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