We had a retreat in the Glasshouse mountains which are near the Sunshine Coast. Ironically, we didn't see the sunshine once those 3 days. It rained so much and so hard that it flooded the road we to leave on. Thankfully, it had stopped raining the night before we were to leave and one lane of the highway was open. The students spent lots of time studying for their final 2 tests. We also all got caught up on laundry! Lots of it!!! Students cooked our suppers for us and they all did outstanding jobs. We played lots of games: scrabble, cards and checkers. Ryan practiced cracking his whip for hours it seemed! We were bummed we couldn't go hiking and see the gorgoues area, but it was such a great location to be rained it at. We also had an indoor Easter Egg hunt, which was fun! After 3 fun days at the Glasshouse mountain ecolodge, we headed back to Brisbane for a last day of shopping and packing.
Our farewell dinner was at the Greek Club in West End. Lots of hugs and laughs were shared. Bryn and I created a slideshow/movie and Erik wrote a poem. The students created a huge wonderful card for us and gave us a certificate to a Portland restaurant. So generous of them. What a great group of young adults. Amazing.
Below is the poem that Erik wrote.
We had an uneventful flight home with 4 of the students. The rest of the students are still having adventures in New Zealand and beyond! We miss Australia, but it's great to be home. Spring has sprung and it's gorgeous here. All for now, who knows if I'll use this blog again. It's been fun though!
Love,
Carla
My Country by Dorothea McKellar Ode to Oz plagiarized by Erik Nilsen
I love a sunburnt country, I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains, but slip, slap, slop, says Clare,
Of ragged mountain ranges, and don’t you dare tell Maggie
Of droughts and flooding rains. about the “endangered” Koala bear.
I love her far horizons, I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea, I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror – But those darn jelly’s on Heron,
The wide brown land for me! Emma does not love thee.
The stark white ring-barked forests, The Eucalyptus forests,
All tragic to the moon, With their various fire regimes,
The sapphire-misted mountains, At Sapphire laden Rubyvale,
The hot gold hush of noon, Luke found locals can hold their beer it seems.
Green tangle of the brushes The tangle of the tent poles,
Where lithe lianas coil, inciting Alyssa’s laugh,
And orchids deck the tree-tops, Arhea’s bright orange jogging shorts,
And ferns the warm dark soil. Running around Brissy, looking for the right path.
Core of my heart, my country! Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky, The colors of the sandstone,
When, sick at heart, around us more varied than Seth’s hair,
We see the cattle die – The goats of Biloeala,
But then the grey clouds gather, and Theresa’s mechanical bullride there.
And we can bless again Amazing Brook, our Ethiopian Jackaroo,
The drumming of an army, Cracking whips and catching goats,
The steady soaking rain. A closet cowboy, who knew!?
Core of my heart, my country! Jazzy Jo expanded her horizons,
Land of the rainbow gold, substantially, tis true,
For flood and fire and famine she experienced her first Easter egg hunt,
She pays us back threefold. She even found a few!
Over the thirsty paddocks, But what I’ll most remember,
Watch, after many days, inspired to make her project great,
The filmy veil of greenness To a few whacko Aussies
That thickens as we gaze. She’ll be known forever as BloodBeforeCountry88.
An opal-hearted country, An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land – Through which our Tatty ran,
All you who have not loved her, While Shane’s climbing, jumping, swinging,
You will not understand – made us question, is he monkey or a man?
Though earth holds many splendours, Danielle proved she could tackle,
Wherever I may die, both Rugby player and goat,
I know to what brown country and Kendall was organizing,
My homing thoughts will fly. A WhitSunday sailing boat.
Though earth holds many splendors,
And some are seen through chance,
At our corroboree down under,
There is no doubt that Elyse can dance.
We owe our love of country,
to the deadly guidance of Nat, Marta and Rob,
And finally I will quit rhyming
And definitely keep my day job!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Great Barrier Reef
Our 6 days on Heron Island in the Great Barrier Reef started with a calm trip over on the catamaran. In years past, many students have become seasick. Most of us took pills to combat that, and we were fine. Because of the prevailing winds and the way the waves are hitting the boat, the trip over is supposed to be much rougher than the trip back to the mainland, so we were lucky for the fine weather! It’s about a 2 hour ride to get to the island.
Since the weather was so good, our leader Rob rearranged the schedule and made sure we made the most of the good weather. We got settled in our accommodations at the Research Station, which is part of the University of Queensland. It is recently re-opened, after a fire that they had there in 2007. It was a very nice facility. We all got issued snorkeling equipment and headed to the beach for practice. Even though we were just near the jetty, we still saw fish and turtles on that first trip.
The next day we went on a reef walk and a 15 minute boat ride to snorkel at the Blue Pools, off the reef. We got to see lots of interesting things that time: black tipped reef sharks, green turtles, many types of coral and numerous kinds and sizes of fish. We spent an hour or so snorkeling. After supper, we went on a night snorkel near the dock. Different types of fish, etc come out at night. We all had glow sticks attached to our wet suits and we each had an underwater torch/flashlight. I’ll admit it was kind of freaky swimming around in the dark. Thankfully, Bryn was my buddy and he let me hold on to him during the snorkel. That way I could relax and look around at the sites instead of worrying that I wasn’t with him. We saw a Wobbegong shark, several turtles, including a huge loggerhead, a lionfish, a huge hermit crab, and a crown of thorns starfish. At one point we gathered near the shipwreck, which is a ship that was purposefully placed near the jetty as protection from waves for the boats as they come in. We all hid our glow sticks and turned off our lights and looked at the bioluminescent zooplankton and jellies in the water. That was cool. We went in two groups and nearly all of those in the second group got stung by jellies or parts of jellies, that were floating in the water. Luckily, the sting wasn’t severe and went away pretty quickly, but still it was a challenge.
The next day we went on a drift snorkel off the reef. They dropped us off at one spot and then we swam to a pick up location. The plan is to go with the tide and the current when you do a drift, but unfortunately it worked out that we were going against it. At one point, Erik looked at Ryan and I, and he said it looked like we weren’t going forward at all. Thankfully, we made it and had fun along the way. We rented an underwater digital video camera that day and Bryn and Erik got some good footage.
Throughout the days we had lectures on poisonous marine life, coral reef/algal reef formation, geology of the island, marine species, and turtles. The one Rob gave on the life cycle of the green turtles was my favorite. They are amazing animals and after the lecture we got to head to the beach and see a nest hatching. We watched about 60 baby turtles crawl up out of the sand and scurry to the ocean. We tried to shoo away the seagulls that invariably snatched up some of the babies. It was the coolest thing to watch these little turtles. They are only about 4 “ long and they know to head straight for the water. The next 2 nights we got to see 3 other hatchings occur. One was on a night that was stormy. It was pouring rain and very windy, but Erik and I were lucky enough to find a hatching. Erik counted 100 babies from that nest. I was standing near the ocean watching them stream into the sea, when I felt a tickle on the back of my sandal. One of the turtles was a little lost, but he eventually made it.
There were 3 days during our visit that were too windy to safely take the boats out for a snorkel, but we still had fun. We went snorkeling along the reef at low tide and it was amazing the variety of fish we saw. We also saw eagle rays, cow tail rays and whip tail rays. Erik and the boys saw a moray eel protruding from the coral. We saw white tailed reef sharks and shovel-nosed sharks. None of these were too big, the largest was about 6 feet long, and they aren’t aggressive. Ryan spotted two sea hares, which are a weird mollusk-type thing. When you hold it, it squirts out purple ink as a defense mechanism. When we saw the first one on our reef walk, our leader, Derek, had us gather around to see this “deadly” thing. Then he proceeded to pick it up and show us the ink. We were all amazed and wondered why he’d do that, if it was deadly. Then we realized he meant “deadly” in the Australian way. That is what they say to mean “cool” or “awesome”!
On the island there is also a resort. We didn’t have too much interaction there, except to buy from their shop. One night we went near the resort and saw about 10 whaler sharks swimming off the beach rock about 100 feet away. Derek said that they are “sharky sharks”, meaning they can get aggressive. We just took pictures of them!
One evening at low tide we played cricket on the beach. Actually, the tide was coming in so we had to move the wicket several times! Some of the outfielders were in the water! There was a full moon that night and it was magical being there!
The weather calmed down a little our last morning on the island so most of the group did one more boat snorkel. Our catamaran ride back was very bumpy with waves splashing up the side of the boat, but thankfully none of us got sick. Rob was right, it’s better going towards the mainland! We all loved our time on the Great Barrier Reef. What an awesome experience.
We had a 7 hour bus ride after the catamaran trip and are now staying at the Glasshouse Mountains EcoLodge for a retreat. It’s a great location, we have the place to ourselves. We are cooking our own meals and the students are studying for their last tests. On Monday here, but Easter back home, we’ll have an Easter Egg Hunt. Fun. Tuesday we head back to Brisbane for a final two days and we all split up on April 16th. I think about 6 students will be on the flight with us back to Portland. The rest are heading to New Zealand, Perth, Figi and more. I can’t believe our time is nearly over. It’s sure been wonderful. Thank you Lewis and Clark and GED for this opportunity for our family. The college students we’ve had the priviledge to be with are outstanding people, “deadly” as the Aussies would say!
Since the weather was so good, our leader Rob rearranged the schedule and made sure we made the most of the good weather. We got settled in our accommodations at the Research Station, which is part of the University of Queensland. It is recently re-opened, after a fire that they had there in 2007. It was a very nice facility. We all got issued snorkeling equipment and headed to the beach for practice. Even though we were just near the jetty, we still saw fish and turtles on that first trip.
The next day we went on a reef walk and a 15 minute boat ride to snorkel at the Blue Pools, off the reef. We got to see lots of interesting things that time: black tipped reef sharks, green turtles, many types of coral and numerous kinds and sizes of fish. We spent an hour or so snorkeling. After supper, we went on a night snorkel near the dock. Different types of fish, etc come out at night. We all had glow sticks attached to our wet suits and we each had an underwater torch/flashlight. I’ll admit it was kind of freaky swimming around in the dark. Thankfully, Bryn was my buddy and he let me hold on to him during the snorkel. That way I could relax and look around at the sites instead of worrying that I wasn’t with him. We saw a Wobbegong shark, several turtles, including a huge loggerhead, a lionfish, a huge hermit crab, and a crown of thorns starfish. At one point we gathered near the shipwreck, which is a ship that was purposefully placed near the jetty as protection from waves for the boats as they come in. We all hid our glow sticks and turned off our lights and looked at the bioluminescent zooplankton and jellies in the water. That was cool. We went in two groups and nearly all of those in the second group got stung by jellies or parts of jellies, that were floating in the water. Luckily, the sting wasn’t severe and went away pretty quickly, but still it was a challenge.
The next day we went on a drift snorkel off the reef. They dropped us off at one spot and then we swam to a pick up location. The plan is to go with the tide and the current when you do a drift, but unfortunately it worked out that we were going against it. At one point, Erik looked at Ryan and I, and he said it looked like we weren’t going forward at all. Thankfully, we made it and had fun along the way. We rented an underwater digital video camera that day and Bryn and Erik got some good footage.
Throughout the days we had lectures on poisonous marine life, coral reef/algal reef formation, geology of the island, marine species, and turtles. The one Rob gave on the life cycle of the green turtles was my favorite. They are amazing animals and after the lecture we got to head to the beach and see a nest hatching. We watched about 60 baby turtles crawl up out of the sand and scurry to the ocean. We tried to shoo away the seagulls that invariably snatched up some of the babies. It was the coolest thing to watch these little turtles. They are only about 4 “ long and they know to head straight for the water. The next 2 nights we got to see 3 other hatchings occur. One was on a night that was stormy. It was pouring rain and very windy, but Erik and I were lucky enough to find a hatching. Erik counted 100 babies from that nest. I was standing near the ocean watching them stream into the sea, when I felt a tickle on the back of my sandal. One of the turtles was a little lost, but he eventually made it.
There were 3 days during our visit that were too windy to safely take the boats out for a snorkel, but we still had fun. We went snorkeling along the reef at low tide and it was amazing the variety of fish we saw. We also saw eagle rays, cow tail rays and whip tail rays. Erik and the boys saw a moray eel protruding from the coral. We saw white tailed reef sharks and shovel-nosed sharks. None of these were too big, the largest was about 6 feet long, and they aren’t aggressive. Ryan spotted two sea hares, which are a weird mollusk-type thing. When you hold it, it squirts out purple ink as a defense mechanism. When we saw the first one on our reef walk, our leader, Derek, had us gather around to see this “deadly” thing. Then he proceeded to pick it up and show us the ink. We were all amazed and wondered why he’d do that, if it was deadly. Then we realized he meant “deadly” in the Australian way. That is what they say to mean “cool” or “awesome”!
On the island there is also a resort. We didn’t have too much interaction there, except to buy from their shop. One night we went near the resort and saw about 10 whaler sharks swimming off the beach rock about 100 feet away. Derek said that they are “sharky sharks”, meaning they can get aggressive. We just took pictures of them!
One evening at low tide we played cricket on the beach. Actually, the tide was coming in so we had to move the wicket several times! Some of the outfielders were in the water! There was a full moon that night and it was magical being there!
The weather calmed down a little our last morning on the island so most of the group did one more boat snorkel. Our catamaran ride back was very bumpy with waves splashing up the side of the boat, but thankfully none of us got sick. Rob was right, it’s better going towards the mainland! We all loved our time on the Great Barrier Reef. What an awesome experience.
We had a 7 hour bus ride after the catamaran trip and are now staying at the Glasshouse Mountains EcoLodge for a retreat. It’s a great location, we have the place to ourselves. We are cooking our own meals and the students are studying for their last tests. On Monday here, but Easter back home, we’ll have an Easter Egg Hunt. Fun. Tuesday we head back to Brisbane for a final two days and we all split up on April 16th. I think about 6 students will be on the flight with us back to Portland. The rest are heading to New Zealand, Perth, Figi and more. I can’t believe our time is nearly over. It’s sure been wonderful. Thank you Lewis and Clark and GED for this opportunity for our family. The college students we’ve had the priviledge to be with are outstanding people, “deadly” as the Aussies would say!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
The last 2 weeks
We are now on the Great Barrier Reef at Heron Island. It's awesome, but the internet connection
isn't very powerful so I'll just include this email as my next blog. All is well!!!!
Hi family,
I’m sitting in the middle of the bush at a nice campsite at the edge of the
Carnarvon Gorge National Park in Queensland. The campsite is called Takarakka
and we like it very much. It’s right next to a creek where several people have
seen platypus. Ryan saw another one, lucky guy. I guess I’ll have to get up
before 6 tomorrow to see one. They also have flushing toilets and great
showers at this site-we haven’t had that everywhere. We’ve seen pretty faced
wallaby, grey kangaroo, kookaburra, sulfur-crested cockatoo, turtle, cane toads
and apostle birds right at our campsite. This morning, Ryan and I saw a joey
wallaby with its mom. So cute!
The first evening we took a climb up to Boolimba Bluff. It was 3.2 km one way
and mostly straight up. It was really challenging, but we all made it-and it
was worth it. It gave us a view of the gorge and we got to see the type of
growth in a semi-arid eucalyptus forest.
Our students are split up into 2 groups, we’re studying fire ecology and the
social structures of animals. It’s quite interesting. One group of students
studied the ant population around here-Australia has heaps of ants! Yesterday,
Ryan and I spend 5 hours at the National Park watching the kangaroo and wallaby
population to see what we could learn about their social habits. One fun thing
was watching a grey kangaroo who had a pouch that was nearly dragging on the
ground. After awhile, a joey came out and it was so cute. It was about the
size of a cat, but with skinny legs and it wobbled around like a new colt. The
mom must have been trying to wean it or teach it to walk around on its own. She
would contract her pouch and it couldn’t get in. It tried and tried for about
30 minutes while we watched! One time it got behind her and went quickly
around her, like it was trying to sneak up on her.
We have 5 days here. After the students present their research on their ecology
and animal projects we’ll take a long walk up the gorge. There are several
sites with aboriginal carvings. The first one is a 14 km walk and the final
destination of the walk is a 22km walk-round trip. It’s not a steep walk, but
I’m thinking I’ll turn around after the first site. The walk will take from
9:30 a.m.-5p.m. Whew! Rob, our guide, will take ½ the group at a time and
he’ll do the walk two days in a row. He’s in amazing shape and such a fun guy
too. The day we don’t walk, we can go swimming at a rock pool. I hear it’s a
great place. I will also try to send this letter to you. They have the park
store here and it costs $3/15 minutes of internet. I may also do a little
laundry. I don’t quite have enough shorts for this week, it’s been pretty
warm. We’re thankful for the sunshine though, sometimes it can be pretty cold
here and rain too. We’re really hit the weather well during our camping trips.
Our spring break with Pappa and Patricia was awesome! We had a relaxing,
enjoyable time. The condo location was gorgeous and we enjoyed the pool, the
tennis, the fishing, the visiting and the AC. We took one day and went to the
Australia zoo, which was started by Steve Irwin and his parents in the 1970’s.
We got to see lots of crocodiles, which was great. They are starting to bring
in some animals from other continents too, so we watched a great tiger show and
saw a gorgeous cheetah out taking a walk. They don’t have the cheetah exhibit
made yet, but we got to see the keepers walking him. They had a chunk of ice
with sardines in it-like a popsicle for the cheetah.
All the students had a great time on their spring break too. Our first two days
back together were at Rubyvale, which is a small sapphire mining town with 600
permanent residents and another 200 who come in the winter to do the above
ground mining when it’s cooler. It reminded me quite a lot of Virginia City
and the people were so nice there, we met quite a few characters! We all loved
our time there. We got to go down into a mine and use jackhammers and shovels
and search for sapphires. We found one that’s worth about $600. We also got
to watch a miner polish and cut the sapphire. They also included one that he’d
cut in the lottery draw. We found enough sapphires for everyone to have one
that is worth cutting. We drew little Ziploc bags out of Rob’s hat. Arhea won
the $600 sapphire, which was nice, since her birthday was the next day. And
Danielle won the one that was already cut and worth over $200. We got enough
to have 6 cut-so exciting. They are so pretty. It was really a fun part of
our trip.
Well, my computer is losing power so I’d better find an outlet soon. We head to
Biloela next for 2 days to see a working cattle station and ride horses and do
“outback recreation”. Then we head to Heron Island for the Great Barrier Reef.
We’ll have 4 days just taking it easy and the students will take 2 exams at the
Glass house Mountains before we head back to Brisbane for our final 2 days
together. About ½ of us will be heading back to OR, but lots will stay here
and head to Perth, New Zealand and other places. It is strange to think it’s
coming to an end.
We love you all,
Carla
P.S. Well, I tried to send this earlier, but the internet connection was so
bad, we couldn’t send it. So, by the time I send this we’ll be on Heron
Island. I’ll fill you in on a few more things.
I got up at 5:45 a.m. our last day at Carnarvon to see if I could see a
platypus. They are very elusive and hard to see. I didn’t have to set an
alarm as the kookaburras woke us up at 5:45 every day. They were in the trees
around us and would start their laughing to let the other birds know they made
it thru the night and that they were still in their trees! There was a group
of about 30 elementary school children who had also come to the platypus pool.
They sat pretty still for kids, but were fidgeting quite a bit. They stayed
about an hour, but 5 minutes after they left, about 6:55, we saw one. It was
just under the surface of the water, about 20 feet away, but we got a good look
at its shape. Exciting. Then a few of us there, Erik and Ryan and Bryn
included, got to see it again further away in the weeks. I didn’t see it that
time. Erik spent over 7 hours looking for it and saw it 3 times for his
efforts. Many Australians haven’t seen them in the wild. We didn’t even see
them at the zoo or aquarium because they were always hiding. The ranger said
they build dens 30 feet into the creek wall. No wonder we never see them
during the day, unless they are feeding. They eat yabbies, which are crawfish,
and they come to the surface to breathe and chew. Amazing.
Ryan and I did choose to take the shorter walk at Carnarvon. But it was still a
serious hike. We crossed over the creek that goes down the gorge 20 times.
Luckily, the rangers have put nice stepping stones at each crossing. We
learned about lots of plants that the Aboriginal people used for medicine,
food, etc. There is a species of palm that only grows in Carnarvon Gorge and
there are also rare king ferns there. The Aboriginal stencils and carvings
that were at three different sites were very interesting. At one place they
estimate they are from about 3500 years ago and at another they are 12000 years
old. They dig down near the site and do carbon dating on the things they find
there to estimate it. We saw a swamp wallaby on our walk, they are harder to
see and are always on their own. It’s darker with a white tip.
We also saw an echidna and a tawny frogmouth bird. And we heard a yellow belly
glider possum screeching as it was going from tree to tree. They can glide up
to 120m. As we were leaving, we saw many wild emus along side the road.
Probably 25 in total.
Today we are at a cattle station in Biloela-they pronounce it Bill-oh-wee-lah.
We are actually about 45 minutes from the town at Lochenbar station, at a dude
ranch called Kroombit. The owners here have 10,000 acres and 1,000 cattle and
several hundred goats. Their main industry is tourism though. They have bus
loads of backpackers that come here on tours. Tonight there will be 60 youth
from around the world joining us. Fun. Last night we learned how to crack
whips. Nearly everyone got a good crack from their whips. Ryan chose a whip
for his birthday gift so he’s practicing now. We also each had a turn or two
on the mechanical bull. That was a riot! It’s a lot harder to stay on than it
seems. Erik and I stayed on for 1 buck each, or you could say we got bucked off
the first time it moved! One of our students stayed on for 50 bucks. It was so
much fun to try. I thought of Andrew and Kari often and knew they would have
loved to try it.
This morning we all got to ride horses and go on a goat muster. We herded about
300 goats around a huge paddock or pasture and into a pen. That was very cool.
My horse was called Bonnie and she did a good job. It was more fun than just
following behind other horses on a trail walk. We didn’t get to trot or gallop
them, but it was still great. Then we had a little goat rodeo. We also shot a
12 gauge shotgun at clay pigeons. Erik was the best and got 3 out of 5.
Tonight after supper, of roast beef, we’ll watch the backpackers try the bull.
We leave at 7 a.m. tomorrow for Gladstone, where we’ll catch the catamaran for
Heron Island. I hear that most people get seasick on this 3 hour trip. Oh
joy!
Well, I’m afraid this is getting too long, you may not have time to read it.
But since we’ve been away from technology for awhile, I had to get you caught
up on our adventure. I hope you all have a Happy Easter. Love to all,
Carla
isn't very powerful so I'll just include this email as my next blog. All is well!!!!
Hi family,
I’m sitting in the middle of the bush at a nice campsite at the edge of the
Carnarvon Gorge National Park in Queensland. The campsite is called Takarakka
and we like it very much. It’s right next to a creek where several people have
seen platypus. Ryan saw another one, lucky guy. I guess I’ll have to get up
before 6 tomorrow to see one. They also have flushing toilets and great
showers at this site-we haven’t had that everywhere. We’ve seen pretty faced
wallaby, grey kangaroo, kookaburra, sulfur-crested cockatoo, turtle, cane toads
and apostle birds right at our campsite. This morning, Ryan and I saw a joey
wallaby with its mom. So cute!
The first evening we took a climb up to Boolimba Bluff. It was 3.2 km one way
and mostly straight up. It was really challenging, but we all made it-and it
was worth it. It gave us a view of the gorge and we got to see the type of
growth in a semi-arid eucalyptus forest.
Our students are split up into 2 groups, we’re studying fire ecology and the
social structures of animals. It’s quite interesting. One group of students
studied the ant population around here-Australia has heaps of ants! Yesterday,
Ryan and I spend 5 hours at the National Park watching the kangaroo and wallaby
population to see what we could learn about their social habits. One fun thing
was watching a grey kangaroo who had a pouch that was nearly dragging on the
ground. After awhile, a joey came out and it was so cute. It was about the
size of a cat, but with skinny legs and it wobbled around like a new colt. The
mom must have been trying to wean it or teach it to walk around on its own. She
would contract her pouch and it couldn’t get in. It tried and tried for about
30 minutes while we watched! One time it got behind her and went quickly
around her, like it was trying to sneak up on her.
We have 5 days here. After the students present their research on their ecology
and animal projects we’ll take a long walk up the gorge. There are several
sites with aboriginal carvings. The first one is a 14 km walk and the final
destination of the walk is a 22km walk-round trip. It’s not a steep walk, but
I’m thinking I’ll turn around after the first site. The walk will take from
9:30 a.m.-5p.m. Whew! Rob, our guide, will take ½ the group at a time and
he’ll do the walk two days in a row. He’s in amazing shape and such a fun guy
too. The day we don’t walk, we can go swimming at a rock pool. I hear it’s a
great place. I will also try to send this letter to you. They have the park
store here and it costs $3/15 minutes of internet. I may also do a little
laundry. I don’t quite have enough shorts for this week, it’s been pretty
warm. We’re thankful for the sunshine though, sometimes it can be pretty cold
here and rain too. We’re really hit the weather well during our camping trips.
Our spring break with Pappa and Patricia was awesome! We had a relaxing,
enjoyable time. The condo location was gorgeous and we enjoyed the pool, the
tennis, the fishing, the visiting and the AC. We took one day and went to the
Australia zoo, which was started by Steve Irwin and his parents in the 1970’s.
We got to see lots of crocodiles, which was great. They are starting to bring
in some animals from other continents too, so we watched a great tiger show and
saw a gorgeous cheetah out taking a walk. They don’t have the cheetah exhibit
made yet, but we got to see the keepers walking him. They had a chunk of ice
with sardines in it-like a popsicle for the cheetah.
All the students had a great time on their spring break too. Our first two days
back together were at Rubyvale, which is a small sapphire mining town with 600
permanent residents and another 200 who come in the winter to do the above
ground mining when it’s cooler. It reminded me quite a lot of Virginia City
and the people were so nice there, we met quite a few characters! We all loved
our time there. We got to go down into a mine and use jackhammers and shovels
and search for sapphires. We found one that’s worth about $600. We also got
to watch a miner polish and cut the sapphire. They also included one that he’d
cut in the lottery draw. We found enough sapphires for everyone to have one
that is worth cutting. We drew little Ziploc bags out of Rob’s hat. Arhea won
the $600 sapphire, which was nice, since her birthday was the next day. And
Danielle won the one that was already cut and worth over $200. We got enough
to have 6 cut-so exciting. They are so pretty. It was really a fun part of
our trip.
Well, my computer is losing power so I’d better find an outlet soon. We head to
Biloela next for 2 days to see a working cattle station and ride horses and do
“outback recreation”. Then we head to Heron Island for the Great Barrier Reef.
We’ll have 4 days just taking it easy and the students will take 2 exams at the
Glass house Mountains before we head back to Brisbane for our final 2 days
together. About ½ of us will be heading back to OR, but lots will stay here
and head to Perth, New Zealand and other places. It is strange to think it’s
coming to an end.
We love you all,
Carla
P.S. Well, I tried to send this earlier, but the internet connection was so
bad, we couldn’t send it. So, by the time I send this we’ll be on Heron
Island. I’ll fill you in on a few more things.
I got up at 5:45 a.m. our last day at Carnarvon to see if I could see a
platypus. They are very elusive and hard to see. I didn’t have to set an
alarm as the kookaburras woke us up at 5:45 every day. They were in the trees
around us and would start their laughing to let the other birds know they made
it thru the night and that they were still in their trees! There was a group
of about 30 elementary school children who had also come to the platypus pool.
They sat pretty still for kids, but were fidgeting quite a bit. They stayed
about an hour, but 5 minutes after they left, about 6:55, we saw one. It was
just under the surface of the water, about 20 feet away, but we got a good look
at its shape. Exciting. Then a few of us there, Erik and Ryan and Bryn
included, got to see it again further away in the weeks. I didn’t see it that
time. Erik spent over 7 hours looking for it and saw it 3 times for his
efforts. Many Australians haven’t seen them in the wild. We didn’t even see
them at the zoo or aquarium because they were always hiding. The ranger said
they build dens 30 feet into the creek wall. No wonder we never see them
during the day, unless they are feeding. They eat yabbies, which are crawfish,
and they come to the surface to breathe and chew. Amazing.
Ryan and I did choose to take the shorter walk at Carnarvon. But it was still a
serious hike. We crossed over the creek that goes down the gorge 20 times.
Luckily, the rangers have put nice stepping stones at each crossing. We
learned about lots of plants that the Aboriginal people used for medicine,
food, etc. There is a species of palm that only grows in Carnarvon Gorge and
there are also rare king ferns there. The Aboriginal stencils and carvings
that were at three different sites were very interesting. At one place they
estimate they are from about 3500 years ago and at another they are 12000 years
old. They dig down near the site and do carbon dating on the things they find
there to estimate it. We saw a swamp wallaby on our walk, they are harder to
see and are always on their own. It’s darker with a white tip.
We also saw an echidna and a tawny frogmouth bird. And we heard a yellow belly
glider possum screeching as it was going from tree to tree. They can glide up
to 120m. As we were leaving, we saw many wild emus along side the road.
Probably 25 in total.
Today we are at a cattle station in Biloela-they pronounce it Bill-oh-wee-lah.
We are actually about 45 minutes from the town at Lochenbar station, at a dude
ranch called Kroombit. The owners here have 10,000 acres and 1,000 cattle and
several hundred goats. Their main industry is tourism though. They have bus
loads of backpackers that come here on tours. Tonight there will be 60 youth
from around the world joining us. Fun. Last night we learned how to crack
whips. Nearly everyone got a good crack from their whips. Ryan chose a whip
for his birthday gift so he’s practicing now. We also each had a turn or two
on the mechanical bull. That was a riot! It’s a lot harder to stay on than it
seems. Erik and I stayed on for 1 buck each, or you could say we got bucked off
the first time it moved! One of our students stayed on for 50 bucks. It was so
much fun to try. I thought of Andrew and Kari often and knew they would have
loved to try it.
This morning we all got to ride horses and go on a goat muster. We herded about
300 goats around a huge paddock or pasture and into a pen. That was very cool.
My horse was called Bonnie and she did a good job. It was more fun than just
following behind other horses on a trail walk. We didn’t get to trot or gallop
them, but it was still great. Then we had a little goat rodeo. We also shot a
12 gauge shotgun at clay pigeons. Erik was the best and got 3 out of 5.
Tonight after supper, of roast beef, we’ll watch the backpackers try the bull.
We leave at 7 a.m. tomorrow for Gladstone, where we’ll catch the catamaran for
Heron Island. I hear that most people get seasick on this 3 hour trip. Oh
joy!
Well, I’m afraid this is getting too long, you may not have time to read it.
But since we’ve been away from technology for awhile, I had to get you caught
up on our adventure. I hope you all have a Happy Easter. Love to all,
Carla
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Update from the Sunshine Coast
Wow, I thought I'd have all sorts of time during our Spring Break to write in this blog, but not so! I did put more pictures on my picasa album. It's nearly 11 p.m. and we leave at 6 a.m. tomorrow for our next adventure. Last week we were camping at Lamington National Park at O'Reilly's. We learned so many interesting things about rain forests, glow worms, brush turkeys, marsupial carnivore mice and so on. I will try to write more later. We got a heavy storm one day, but otherwise we had awesome weather. Several of the students were sick with colds so that was a bummer. What a gorgeous place though!
Then we met Tore and Patricia in Brisbane on Friday and headed north about an hour to the Sunshine Coast. We're living it up right here at a time share. We've enjoyed the pool and the deck, kayaks and the tennis court and game room. Even more fun was the fishing. Erik bought 2 fishing poles and they fished off the dock numerous times, usually 3 times a day. We had an amazing meal of Bream which they caught. We'll take the poles on to Heron Island.
We also enjoyed a market and the Australia Zoo and especially each other's company. We got to have dinner with Ulla and 3 other Scandinavians. They cooked tuna, sand crab and other amazing things for a lovely evening. Ulla was our cook for Aboriginal camp and will be with us next week too. Yeah!
I must sleep, but wanted to say a quick "HI". We are well. Won't have internet for the next two weeks.
Carla
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Last few days in Brisbane
Hi,
It's been raining off and on for the last few days, partly because of cyclone Hamish a few hours north of here. We will be on the Sunshine Coast on March 20th, but by then it should be long gone. We're hoping it doesn't rain on Friday night as we're taking all of the LC students to a Rugby game. Should be fun.
Erik had a great visit in Adelaide with Palmer's, Pappa and Patricia and the boys and I had fun at the Gold Coast. It's a very built up part of Australia with lots of great beaches, skyscrapers, hotels, theme parks and tourists. But we enjoyed it all. We stayed in a nice Marriott within 1/2 a block from the ocean. We were on the 15th of 35 floors. It cost about $65 US. The boys loved playing tennis -on the 5th floor court. They played 3 different times during the day we were there for free. We had sunshine on Sunday when we arrived and we enjoyed the beach at Surfers Paradise. The boys said the waves were huge, so they had fun boogie and body boarding. That night we ate at Hard Rock Cafe and the boys played for 2 hours at a huge video arcade, complete with bowling, bumper cars and mini golf. I'm reading an adventure series called "The Ranger's Apprentice" by an Australian so I was happy to read while they played!
Monday we headed to White Water World. It's perhaps a little smaller than Wet n Wild, but had lots of great rides. I liked it best, but the boys voted for Wet n Wild. Ryan was launching himself on the Blue Ringed Octopus ride and pushed too far, too fast and hit his chin on the water slide. He split it enough that they paid for a taxi to take us to the clinic. The dr sutured it with human glue and steri strips and we were back playing within an hour. Impressive. A fun day-and even though it was cloudy all day, it didn't start to rain until we were almost home. Yeah.
This week we're busy with math, grading, packing, sorting, shopping, more math, and attending the student's presentations. Sunday morning we head out for Lamington Plateau and safari style tents. We'll be with Rob again and learning about rain forests, collecting bugs and mammals and getting up really early to look for birds. It'll be very interesting and fun to be all back together again.
After that week it is Spring Break, which we'll spend on the Sunshine Coast with Pappa and Patricia. Ryan will have his 12 birthday then and we're really looking forward to our visit. The boys will be thrilled to be right on the ocean. No hour long bus rides to get to the surf. Not sure when we'll have internet again, probably in a week. All for now,
Carla
It's been raining off and on for the last few days, partly because of cyclone Hamish a few hours north of here. We will be on the Sunshine Coast on March 20th, but by then it should be long gone. We're hoping it doesn't rain on Friday night as we're taking all of the LC students to a Rugby game. Should be fun.
Erik had a great visit in Adelaide with Palmer's, Pappa and Patricia and the boys and I had fun at the Gold Coast. It's a very built up part of Australia with lots of great beaches, skyscrapers, hotels, theme parks and tourists. But we enjoyed it all. We stayed in a nice Marriott within 1/2 a block from the ocean. We were on the 15th of 35 floors. It cost about $65 US. The boys loved playing tennis -on the 5th floor court. They played 3 different times during the day we were there for free. We had sunshine on Sunday when we arrived and we enjoyed the beach at Surfers Paradise. The boys said the waves were huge, so they had fun boogie and body boarding. That night we ate at Hard Rock Cafe and the boys played for 2 hours at a huge video arcade, complete with bowling, bumper cars and mini golf. I'm reading an adventure series called "The Ranger's Apprentice" by an Australian so I was happy to read while they played!
Monday we headed to White Water World. It's perhaps a little smaller than Wet n Wild, but had lots of great rides. I liked it best, but the boys voted for Wet n Wild. Ryan was launching himself on the Blue Ringed Octopus ride and pushed too far, too fast and hit his chin on the water slide. He split it enough that they paid for a taxi to take us to the clinic. The dr sutured it with human glue and steri strips and we were back playing within an hour. Impressive. A fun day-and even though it was cloudy all day, it didn't start to rain until we were almost home. Yeah.
This week we're busy with math, grading, packing, sorting, shopping, more math, and attending the student's presentations. Sunday morning we head out for Lamington Plateau and safari style tents. We'll be with Rob again and learning about rain forests, collecting bugs and mammals and getting up really early to look for birds. It'll be very interesting and fun to be all back together again.
After that week it is Spring Break, which we'll spend on the Sunshine Coast with Pappa and Patricia. Ryan will have his 12 birthday then and we're really looking forward to our visit. The boys will be thrilled to be right on the ocean. No hour long bus rides to get to the surf. Not sure when we'll have internet again, probably in a week. All for now,
Carla
Friday, March 6, 2009
March in Brisbane
March started out very warm. The first day of March is officially autumn here. They don't call it fall because the leaves don't fall off of the trees here! However, it didn't feel like fall or autumn. It was the warmest day they'd had all summer, 35 degrees Celcius, 95 F. We were again thankful for air conditioning in our apartment. Sunday, March 1st we attended church at the Brisbane congregation again. Erik, Ryan and I sang several rounds, which was fun. We had a potluck after church, complete with a pavlova that Todd Houston brought! After church, Bryn, Ryan, Erik and Shane went to a Rugby game. They enjoyed that very much and the Brisbane Reds won.
Saturday, the day before, we got up early and headed via train down to Beenleigh to meet up with our new friend, Jim Ireland. He, his son, Andrew, and granddaughter, Hannah, took us out on their boat to N. Stradbroke Island again. It felt like a different trip from the weekend before when we took the ferry over. This time we went for about 30 minutes down the Logan River, passed a few islands and we were there, no time on open water. We stopped at two spots along the island. The first stop had about a foot wide beach and then a steep sand dune with very fine sand of many colors. We went up and down the dune and swam in the water. Then we went a little further along the island and stopped at another spot with about 3 feet of beach. We had the place to ourselves for our chook(chicken) and bread roll picnic, until 2 goannas came along. We had fun watching them and feeding them scraps. All of a sudden they started fighting, or dancing. They were going at it for over 30 minutes. It was very interesting to watch. They paid no attention to us watching them.
As we headed back, Jim and Andrew showed the boys how to kneeboard and do tricks and then Jim skiied barefoot. He was amazing. Then Bryn and Ryan got to kneeboard, which they learned easily and loved. It was a Saturday in summer, with no wind at all and there was hardly anyone on the water. Since school's back in session most people are busy with school and sports, I guess. It was a perfect day for us. When we got back to Brisbane we headed over to Shane and Luke's homestay home for some swimming in their pool and ping pong/around the world fun. It was great to meet their family.
Brisbane isn't quite as close to the ocean as Sydney so the beaches aren't as accessible, but Tuesday we went to a beach on the river. It's a gorgeous place to relax and cool off. It's like several huge pools, but with sand on the bottom of the pool and sand along the edge so it feels like you're at the beach. That was enjoyable. Brisbane really is a gorgeous city.
Wednesday, we took the boys to Wet n Wild, supposedly Australia's best water theme park. It's about an hour away by train and since we were there on a weekday, the park wasn't busy at all. We loved it and went on many crazy and amazing water rides. What a fun day. On Monday, Bryn, Ryan and I will go to White water world, the other big water park. Then we'll be able to compare and decide which one we think is best!
Friday, the LC students all turned in their papers from their research projects and had their last official lecture. So we invited them over to our place to see the apartment and celebrate. We had Rice Bubbles Treats and other goodies and then went to our park for some climbing and cricket. It was a fun afternoon. Next week the students have 2 tests and also present their research. For the rest of the trip, they will be learning via field study and research at Lamington Plateau, Carnarvon Gorge and Heron Island. That will be interesting, I'm sure. GED sure does a great job with this program, giving us so many varieties of learning opportunities.
Today, Erik headed out early to the airport and flew to Adelaide. He said they didn't even ask for his ID, or make him take his shoes off and Aunty Daphne, Pappa and Patricia met him at the gate. Nice. Also, the price of tickets for domestic travel is quite cheap. I think his ticket was about $70 and he flew quite a ways, about as far as San Francisco or further, from Portland. Tore and Patricia just arrived in Australia a few days ago and are visiting family friends. Erik hasn't seen Aunty Daphne and her kids since he was 12. He'll be able to be there until Monday night.
While he's there, the boys and I are heading to Surfer's Paradise for a night. Tomorrow we'll play in the ocean and then we'll head to White Water World on Monday. Fun!
I hope you like the new layout for my Blog. I changed it, thanks to my nephew Travis' advice. I don't want it to be "boring". I may even figure out how to add photos.
All for now,
Carla
Thursday, February 26, 2009
February's nearly gone!
Hi all,
I can't believe that February is nearly gone. As of tomorrow we've been on this adventure for 2 months. We've sure done many wonderful things. We continue to enjoy Brisbane. It rains often, not every day though. And it usually only rains for 30 minutes or so. Several days have been pretty humid, but the temperature is usually in the 80's. The river, rain and size of the city make us think of Portland.
Last weekend we went to N Stradbroke Island, or Straddy. It was a 1 hour ferry ride to it. It's the 2nd largest sand island in the world. Fraser Island is the first. We met a new member of GED who will be with us on our field trips. His name is Rob Elvish, a man full of information, makes learning so interesting. We learned sand island ecology and about mangrove trees. We saw wildlife, plus a perched lake, a window lake, sand dunes of various ages and the rocky outcrop that started the whole island many many years ago. I've written some comments on my photos with more specifics: http://picasaweb.google.com/carlanilsen
We came back Monday afternoon from Straddy. The boys went and played several hours of cricket in New Farm Park while I did laundry and took a nap!
Tuesday night we saw a play called "White Earth". It's based on a book written by an Australian. It was intense, but good.
Wednesday, several of the students decided to go to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We decided to tag along. It was well worth it! There are over 130 koalas there and lots of other Australian wildlife. We got to hold a koala-Hazel was her name! Such fun. We also got to wander among and feed the kangaroo and wallabies. The emus wanted some food too. They are kind of freaky though. We all had an awesome day!
Erik's working late tonight. The students turned in their research paper rough drafts so he's making comments.
We'll attend church this Sunday and sing for the service. Ken R. will be there so it'll be great to see him.
Must get to sleep! Hope all's well with you around the globe.
Carla
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