managed to find a cute little pizza place in that area where we sat outside, despite the biting cold, so that we could overlook the harbor.  Determined to order something unique to Australia that I couldn’t get at home, I ordered a pizza called “The Aussie”.  In case you’re wondering, “The Aussie” comes with cheese, bacon, and eggs.  I don’t know how that makes it Australian.  You would think it would have crocodile, kangaroo, and maybe some emu.  But nope.  It was basically a breakfast pizza, but it was really good.

After “The Aussie”, we managed to use the Sydney public transportation for the first time, and miraculously, we didn’t get lost. We got back to the hotel, jumped into bed, and were almost immediately asleep after another exhausting, yet amazing day in Australia.

Last night, everyone was so incredibly excited to be able to sleep in in the morning- when I say sleep in, I mean wake up by 8 in order to have breakfast before a scheduled 7 hour hike. Instead of being able to sleep in a little as I had anticipated, I woke up to a cacophony of alarms at 7- the sound of college students who procrastinate in order to be able to enjoy their time abroad more at night and sacrifice their rest in the morning in order to work diligently.

After shaking of the grogginess from pulling an all nighter in an attempt to finish all of my work before Sydney, I began my morning routine for Katoomba- eating 3 bowls of Cocoa Pebbles and having a cup of instant coffee (strongly would not recommend the latter unless you are desperate). Even as a morning person, it was a little bit of a rough morning for me, and for everyone else I believe. The one thing keeping me going was the hike we were about to go on. Hiking is my favorite pastime, so 7 hours of it sounded incredibly appealing to me.

We left right at 10 am for Echo Point and the parts of the temperate rainforest around the area. Upon arrival, we immediately began to take notes on the soft tree fern. If you haven’t seen a tree fern, the best way to describe is like something out of the James Cameron film Avatar. It is literally a fern, fronds and all, stuck on a trunk that is reminiscent of that of a palm tree- incredibly other worldly. They can get rather tall- up to 50 feet in some cases- which lends itself to looking out of place in such a cold place as Katoomba. The coolest part about the trees are the sporangia underneath the leaves of the fronds, which are circular dots that are very geometrically aligned. They look too perfect to be put there by nature- it is absolutely incredible.

Soft Tree Fern! (photo credit: Kendrik Icenhour)

Tree fern leaves. (photo credit: Kendrik Icenhour)

View of the Three Sisters and the beautiful Blue Mountains. (photo credit: Kendrik Icenhour)

After this, our next stop was an enormous rock will which looked like a semi-circular sander had gone through the rock in a straight line across the bed, creating an overhang in the middle of the formation. Here, we sought coral ferns. These ferns look almost like grasses and ferns had babies, and made little ferns the height of yard grass. These ferns have extremely thick cuticles for holding in moisture, are in big bundles, and have an interesting branching pattern. They seem to be hexagonal, meaning that the splits between the branches make 120 degree angles. It was aesthetically pleasing to say the least.

Coral fern! (photo credit: Kendrik Icenhour)

Male Australian King Parrot. (photo credit: Kendrik Icenhour)

After about two hours out in the woods, we stopped at a rock face and talked about everyone’s favorite topic and the pinnacle of modern science: geology! We learned that rocks typically weather fairly randomly and that there is differential weathering. This is when there are two different rocks present (shale and sandstone in our case) and one (shale) weathers away at a faster rate than another (sandstone), leaving ledges like we saw around the coral ferns. We also talked about how sandstone is lithified, or cemented together. This process includes the collection of sediments (deposition), and eventually the sediments are buried under each other, creating high pressure environments. As the pressure builds, the sediments are compacted together, eliminated the space between the sediments and created what we know as rocks. These rocks, when under stress, crack and can shift, especially when weathering occurs- the pressure difference in the rocks causes the pores to expand and, thus, push off fragments of rocks.

After 2 more hours of walking around and looking and plants and rock formations, Dr. Glass announced we would be done early for the day by about 3 hours, which was rather exciting since it would allow us to work on our papers prior to getting to Sydney. So, we took the Scenic Railway up the side of a mountain- a 52 degree incline. It was a very touristy thing to do, but, when in Rome… It was an incredibly beautiful view and a great way to skip the hike up the side of the mountain.

Steepest railway in the world! (photo credit: Kendrik Icenhour)

On the railway. (photo credit: Kendrik Icenhour)

Lovely views from the train. (photo credit: Kendrik Icenhour)

Listing all the plants we’d seen in the Blue Mountains before clearing the board and moving on to Pictionary! (photo credit: Kendrik Icenhour)

After walking back to the hostel,  everyone immediately dug in in order to get work done in a last ditch effort (I know I’m making this trip sound arduous, it was just a day full of playing catch up). It was, however, the Fourth of July AND the ever lovely Hannah’s birthday, so we ordered pizzas and had a group dinner to celebrate! Also, huge shoutout to Priya and friends for walking all over Hell and half of Georgia in search of a cake for the birthday girl.

Following dinner, we played Pictionary. There were two teams, the Wattles and the Eucalypts, and lets just say it was the most nerve wracking, fun thing we did as a group. Never in my life have I ever wanted to see my professor do the Wattle dance, but alas, I am scarred for life. I believe everyone’s vocal chords will be recovering for quite some time.

Following our extremely aggressive game, we went outside and did American things, such as light sparklers because what Americans don’t celebrate the 4th of July while in a foreign country?

Sparklers! (rather fuzzy photo credit: Hannah Aird)

When we finished, everyone crawled into bed from sheer exhaustion, and another day here in paradise came to an end.

(photo credit: Helen McCarthy)

We started off the day at 9 am with a lively three-hour lecture from our very own Professor Glass on the hierarchy of life. See picture below to observe our makeshift classroom equipped with a white board, projector, and extremely comfy couches:

This lecture was particularly fascinating as we discussed the great chain of being and what evolution is. Some of the questions that were posed included:
o Why are there so MANY species all over the globe?
o Why are there species that are ‘useless’ to humans?
o Why do identical environments have different species in them?

It was quite refreshing to establish a link between class material on evolution and a more philosophical point of view. Essentially, we discussed why some species evolved and others did not. We pondered how the environment and climate shape evolution and culture. Furthermore, why are the Aboriginals of Australia considered less ‘evolved’ than Europeans? In the end, we concluded that species often have to be put in the context of their environment. Despite being illiterate nomads and lacking metal tools, the Aboriginals were highly adapted and successful in their environment. This challenges the idea that Europeans are inherently better than other humans. In fact, the most evolved creature (based on number of linear mutations) is an insect. This put a lot of what we have learned so far into perspective. I have grown up in an environment with air conditioning, accessible Wi-Fi, hot running water, and other modern amenities. But what is this at the expense of? Our lifestyle is not sustainable, so are we a truly advanced society if we are destroying the nature around us?

After this philosophical discussion (and a brief lunch break), we headed off into the Blue Mountains to hike the Wentworth National Pass. Professor Glass and Hannah had warned us that this would be strenuous four-hour hike. And they were right. Our fitness trackers indicated that in those four hours we had walked just over 4 miles and 85 flights of stairs. But it was absolutely worth it. We started in the woodlands at the top, but as we descended, we left the Eucalyptus trees and entered the temperate rainforest. Due to the steep cliffs and run off, there were some of the most spectacular waterfalls we have seen in Australia. As the Blue Mountains area is composed of plateaus on the top and a valley beneath it, there are even more stunning views of the vast landscape.

Waterfalls (photo credit: Yuming Shi)

Blue Mountain landscape (photo credit: Yuming Shi)

Our tour guide was named Clive and he knew an incredible amount of the breathtaking mountains. We spent quite a bit of time appreciating the variety of plant species around us. We got to walk through some hanging swamps, which are patches on the cliff edges where the soil is too waterlogged to grow other plants. Here, mosses, ferns, and sages thrive. Although (as a geologist), I would have rather talked about the incredible Narrabeen sandstone, it was wonderful to examine Sundews, which are the most adorable carnivorous plants you will encounter. These plants eat small insects in order to get nutrients to make up for the low-nitrogen soil they live in. One of the largest challenges to plants in the Blue Mountains is the shallow, sandy soil that is deficient in many nutrients.

A lovely heath plant (photo credit: Helen McCarthy)

Grass Tree! (photo credit: Helen McCarthy)

Another plant that has well adapted to the landscape is the Xanthorrhoea, more commonly referred to as the grass tree. The one we looked at was around 2.5 meters tall. Since these plants are incredibly slow growing, Clive estimated that it was upwards of 200 years old. This species is important food for many insects, birds, and small mammals in the area as it has sweet nectar. The Aboriginals utilized their sharp leaves for spear shafts and could cook the plant to make a useful glue compound. This plant has proven to be an incredibly important aspect of the Blue Mountain ecosystem.

After spending several hours on the cliff edges discussing the vast world around us, it was time to descend up. Needless to say, it was incredibly painful to climb the hundreds of steps. I sure was glad that I packed my inhaler. And I was even more excited that we reached the top before darkness.

We concluded the day by heading back to the Blue Mountain YHA hostel. After dinner, we had another discussion. It is then that Professor Glass asked us why we care about nature? Why do we look out over the cliffs and are amazed? Why do we strain our heads to look at vibrant sunsets? Why do we take the time to appreciate the intricate patterns of rock layers (okay, maybe that is just me)? I doubt that beauty in nature was a learned trait. But no matter why I appreciate it, I think there is an ethical responsibility to protect it. I hope to further contemplate this question during the rest of the trip. In the meantime, I am going to take lots of pictures of waterfalls and wallabies.

Lovely overhang (photo credit: Helen McCarthy)

Wentworth Falls from above (photo credit: Yuming Shi)

Chili Hot Chocolate. (photo credit: Ana Galvez)

This morning was less hectic than most. It was a lovely morning, in fact, chilly but sunny-ish and best of all: we had the morning off to work on papers, do laundry, and have a sit-down breakfast. Some of us chose to sleep in, which in my case meant waking at a quarter past 8 and enjoying a nice morning shower before putting to wash my very smelly clothes from hiking in Kakadu a few days earlier and heading out to the Hatter’s Café with Jose. Hatter’s is a convenient 5-minute walk from the YHA and they serve a mean chili hot chocolate along with providing come more creative options for our gluten-free and vegan friends. The atmosphere is very cheery and perfect for working if you’re lagging behind on your tree kangaroos paper.

With good company and good food, you can’t really go wrong, anyway. We joined Priya here and later took a short walk in town to check out the nearby thrift shop, which had a few hidden gems in the form of soft scarfs and other cozy items. We also made a quick stop at a hat shop with some really awesome (and expensive) beanies and hats made from tough kangaroo leather.

Three Sisters. (photo credit: Ana Galvez)

I’m still debating whether I want to spend AU$70 on a hat but really, when in Katoomba…

Around one, everyone gathered in the group room for what was described to be a “nature walk on flat land, almost no hiking”. We walked to Echo Point, the major tourist site in Katoomba, to which some 5 million people flock every year to bear witness to the beauty of the Blue Mountains.
Most notably, the Three Sisters, which is an enormous triple rock formation visible from Echo Point.

The Blue Mountains area is a World Heritage site as of 2000, meaning that it has been recognized as a space not only special for its unique habitat, species, and genetic biodiversity, but also rich in cultural heritage. This is evidenced by the preservation of cultural sites that are important in the history of the Aboriginals who made this their home so long ago. And as our guide, Wayne, emphasized various times during our hike, there are many people working very hard to co-manage the park with the 8 Aboriginal clans in the area with the hope of preserving this beautiful country and the scenic views that come with it. I loved hearing him impart his knowledge on us, urging us to be the champions this world needs to conserve its natural habitats and the species that reside there to make these environments so unique.

Tea Tree + beautiful valley in the background. (photo credit: Ana Galvez)

As recently as 1994, an ancient tree species was discovered in this very park, one that once upon a times put down roots and grew to a massive 35 meters among other giants: the dinosaurs of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. How amazing is that?? Of course, everyone is very hush hush about the location of these massive wollemi pines (Wollemia nobilis) but there is much to be learned from our reaction to this discovery and the conservation efforts being implemented to ensure its continued existence. But more on that later, as we had an actual discussion on the topic once we returned from the hike.

What’s more, we learned about more fascinating plants and their connection to the cultural heritage of the people who inhabit these lands. There was the spiky mountain bush, which was often used by the local indigenous for making

nets, bags, and baskets. We also learned about the highly specialized dwarf mountain pine, which can only be found in what Alex would call a microclimate, this one created within spraying distance of waterfalls, as the pine really only likes to get its feet wet—that’s it. This plant likes to live on the edge.

Our view as we stopped for a snack break. (photo credit: Ana Galvez)

Riceflower, used to make string. (photo credit: Ana Galvez)

On the other hand, there are some trees that can handle the heat and actually prefer a fire from time to time. Thus the Blue Mountain ash, aptly named, is very hardy in a fire and has adapted, like many of its eucalypt brethren, to resist low-intensity fires. All of these and more were pointed out to us; where we once would have only seen plants of varying shapes and sizes, we began to get a more defined picture of how they had adapted for the various overlapping environments (ecotomes) present in the Blue Mountains. We began to see that there is more than aesthetic value hidden in the smiles of the sloping valleys and the colors of the sandstone that comprised the escarpments.

The amount of time we spent walking through the denser forest, a shady portion alive with greenery and, in my overactive imagination, a place where prehistoric creatures (and plants) could hide for centuries, was one of the most magical experiences I have had on this trip. Not to mention, there were quite a few kookaburra and Australian King parrot (that look like Rainbow Lorikeets) sightings that had me, Priya, and Hannah falling over things that weren’t there to get pictures and running up hills just to catch up with the rest of the class.

All during what was supposed to be a leisurely 5-hour walk.

A walk through the temperate rainforest… (photo credit: Ana Galvez)

Allocasuarina, commonly known as the Dwarf She-Oak. (photo credit: Ana Galvez)

Sulfur-Crested Cockatoo in flight. (photo credit: Ana Galvez)

But this series of fortunate events continues, because not only did we have a nice hike in ideally cool weather with beautiful scenery and wildlife to ogle at, but we had some social time right after.

Rainbow Lorikeet doppelgangers (Australian King parrots)! (photo credit: Ana Galvez)

Panini Dinner. (photo credit: Bella Rivera)

We made a quick trip to Woolworth’s for some panini-making supplies and got to work in the kitchen. This isn’t even the first time, and tomorrow we’re making pizza (shoutout to Jerishma, Jose, Jana, and Bella for making this possible)! We polished off our home-cooked meal with some Magnum minis for dessert and prepared for our discussion on—you guessed it—the wollemi pine. We can’t get enough of the dinofood around here. It’s fascinating to think that we can walk on an ancient landscape and have the trees of that era, too. As was discussed in this session, there is now the possibility to own these ancient trees, as one of the proposed methods of conservation has been to market these globally and use the revenue to further preservation of the Blue Mountains’ habitat, genetic, and species biodiversity. And while the tree is facing dangers like introduction of pathogens to its fragile self-cloned offspring and unwanted attention from greedy collectors, the effort is as noble as the tree’s name.

We ended the day on a good note, pondering the deep questions in life. I guess for me, what resonated most with me was that we should take the time to learn from and appreciate nature, because she’s a hell of a lot more creative than we are.

I’ll be looking to the trees more often from now on!

Pied Currawong. He was modeling for us! (photo credit: Ana Galvez)

I woke up around seven to a cacophony of a half dozen alarms ringing, buzzing, and beeping each to their own tune. Their distinctive calls signaled the beginning of another early day. Rushing from my warm bed I quickly silenced my phone, its obnoxious beat cut in mid swell. From my bed I fumbled in the dark looking for two bags. One contained a toothbrush, the other shampoo. Once I had rummaged through my suitcase and located the objects of my search, I proceeded to exit the men’s dormitory and hopped across the hall into the bathroom. There I took a quick shower before returning back to the dorms. For the first time this trip, I unpacked my thermal gear, knowing that it was going to be a cool day ahead. After slipping three layers on and packing my gloves, hat, and scarf I walked upstairs for breakfast. Typical of the Hostel we were staying at, breakfast consisted of cereal with whole milk and a couple warm pieces of toast. After breakfast we all gathered in the foyer. We were to get on a new bus and drive about an hour and half to the Jenolan Caves.

The bus parked in front of the Blue Mountain YHA was smaller than the monster that drove us from the airport. It was cozy, with three seats abreast, two on the left and one on the right. I squeezed into the fourth seat on the right. As we pulled out our driver insisted on our compliance to the seatbelt laws in Australia. He informed us that police will often pull up beside busses and peer into the windows, looking for lawbreakers. We drove through Katoomba, our adopted home. Gazing out of the bus’s windows I saw the cozy mountain town roll by us. Dotted around curiosity shops and restaurants were a plethora of hostels, motels, and hotels. However, these quickly faded and the road began to bend into the country. We drove over rolling hills and came upon a rainbow that stretched across a cloudy sky. In the fields we saw kangaroos hopping along the hillside. Then the road began to rise. We were soon at the highest point of the Blue Mountains and it began to snow. After summiting surrounded by delicate white flakes we began our descent. Soon after the flurries ended, we came upon a mountain road. The twisty path looked out across the pastures we had just ventured over. We passed across ridges and through valleys as our drive took us across the twisting and turning treacherous ridges of the Blue Mountains. Out the window were sheer cliffs rich with vegetation. We ended our drive by going under an archway eroded and carved into a mountain and before our eyes a tiny town stretched out down a windy road.

Rainbow in fields outside of Katoomba. (photo credit: Connor Dean)

Sun shining over the valley. (photo credit: Connor Dean)

Neat little European village near Jenolan caves. (photo credit: Connor Dean)

Mountain lake nestled below lively cliffs. (photo credit: Connor Dean)

The town resembled a quiet European village nestled in the mountains; the buildings appeared to be plucked from a Bavarian fairytale. From this town we walked back into the looming stone arch to wait for our cave guide. The man that met us was an old, short, soft-spoken man with a dry wit. He led us up a flight of stairs into the first caverns of the Jenolan cave system.

Funnily enough, one of the first things we saw inside the cave was a wallaby. It was sitting near a spotlight trying to get out of the windy cold. After a few minutes of walking, we were in the first major cavern of the cave system. Our guide pointed out a skeleton resting on a bank of clay. He said that many animals would fall into caves and come to rest in a similar manner. This particular one, he said, was actually placed here by the staff as an example. We then progressed further into the depths of the stale caves. Our path criss-crossed caverns and ran across ravines. Every once in a while we would stop to discuss the surrounding limestone rock formations around us. He pointed out the stalactites hanging from the celling dripping calcium carbonate onto stalagmites on the cave floor. He showed us soda straws, which are the thin hollow beginnings of stalactites.  We saw drapes, which occur when calcium carbonate flows along slanted cave walls into formations mimicking their namesake. A rarity in the cave that we observed was helictites. Which form when calcium carbonate gathers, but does not drip from top of limestone ceilings and creates tendrils of calcium carbonate.  As we continued our tour, we descended into areas with standing pools of water. These pools acted as mirrors, reflecting the caves above them in an eerie fashion. Towards the end of our cave hike, we came upon a giant room filled with rock formations resembling the pipes of a magnificent organ in a limestone cathedral. Soon after, we exited the caves and breathed in a lungful of fresh air. But, we did not have time to wander, our bus had to leave the caves by eleven forty or we would be trapped in the village by the threat of snowy weather.

Spooky stairs in the Jenolan caves. (photo credit: Connor Dean)

Eerie reflection on the mirror like waters. (photo credit: Connor Dean)

Cathedral like structures inside the Jenolan caves. (photo credit: Connor Dean)

Skeleton placed in River cave by park management. (photo credit: Connor Dean)

Rock wallaby keeping warm. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

With speed on our side, we rapidly readied ourselves for departure and exited expediently. After driving for about twenty minutes, Dr. Glass asked the bus driver to pull over to the side of the road for lunch. We were all a little surprised seeing as there were no tables in sight, only a muddy path that resembled something out of a deserted summer camp. But, we followed him anyways, sandwiches in hand, down the trail, until it opened up into a grassy field. Dotted around the field were none other than kangaroos. Immediately, to our immense excitement, they hopped up to us. Whether they were after our lunches or our affection really didn’t matter; soon cameras were out and everyone was taking selfies of themselves and the docile animals. Some of the kangaroos were incredibly friendly while others were shy and preferred to observe us from a safe distance. It seemed that we were there for a long while before we had to leave our iconic Australian friends and head back to the bus.

A bunch of our kangaroo friends. (photo credit: Connor Dean)

A not so camera shy kangaroo. (photo credit: Connor Dean)

From there we drove another hour back to the hostel; most of us were asleep, exhausted from the early start that morning. After arriving back in Katoomba everyone worked on their papers until dinnertime. Standing outside the common room, someone could have mistaken the pattering of fingers on keyboards for a light drizzle of rain.

 Around dinnertime, people began to break off into groups to find a bite to eat. I went down Katoomba street with a group of six other people in the mood for Asian food. As we walked up a big hill, we saw a shop labeled “antiques and arcade.” Of course we couldn’t resist. Inside the shop was a mess of old curiosities ranging from toys to books and CD roms. We spend a half hour exploring every inch of the store. A few of us purchased gifts for loved ones back home. In one corner of the store was a maze of shelves that carried classics by Charles Dickens to environmental preservation manuals.

Some of the strange antiques we found at the store. (photo credit: Connor Dean)

Part of the maze of bookshelves. (photo credit: Connor Dean)

A final shot of the clock hanging in the middle of the street. (photo credit: Connor Dean)

After we left the antique store, we walked further up the hill and saw a Thai restaurant across the street. We looked in the door to see Dr. Glass and Hannah sitting at at table. Dr. Glass gave a thumbs up and we took that as a sign that the food has their approval. At two separate tables, the seven of us ordered delicious meals of curry chicken, tofu salad, and pan seared chicken to name a few. After our satisfying meal we walked down the same street under a clock that reminded me of Christmas decorations back in North Carolina. We then returned to the hostel and slept in the following morning.

Breaking Camp: Our second night and third day in Kakadu National Park was our last in the park as we broke camp to meander the approximately 400km back to our hotel in Darwin. As such, it was a mostly fun/travel day, and given the long distance to travel, many of us were asleep longer than we were awoke. Still, we did swing by Warradjan Cultural Center and Gunlom Falls on the way back.

The day began with an early breakfast at 7:15AM as we prepared to break camp. Like the previous days, we had a lovely selection of cereals, toast, and some cereal bar that I did not try. Personally, I had the usual toast, one slightly burnt courtesy of Dr. Glass, with Nutella spread. By 8:05AM, our campsite was swept clean, bags were packed, and we were off for the day’s adventures.

Map of the Area (photo credit: http://deals.travelnt.com/top-things-to-do/kakadu/swimming-at-gunlom-falls/)

Warradjan Cultural Centre: Our first stop of the day was a short hour-long stop at Warradjan Cultural Centre. This place was an educational center created by the aborigine peoples of Kakadu to educate travelers on the aboriginal cultures of the area. The building was in the shape of a turtle and was split into a museum area and a gift shop. Channeling true American tourists, we of course went to the gift shop first. People bought item such as sarongs and boomerangs, and of course, at least one person bought a Golden Gaytime. The cultural center was a very unique location. Created by collaboration between remaining members of the aboriginal peoples originally living on the land that is now Kakadu National Park, the center catered to tourists and aboriginals alike. In alignment with their beliefs, images and names of the recently deceased had to be covered. Possibly relating to this, photography was not allowed within the center. Still, the hour past quickly as we moved through exhibits explaining aboriginal creation stories, their traditional hunting and foraging activities, their marriage customs, their ways of educating children, and much more.

Aerial view of Warradjan Cultural Centre. (photo credit: modified from http://www.kakadutourism.com/tours-activities/warradjan-cultural-centre/)

Gunlom Falls: Following the Warradjan Cultural Centre was yet another few hour long drive to reach Gunlom Falls. Now, I will be the first to admit that the Gunlom Falls were absolutely beautiful and probably worth the journey, but it was quite the journey. Gunlom Falls is a natural infinity pool nestled on top of sandstone escarpment. It was a multi-tiered waterfall with clear, cool waters and an amazing view of the floodplains stretching out for miles. However, this fall was gated by 67km of rocky dirt roads and a sheer cliff our guide Rona fondly called Heart Attack Hill. To describe the drive to the base of Gunlom Falls: think about that time you went over a speed bump just a tad bit too fast and was jolted a bit into the air. Now imagine that happening once every few seconds. Add in a persistent vibration in between that and you have a glimpse into our drive down that road. It was so bad that our fearless leader, Alex, got seasick. People in the back of the bus either had fun being jostled around or were making sounds of pain. Regardless, after a tad more than an hour, we reached the bottom of Heart Attack Hill and had a bit of lunch.By this point, we were old hands at setting up for lunch. With sandwiches or wraps eaten (by those not dizzy) and swimsuits on, we started up Heart Attack Hill. The day prior, a group of us had asked Hannah about Heart Attack Hill, given its ominous name. She had told us the path was “stable-ish” and “had stairs-ish”. Now that I have ascended that hill, I can attest that that path definitely did not have stairs and was only stable in the sense that rocks were not actively falling. For the journey up, Hannah semi-jokingly gave us three rules: (1) Do not die (2) Do not puke and (3) Do not touch snakes. That last rule was given because the previous year, participants had spotted a King Brown. Fortunately (read: unfortunately), we did not spot any snakes this year.

Now, my complaints about Heart Attack Hill are said partially in jest. It wasn’t that bad, and we saw multiple five year olds, at least one guy carrying a baby, and an elderly couple while climbing that hill. Still, fifteen minutes snaking at ~45 degrees up an almost vertical cliff was extremely tiring. There were a couple rough bits with a few slippery rocks, but most of us reached the top in one piece. Half way up, we were able to see the falls. Now, from a distance Gunlom falls is absolutely stunning. There were at least three pools of water. From the top of the first fall, a trickle of water fell onto rocks and flowed into natural infinity pool that we swam in. The water from this pool trickled over a rock down a further 2-3m, into another shallow body of water before tumbling down a sheer cliff. While in the rock pool, we could see floodplains stretching out for miles in front of us, stopping only as it reached the next escarpment. It was a pity that we had to descend so soon. At least going down was easier than going up.

View of Gunlom Falls from top of crest. (photo credit: Yuming Shi)

Back of Gunlom Falls. (photo credit: Yuming Shi)

The Infinity Pool. (photo credit: Annie Harshbarger)

Return to Darwin: From Gunlom falls, it was about four hours’ drive back to Darwin. The drive was relatively uneventful; most of us were asleep on the bus. We did stop briefly at an interesting little town called Pine Creek. This town was formed originally as a relay station for the Australian telegraph. However, after gold was discovered in the area, the population of the town increased fourfold, with the Chinese population at the time outnumbering Europeans 6 to 1. Today, with the falling gold prices, most of the mines in the area have shut down. Very interesting tidbit about this town: many of the building are made using crushed termite mounds.

At 7:00PM, we finally arrived back at Poinciana Inn in Darwin. It was a bittersweet moment. We were all glad to be able to finally rest, but we had to say goodbye to our wonderful tour guide and driver, Rona, who had to leave to return to her home in Perth.

That night for dinner, we decided to again go to the Lost Arc en mass for dinner, almost as a repeat of that second night in Darwin. It might just be my imagination, but I think suffering together in the blistering Northern Territory heat really made us bond. It was an early night as we prepared for the plane journey to freezing Katoomba.

On Monday, our first morning waking up in Kakadu, I discovered several things about our campsite. The showers had better temperature control and water pressure than those in our Darwin motel. I spotted an adorable, slender red-headed lizard on the floor… much better than the gross orange and black bugs in the Poinciana! The tent cot was almost as cozy as the ones in Darwin, and the common place we ate together was nice – total bonding time! The one unfortunate thing was that the mirrors in the bathhouse were much too high for me, even on tiptoe. #shortgirlproblems I munched on my strawberry-jam toast as I watched Ange try to coax my classmates into trying Vegemite. Those who agreed could only eat it if they let her make it – piping hot bread, buttered to perfection, and vegemite precisely smeared on in a way remarkably reminiscent of streaking a bacteria plate. They seemed to tolerate it, but remarked that it was basically pure salt.

Then at 7:15 we promptly left for our nature hike about an hour deeper into Kakadu National Park. Although most of us were slightly cranky or at best apathetic about yet another early start, the experience was ultimately so worth it. It was absolutely exhausting – we were exposed (yay for Australian trees that don’t offer substantial shade), always on the move (unless Alex or Hannah found a particularly intriguing rock/plant/tree/mound/element), and walking through either pure sand or a mixture of sand and pebbles. Talk about an early morning workout. But I absolutely loved being where there were NO traces of humans. The way the world was when it was created. Huge mountains (including the segment Alex dubbed the “orc formation” that resembled a Lord of the Rings character), dry, yellowed grass as tall as me, trees blackened from fire, trees green with new birth. Clear blue sky, kites unfurling their wings overhead. Termite mounds every now and then, made by insects annoying to humans but equipped with fascinating architectural capacity. Weird insects inhabiting everything in sight, if you look close enough. And not a human imprint tainting the landscape, except for the footprints in the sand. The other parks we’ve been to had bathrooms, rails, paved trails, guideposts. Not here! I was absolutely parched and exhausted by the end but this immersive experience, literally in the middle of nowhere, will stay with me for a long time.

Hiking through the heat. (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

Gum trees! (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

Unburned grasslands. (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

(photo credit: Priya Stepp)

We stopped several times to investigate particular plants and trees. We saw several eucalypts, possibly the most well-known Australian plants, along the trail. Eucalypt trees cannot be distinguished by their leaves, as all species are extremely similar in this regard; however, eucalypt trees do have two main types of bark. The scarlet gum eucalypt tree (my notes pictured below) has woolly bark, evidenced by the intricate swirling pattern on the trunk, and brilliant orange flowers. Other species have stringy bark, which is much straighter – like a “normal” tree – and lack flowers.

Scarlet Gum bark. (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

Scarlet Gum flowers. (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

Sample field notebook. (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

We also saw turkey bushes (also pictured below) along the path, which were much shorter than the eucalypt trees and had much smoother bark. Its foliage and bark reminded me of an evergreen tree, with tiny individual, slightly pointy leaves and rough, mottled, stubby bark. Gorgeous magenta flowers brightened the bush all over!

Sample field notebook. (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

Turkey bush flowers. (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

The last plant we investigated was Banksia, a roughly 8 foot tall tree with wide-spreading foliage. We spotted spiky pinecones dotted with random circular, bubbly-looking holes and leaves with firm spikes as well.

Banksia! (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

Lastly, because Alex has a slight obsession with rocks (PS that’s an understatement), we looked at some conglomerate sedimentary rocks, which create micro environments in the harsh desert setting. Conglomerate rock can be identified by having lots of round pebbles embedded in it, and breccia if angular pebbles are fixed in it. Sedimentary rock is formed by layering of many small pebbles and high applied energy. Because most other rock types break apart easily, the relatively inert mineral quartz is the only compound left after years under these conditions.

Then we drove to the Angbangbang rock art site and saw incredible paintings by aboriginal peoples on jagged cliffs and small boulders, ranging from thousands of years ago to fifteen years ago.

Anbangbang rock site. (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

Dancing crowds, kangaroos, lightning men, being thrown off a cliff as punishment for incest…these paintings cover everything. They were often used to help illustrate life lessons and convey important information to their children. Men would paint and as they did so, explain creation stories or truth about nature to their progeny. Decorative x-ray paintings portray general information and stories, while descriptive x-ray drawings offer insight into animal and human morphology and inner structure.

Kangaroo. (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

X-ray decorative painting. (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

Sidenote: all of the parks we’ve been to in Australia have no soap dispensers in their bathrooms. I’m wondering if this is just an Aussie thing? There were also so many warnings posted on the walls (non potable water, wild boar on the loose, crocodiles nearby, and possibility of heat exhaustion) that I didn’t have to try hard to remember I was in Australia!

Next we went back to the campsite for lunch. Burgers were made by several tireless classmates, while my tentmate Jerishma and I sprawled out on our beds, trying to cool off as much as two people in a 90 degree day in a covered tent after hiking for the last four hours could. During lunch Alex and Hannah gave a lesson on rocks and mining and Australian industry and later we drove past a current uranium mine. The aboriginal peoples of Australia called some areas “forbidden lands” because not many plants or animals lived there and if they camped there, their health would decline. Interestingly, the location of uranium deposits seems to line up roughly with these ominous areas. Australia is the third largest producer of uranium, clocking in after Kazakhstan and Canada. Many uranium deposits are located on land traditionally held by aboriginal peoples, including in Koongarra, home of the Djok people. Jeffrey Lee, the sole remaining member of the tribe, fought against his homeland being used for mining and was named the 2012 Australian of the year. Despite being offered several million dollars from the mining company, he stood his ground, preferring to protect the land of his people than become a millionaire. He convinced UNESCO to establish Koongarra as a world heritage site in 2011.

Mineral deposits occur where compound concentration is worth the time and money to extract; and very specific conditions produce them in order to concentrate a specific element, mostly involving fluid. Uranium formation is a low temperature process. Oxidizing groundwater and granite (igneous rock) dissolves uranium. Then the water flows through sandstone (sedimentary rock). When it enters an anoxic region, the uranium is reduced from U6+ to U4+. Now it can combine with O2 and Si and precipitates as coffinite and uraninite. Historically, Australia exported its uranium for power and weaponry, but now it is only exported for power. Australia itself, however, uses no nuclear power. 100% of its uranium produced is exported. However, because of this Australia is one of the top producers of carbon dioxide waste.

Next we headed out for a sunset cruise.  This was the highlight of my day! I love animals, especially birds, and we were constantly spotting white herons strolling through the billabong grasses, black kites soaring overhead with a magnificent wingspan, whistling ducks (cute little things in flocks of at least 80 that made a constant racket), a pair of comb-crested jacanas (lilytrotters) interacting, azure kingfishers so tiny and adorable that all my 40 photos of them didn’t come out L, crocodiles swishing their powerful tails through the water, and juvenile night herons apparently with no fear of crocodile jaws. I adore the abundance of wildlife everywhere in the Northern Territory and will miss it so much back in America.

Egret in the grass. (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

Whistling Duck party! (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

A brave baby Nankeen Night Heron. (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

Comb-crested Jacana on lily pads. (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

View down the billabong. (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

The sunset over the billabong was one of the most brilliant sights I’ve seen in Australia so far. The shadows cast by the trees along the bank, and the bird silhouettes surrounding us, was practically Priya heaven.

Sunset. (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

Sunset on the billabong. (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

When we got back to the campsite it was dark, and I witnessed possibly the most gorgeous night sky I’ve ever seen. Although I recognized none of the constellations – I’m far from an expert stargazer, all I know is that the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Orion’s Belt, and the North star were gone – it was so peaceful to do nothing but sit outside, far from city lights and pollution, and gaze above. The stars were so plentiful and so varied in size and brilliance that it looked exactly like someone had hung a shining chandelier above Kakadu.

Collection of cool bugs found on our nature hike 🙂

Let me just start by saying that today was a long day of adventures. We were up and on the way to our first adventure of the day before the sun was up. Setting off at 6:30am, we headed to Pudakul, also called Turtle Country to its Aboriginal inhabitants.

There, we experienced our first look into the life and culture of Australia’s indigenous peoples. At the start of our Aboriginal Culture Tour, our guide, Graham, “welcomed us to country.” Instead of the verbal “welcome” we’re used to, Graham welcomed us with a mouthful of water, spitting it onto our heads. And that was just the watered-down version of “welcome to country.” Traditionally, “welcome to country” involves spitting on the newcomer and rubbing armpit sweat from onto both sides of the newcomer’s body. As Graham started walking us through his country, he pointed out the trees common in his country, and their traditional uses. The milkwood tree, he said, has a sap like milk, which is used for glue and paint. The bark is burned and used to treat wounds, and the trunk is used for making canoes. The kunang tree is used for fishing; Aboriginals block off a section of water, then put its leaves in the water to draw the oxygen of the water, causing the fish to float to the top. Aboriginals are able to eat the nuts from cycad trees (which we earlier learned are toxic) by peeling the seeds, soaking them in the billabong to dilute the toxins, and crushing them to eat.

Next, Graham introduced us to a didgeridoo, a really cool-sounding and fun instrument. He explained that a didgeridoo is made with a thin, hollow tree, found by knocking on trees to test for hollowness. Then, a good tree would be soaked in the nearby billabong for a few days, and striped of its bark afterwards. Finally, the didgeridoo is painted with intricate, colorful patterns. Graham demonstrated playing the didgeridoo, and even handed it around for everyone to try. It was most definitely harder than he made it look; I couldn’t even make a sound come out!

Ana trying out the didgeridoo. (photo credit: Priya Stepp)

Graham also shared details of his people’s family system, which is much broader than ours. By the definitions we know, I have one mom, one dad, one sister, and no brothers. If my family used the Aboriginal’s system however, all my mom’s sisters would also be my moms, all my dad’s brothers would also be my dads, and all of the children of my moms and dads would be my brothers and sisters. I would have five moms, one dad, six sisters, and one brother!

Graham’s daughter, Selina, introduced us to the art of bag weaving. She skillfully pulled fibers from the leaves of a fan palm and twisted them into a small rope. As we watched in awe, she passed around three different styles of colorful and intricate bags made from these ropes. One bag had multiple strings, which was to be worn on the head for catching fish in the nearby billabong. Another bag, the round-handled bag was for collecting leaves and other land resources. Finally there was a flat-handled bag for everyday use. The bags were all patterned with dyes of green from leaves, purple from berries, and orange from roots. Selina told us that all girls take a test for bag and basket weaving. Those who don’t pass become cooks and cleaners. Women who also don’t cook and clean well become hunters of small animals. Hunting sounded great until Selina told us that when a women catches a snake in the billabong, she puts the live snake’s head in her mouth and must “bite and pull.” Eep! Selina passed around fan palm leaves and let us all try to make our own rope. Thankfully, I proved to be better at rope-making than didgeridoo playing!

*****

Our next adventure of the day was a jumping crocodile cruise. It was terrifying, but super cool. Our guide attracted crocodiles with a piece of meat on a pole and string, splashing it in the water. During our initial crocodile safety talk (and in every subsequent one, because we have one every day, every time we see water; safety first!), we learned that crocodiles detect splashing to find food, and don’t discriminate between anything that splashes. We’ve also learned that crocodiles can “jump” out of the water. Seeing them jump up for meat with my own eyes told me so much more. As a crocodile pushes it self out the water, it looks like it’s wiggling. When I watched this, I could imagine its powerful tail whipping back and forth in the water below. When a crocodile snapped at a piece of meat and missed, I saw the strength and the almost too-fast-to-see speed with which it closed its jaws. My overall take-away from the cruise: never get caught in the attention of a crocodile.

Jumping crocodile’s underside. (photo credit: Jerishma Patel)

Food? Where?!       (photo credit: Jerishma Patel)

Lying in wait. (photo credit: Jerishma Patel)

*****

Our final destination for the day was Ubirr, an area that is part of Kakadu National Park. Here, we hiked around large rock formations covered in intricate and vibrant rock paintings. These paintings are the artwork of local Aboriginals. The paintings served a variety of purposes. Many were tools by which to tell stories, depicting human figures, tools and animals. Other paintings were decorative, and often portrayed animals decorated with detailed patterns. For example, we saw a beautiful depiction of a snake-necked turtle.

Other paintings were descriptive, and were used to teach children about animals’ bodies for hunting and eating. We saw this in a turtle painting that showed where the turtle’s fat is.

Interestingly, we learned that all of these paintings were not created for the paintings themselves, but for the act of painting. Because the paintings were not as important after they were finished, new paintings were often painted on top of older ones; many of the paintings we saw were on top of layers of other paintings. Aboriginals say some paintings were done by mimis, or spirit ancestors who lived in rock crevices. These paintings were often warnings to not do certain things or go certain places so as not to disturb or anger the mimis. We saw a painting that was a health warning, which I found particularly interesting. Pictured below, this painting depicts the swollen bones one might develop if they disturb a sacred site.

Snake-necked Turtle. (photo credit: Jerishma Patel)

The four fatty areas are shown in yellow. (photo credit: Jerishma Patel)

Swollen joints. (photo credit: Jerishma Patel)

After absorbing pieces of Aboriginal culture through rock art left behind, we climbed up a rock formation at Ubirr. At the top, we found an absolutely gorgeous 360-degree view. We could see lush, brilliantly green landscape, and stunning rock formations. Sitting on the edge of the rocks, up high, we relaxed and watched the sunset.

The view from Ubirr. (photo credit: Jerishma Patel)

The view from Ubirr. (photo credit: Jerishma Patel)

Finally, after our long day, we went to our campsite in Kakadu National Park. Expecting to set up a couple tarps on a patch of dirt, I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by tents with floors, beds, and fans. We had a kitchen, and cooked and ate a delicious hot meal together: spaghetti with lots of vegetables and cheese. Having a family-style meal on a long table together was the perfect end to our long, fun day!

Today was amazing! We spent most of the day at the Northern Territory Wildlife Park. On the way there we stopped at Charles Darwin National Park to take in the view from an overlook. We could see the Darwin high rises (apparently constructed due to a lack of new land for construction – thanks to Rona, our awesome bus driver and guide, for the info!) from across the harbor. It was just after sunrise, so pink light was reflecting off all the buildings – it was absolutely gorgeous!

View of Darwin across the harbor. (photo credit: Annie Harshbarger)

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We arrived at the wildlife park before it had even opened. While we waited patiently for the gates to open at 9am, we spent a few minutes observing and sketching Livistona sp., or fan palms. Aboriginal people use the fibers from their leaves to weave bags and baskets! After our brief study of palms we saw our first cane toad, a species which is highly invasive in Australia. Unfortunately for the toad, it was flattened on the road outside the park. We then saw our second cane toad, also deceased, which Alex picked up to gross us out.

Alex with his cane toad. (photo credit: Annie Harshbarger)

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As soon as we got to the park we headed to the nocturnal house – which was closed – and then the woodland (wallaby) walk. Before we got off the bus in the morning, Alex had warned us not to spend too long at any one exhibit since there was so much to see and we had to hit the road again in a few hours. He said there was one in particular that would probably catch us, and we’d know it when we saw it. That was our first stop of the day: wallabies. The wallabies at the Territory Wildlife Park have a relatively large habitat within the park that has a walking trail running through it. Our first wallaby was waiting for us at the gate; actually a little too close to the gate, because we almost let him out! There were two gates into the Woodland Walk area, and our adventurous wallaby friend managed to get in between them, but after we convinced him to go back through the gate we could start exploring!

The wallabies were very friendly and curious! The bigger ones were less eager to interact with us, but the little ones were very social! We were allowed to pet them on the back (but not the head!), and they were as soft as dogs (or maybe even softer!). We arrived right before wallaby breakfast time, so we got to help hand out sweet potatoes and corn. We also took the opportunity to take lots of selfies! Soon it was time to head to the crocodile feeding at the billabong, but not before Kendrick stepped in wallaby diarrhea (yikes).

A billabong is a body of water that is left behind when a river dries up during the dry season. Billabongs support a huge amount of biodiversity! This billabong had an incredible amount of wildlife, only some of which was technically part of the exhibit. There were massive pelicans (like Nigel from Finding Nemo) that entertained us with their water-skiing antics while we waited for the crocodiles. There were also a lot of “wild” birds enjoying the billabong, like rainbow bee-eaters and black kites. The crocodile feeding was a lot calmer than it sounded, since one small fish can last a croc for a couple of days! But the pelicans were rambunctious eaters, scooping fish out of the air with their net-like bills as they tried to dodge the young crocodile that was nipping at them.

Australian Pelican. (photo credit: Annie Harshbarger)

Northern Quoll! (photo credit: Annie Harshbarger)

Australian possum. (photo credit: Annie Harshbarger)

Finally we made it back to the nocturnal house and I got to see my first quoll, which is the animal I’m studying for my final project. We were moving pretty quickly through the nocturnal house so that we could finish and run over to the flight deck by 11:00, but we did stop and search for each animal to the best of our ability! I learned that Australian possums look nothing like American possums – they’re yet another species named by European settlers who compared newly discovered species to familiar ones from home. In case you were wondering, Australian possums are much cuter.

The class met up at 11:00 for a show at the flight deck. This was probably one of the most incredible parts of the day – there were raptors like kites and osprey, smaller birds like curlews and lorikeets, and a majestic black-necked stork, to name a few. Each bird came out when the ranger called its name, soaring in over a stone wall, zooming between audience members, or running on the ground. One of the coolest things I learned was that kites are the only birds of prey that eat on the wing – they catch food with their feet and pass it up to their beak without landing, so they can swoop back in to catch their next snack without landing in between.

Black-necked Stork, also known as a Jabiru. (photo credit: Annie Harshbarger)

Probably the most beautiful bird at the flight deck show was the black-necked stork. It was about five feet tall (my height!!) and absolutely gorgeous. Its “black” patches were actually iridescent with green and purple hues. Watching it fly was incredible; it was so powerful! It reminded me of the whooping cranes that I studied in high school – Beautiful and majestic, but not to be messed with.

Rona had strongly recommended that we go see the freshwater whipray feeding at 1:10, which was awesome to watch! The ranger fed barramundi and whiprays – At first I was nervous to see that the ranger was letting the whiprays bring their tails so close to his body, but then he explained the difference between whiprays and stingrays to us: whiprays have a barb at the base of their tail near the body, while stingrays have a barb at the end of their tail. The Oolloo sandbar, where the whiprays and barramundi live, also houses archerfish, which are named for their prowess in archery. Archerfish can see insects above the water, and they spit water at the insects to knock them into the water. This is already incredible on its own, but don’t forget that water refracts light, so the fish adjust their aim based on this refraction!

Oolloo Sandbar display. (photo credit: Annie Harshbarger)

The aquarium was one of my favorite parts of the day! At this point, we had realized that we had a lot of exhibits to cover and very little time, so we sort of ran from tank to tank. As an aspiring marine biologist, I was completely enamored by almost everything in the exhibit – I think I said, “You’re beautiful,” to at least half of the fish (out loud). Some of my favorites were a purple and orange fish, a pufferfish, and a sawfish. We found the sawfish sitting on the glass ceiling of the underwater tunnel, so it was an incredible view! The aquarium also housed a type of fish called Blue Devils (that’s us)!

Freshwater rays. (photo credit: Annie Harshbarger)

Tropical fish. (photo credit: Annie Harshbarger)

Blue Devil Fish. (photo credit: Annie Harshbarger)

Our last stop in the park was the aviaries, because Hannah has turned us all into amateur birdwatchers! We didn’t spend much time there because out meeting time was rapidly approaching and we were halfway across the park, but we did see some beautiful lorikeets and kingfishers on our way through! Australia has a diverse range of bird species, and many of them are colorful and strange-looking – even the ones that are common on city streets!

In the aviary. (photo credit: Annie Harshbarger)

After we left the wildlife park, we hopped back on the bus for a quick ride over to Berry Springs. The water source of Berry Springs comes from the fault boundary that follows up the creek bed. At the boundary, limestone on one side meets shale on the other. The limestone contains dolomite, which houses the underground reservoir that supplies the spring. When the water runs into the shale at the fault, it flows up to the surface.

The springs were once investigated as a water source for the city of Darwin, but the volume of water is not enough to sustain the needs of the city. Nonetheless, it is still considered an emergency water source for Darwin, although it has yet to be used for that purpose.

Berry Springs is the quintessential tropical paradise! The water is aquamarine and there are palms and cycads all along the edge of the water. The main pool is extremely deep, so I wasn’t brave enough to swim out very far, but the waterfall and creek upstream of the pool were incredible! I spent most of the time swimming up and down the creek looking at fish; there were archer fish like the ones we saw at the Ooloo Sandbar during the whipray feeding, narrow fish with elongated mouths, and small tiger-striped fish. The water was warm and clear, and we took turns swimming under the waterfall.

Berry Springs. (photo credit: Annie Harshbarger)

Paradise? (photo credit: Annie Harshbarger)

Berry Springs waterfall. (photo credit: Annie Harshbarger)

Today was a day of firsts – I was early two times in one day for possibly the first time ever, I saw my first cane toad and my first quoll, and I swam in natural springs for the first time! I got a powerful reminder of how diverse and wonderful the wildlife in Australia is, how incredible evolution can be, and how much beauty there is in nature. Thanks for coming on this adventure with me, and I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about all of Australia’s crazy animals and landscapes as much as I have!

A ‘graveyard’ of magnetic termite mounds. (photo credit: Chelsea Southworth)

After a bright start at 7:30am, we embarked on our journey to Litchfield National Park with our local guide and driver Rona giving us the details on all things Darwin as we strove to catch glimpses of wallabies, cockatoos, and our beloved Cycads through the windows. Our first stop initially looked like some sort of graveyard, full of ancient, sunbaked monoliths.

It was actually something quite different – termites. Termites in the genus Amitermes produce magnetic mounds, which are aligned (somewhat mysteriously to scientists) within 11ᵒ of north. The genus Nasitutermes produce cathedral mounds, which soldiers protect by spitting noxious liquid from their long horns. These mounds, which range from newly-established colonies barely up to your knee to massive, ancient structures that stretch over three times your height, are consistently cool inside and constantly being repaired. They’re also home to other animals, like certain lizards that lay their eggs inside mounds precisely because of the constant temperature and the safety that comes from being behind those solid walls.

The most surprising fact, though, is that termites are actually the largest natural source of methane (counting humans as relatively unnatural). Although humans, and especially our cows and rice fields, do produce 60-70% of the world’s methane, termites alone produce 11%, and have been for longer than humans have walked the earth – don’t blame termites for global warming!

Cathedral termite mound. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

‘Nasute’ soldier termites of genus Nasutitermes: note the defensive horn. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

Near an especially massive mound, Alex pointed out a tree called either a screw pine or a screw palm despite the fact that it is neither a pine nor a palm (it’s actually more closely related to lilies). But if you were an early explorer who discovered this Pandanus plant, how would you describe it?

Pandanus sp. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

Sample field notebook showing a Pandanus description. (photo credit: Chelsea Southworth)

That’s exactly what we were asked to do, in a now-familiar exercise. Using our hand lenses and in my case limited artistic abilities, we sketched the plant and all its parts, and described its unique morphology in our field notebooks. I noted the overall shape and the long, straight green leaves, some of which had accordion-like folds in the middle. Looking more closely at the leaves through my hand lens, I was able to see the tiny green barbs along the edges of the leaves, and the slender, curling brown end, as well as the parallel venation. The brown trunk was in a double-helix pattern, with dangling pieces of bark hanging down (good luck trying to discern any of this from my drawings).

After a short drive, we arrived at a truly beautiful scene, Florence Falls. It was a bit of a trip down 136 stairs, but the view and the swimming were well worth it. All it took to see fish was sticking your face in the clear blue water; they were so friendly and used to people that they would even nibble at your toes.

Florence Falls from above. (photo credit: Chelsea Southworth)

Fish! (photo credit: Chelsea Southworth)

Florence Falls plunge pool. (photo credit: Chelsea Southworth)

Disused workings at the Bamboo Creek tin mine. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

At the Bamboo Creek Tin Mine, Hannah pointed out sparkling muscovite, which is layered and associated with tin. Tin may seem like a relatively uncommon metal, but it’s actually all around us as soldering in electric devices. This mine was active from 1905-1944, and many of the miners developed silicosis, a disease in which breathing becomes difficult and you drown in your own lung fluid, from the quartz dust they inhaled.

Our last stop was definitely my favorite. First we took a dip into the gorgeous Wangi Falls, which was a sacred site for Aboriginal women where sacred rituals were performed and where no man could set foot. (It was ok for our class, though, since we aren’t part of the Aboriginal group of that area) We quickly dried off and went straight into the next-door monsoon forest. This forest is a refugium, or remnant of what the environment looked like millions of years ago. This area is not currently as wet as you would expect for this kind of forest, so there must be something else going on; it could be the bats that inhabit the area, but no one’s quite sure.

Wangi Falls. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

Flying Fox! (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

Flying fox colony. (photo credit: Hannah Aird)

Speaking of bats, they were everywhere! The treetops were full of them literally everywhere you looked, and they filled the forest with sound as they squeaked and jostled for prime branch positions. These fruit bats (also called flying foxes) are mistakenly named, because although they won’t pass up a good bite of fruit, their main sources of food are flowers, nectar, and pollen. Many plants in the area depend exclusively on bats for pollination. Some people may be frightened by them swooping through the night, but they’re an integral part of this forest ecosystem, and adorable, too, especially when they’re all waving their arms to stir up a cool breeze during the hot day.

Aaaargh! Golden Orb spider! (photo credit: Kendrick Icenhour)

One last highlight of our monsoon walk was a moment that was at once terrifying and hilarious. We were walking through the trees as Alex led the way, telling us about the flora and fauna and generally being a bit unfocused on his immediate surroundings. He reached out to lay his hand casually on a tree, only to see this beast less than an inch from his hand.

Needless to say, his reaction was immediate and resounding as he leapt away from the tree with a loud shout and a string of choice exclamations (Priya took well-timed Snapchat video of the incident, which has already become a class favorite watched and quoted daily). Exhausted but exhilarated, we went back to our motel for dinner and a good long sleep.

Class and Lunch

Once I woke up and mentally prepared myself for the hot, surely-to-be exhausting day, I ate a small, quick breakfast I picked up from a local grocery store. My roommates and I walked over to the Novotel Hotel where we would have our second day of class. We covered a little bit more logistics for the Australia trip in general, as well as logistics for the day, just as a way to foresee the day to come. The day’s class would serve to briefly wrap up our trip of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory from the previous day by going over the brief exercise about the functional morphology and adaptation on the wildlife of Australia. We then took a quiz to test our knowledge of animals, which consisted of knowing the names of general wildlife we’ve talked about in class. It was quite surprising how many new animals we recognized in just a couple of days. Afterwards, we did an Australian crossword puzzle to briefly introduce ourselves with Australian general facts and knowledge. The fact that stuck out to me the most was Australia has a version of our District of Colombia, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), which houses Australia’s capital, Canberra. After class, we dispersed to get lunch. After walking on Mitchell Street, one of the two streets that are closest to our hotel, a group of us found a Japanese restaurant. You can see the Asian influence in Darwin by the large amount of Asian restaurants. I’m a little hesitant towards Asian food since I didn’t have too many Asian restaurants in the area I grew up in. Although we waited a long time to get our food (approximately 20 minutes which seemed like an eternity to my famished stomach), the dish was delicious. I did not expect to like the Spicy Beef Ramen as much as I did. The wait was definitely worth it.

Mangrove Walk

Once we met back up as a class to continue the rest of our day, I let a sigh of relief once I saw that we would be taking a bus. The previous day we walked a little more than 7 miles, so my feet needed more time to rest and acclimate to all the walking. Our first stop was the mangrove forest, a beautiful and very first sight for me. Walking through the mangrove forest was a little eerie, not being able to see far into the forest since the densely populated forest trees would limit your view to only a few yards. It also did not help that there were multiple signs warning us of crocodiles, box jellyfish, and snakes, so that was always in the back of my mind. We reached the end of the man-made walkway and could see the ocean off in the distance.

Pneumatophores (aerial roots) and a stream through the mangrove forest. (photo credit: Jose Ortega)

Our class had a quick seminar about mangrove forests. Among our discussion about mudskippers, fiddler crabs, and the importance of mangroves, the most interesting aspect of mangroves was how they are created and essentially create the condition that make it uninhabitable for most animals and plants, requiring special adaptations to survive. Falling leaves from trees accumulate on the ground and bacteria begin to facilitate the decomposition through aerobic process, using oxygen as their form of energy flow. Due to the rise in saltwater tide, oxygen is limited for the decomposition process of the leaves. Bacteria’s preferred method of energy then turns into anaerobic, relying on sulfates to aid in the process of the decaying leaf matter, leading to a strong, rotten egg odor. By this point, the environment needs to go through significant changes. Plant life must adapt in order to find a new source of oxygen since their main source of oxygen, the ground, is rapidly depleting. Mangrove trees have adapted aerial roots; they grow from the tree into the ground to provide support, but their ends stick out of the ground to use the oxygen from the air in order to survive. These ends are also coated with a special waxing to prevent salt water from killing the normally freshwater reliant plant. This complicated root system aid in their survival in this specialized ecosystem, but this unique environment is incredibly difficult to re-introduce. Mangrove forests are essential to help prevent mass erosion of beaches, and protect coastal homes from storms.

Beach Walk

A view of Darwin across the bay (photo credit: Jose Ortega)

We walked on the beach for the first time and the view was absolutely gorgeous. The breath-taking view of the distant cities and blue water, coupled with the hot temperatures, was as if the beaches beckoned us to go in for a refreshing swim.

Too bad the salt water crocodiles ruin this idea.  The serene view is just a trap for the unexpected: a lure for certain death. Avoiding this temptation was very difficult, coming from North Carolina myself, the beach culture is very present. The only occasional worries are sharks, but attacks are relatively rare. In addition, studies show that sharks do not attack humans on purpose, mistaking them for other prey. Humans are not typically eaten by sharks, while crocodiles are opportunist eaters, meaning they will consume anything they see as a potential food source. The sand had a different texture than what I am used to; a spongy, airy feel as you walk. Your feet sank in the sand considerably deeper than normal, around three inches on average. After walking on the shore, we had a quick crash course in analyzing sedimentary rocks. As grains are eroded and are deposited in horizontal layers, it provides a biological, and historical record of the past. Unfortunately, the rocks we looked at were fairly difficult to analyze since they have been exposed to extensive weathering. Although, we did know that those rocks we approximately dated to the Cretaceous period, which is mind-boggling to think about.

Footprints through the spongy sand. (photo credit: Jose Ortega)

Eastpoint

WWII Gun emplacement. (photo credit: Jose Ortega)

We did visit an important military site for Australia during World War II after our beach walk. We visited a gunning site that was home to a long range, anti-aircraft and anti-ship artillery gun, literally the size of an average house. This was a defensive measure after the Japanese attacked Darwin. Due to its strategic location as an access point to South East Asia, Darwin became a crucial military point in case Japan decided to further attack Australia. Ironically, the massive gun was later sold to the Japanese for scrap metal. We continued our trek and spotted some wildlife. We briefly saw a pair of wallabies before they were startled into the forest, but we also had a discussion on Australia‘s Green ants. Normally, wallabies would be far more interesting than ants, but it’s what some of us did with the ants which was entertaining. As a defense mechanism, after they bite into an animal, they spray a vitamin c-based acid into the wound, causing a stinging sensation. Aboriginal people would boil a colony of ants and make a citric tea. The odd part comes in where Dr. Glass picks up an ant carefully and straight up licks its butt (storage location of the vitamin C-based acid). Now I didn’t taste it, but some of my other classmates were adventurous enough to mimic Dr. Glass and try out the experience. They said it was an acidic, bitter taste.

Priya tries licking the green ants. (photo credit: Jose Ortega)

Dinner and Rugby

To conclude our day long day, we came back to the hotel and went to dinner. My dinner group had so much trouble trying to find a place to eat that we walked for an hour trying to find a place that was either not too expensive or wasn’t completely packed. We walked into a sports bar, but we couldn’t figure out how to order. This may sound dumb, but after waiting to be served and trying to order at the bar, not once did we see someone being served, but people we eating at tables and some of them were reserved. After walking about 10 blocks, we settled for a pizza place just because we were tired of walking. Little did we know the reason there were so many people out that night, it was the rugby national championship game. We noticed once we sat down and saw little flags for New South Wales and Queensland. The game had just begun. People were claiming their seats at restaurants for the game. Walking back from dinner, we noticed everyone rooting for their teams. There were more New South Wales fans than Queensland and people were watching and cheering similar to how we would watch the Super Bowl in the US. My roommates and I watched the game until half time, trying to understand the rules. It was similar football in terms of the physicality, but they could not pass the ball forwards (only laterally and backwards) but is continuous (they would immediately continue to play as soon as the tackle was made). We woke up the next day and found out that Queensland won and it was not a close game after half time.