Decapitation

Ok well if you will notice at the end of the last post I made the comment “ ONLY TWO WEEKS BEHIND NOW!!!!!” well if you have lost track of time its been probably about two and a half weeks since my last post so we all know that 2+2.5=4.5 so that means I am currently 4 and a half weeks behind now… I am leaving for Sidney tomorrow so that means that I have got to catch up some before I leave… But ya so I left of right before the second awesome day of Seabird rescue on a Friday.

Right so on that particular day (Friday) I was excited for another day of Seabird Rescue!!! Fantastic right. Well on this particular day it turns out the previous night Seabird had obtained a 120-year-old sea turtle, which was very sick and needed intense medical care. Unfortunately, it passed away that night which meant they had a huge dead turtle on their hands. So what do you do with a dead turtle you may ask… Well you saw it open and see what’s inside and try and preserve its giant shell, that’s right turtle necropsy baby. So pretty much we sliced and diced on this turtle for about 3 hours and I was allowed the privilege of pulling out its large intestines, ripping off its chest plate, and last but not least decapitating it with tree branch cutters. IT WAS AWESOME, and sad at the same time because that was a really old turtle and you hate to see those die. It turns out that the turtle had about a thousand different sicknesses so it was impossible to really pinpoint what exactly killed it. Once again there are some sweet pictures and once I get back to the states I will liven this blog up with some pictures, but until then you are just going to have to bare with me. After we left the necropsy we got back to camp and prepared to head on another three-day field trip to Tenterfeild!!! (The most wonderful place on earth… cough) After we got packed up people started playing some games and what not and some really funny pictures were taken. Once again you’re all just going to be patient with me on that. But we called it a night and rested for our three-hour journey to the wonderful land that is Tenterfeild.

Tenterfeild was a pretty fun trip. It definitely had its dull moments but overall I enjoyed it. The three-hour bus ride wasn’t bad because I slept through most of it and we stopped at McDonalds (in Australian Maccers) so we couldn’t complain (unless you hate McDonalds like I do). But we got to the hotel and it turns out Ball State put some money out for us to stay in Tenterfeild. The hotel was really nice and ended up having fantastic food. But the first thing that we did when we got to hotel was turn around and leave. It was time to go on our first adventure hike, which turned out to be a really sweet mountain face called Bald Rock. Since I don’t have pictures I will describe it. Essentially Bald Rock is a giant hill with a huge rockslide face if that makes any sense. But ya it was super fun climbing around on the giant rocks on the way up and the top had a fantastic view. On the way down we went down the steep rockslide and got some fun Matrix pictures. After the hike we ended up going to a wine tasting facility called the doctors nose. It was a lot of fun because the owner of the place brought out a whip and we all tried to crack it (which is a lot harder than I thought). Well I ended up cracking the back of my leg instead of the whip pretty hard and had a huge welt for a day or so. But besides that it was fun. Then after the winery we went back to the hotel and ate dinner. After dinner we had an open mike night, which was awkward and fun, all rolled into one. After the singing extravaganza, I decided to go on a walk with a couple people out into the countryside. After the walk I came back and slept long in hard in my comfortable bed. I almost forgot but this was the first day that I saw kangaroos, and a lot of them all leaping and bounding around on the side of the road.

Well after a good night sleep and I woke up for the second day in Tenterfield. We had a fantastic breakfast and then piled onto the bus once again. This time we were going to sieve for Sapphires at a Sapphire mine. We got there and spent a good 2 hours just sieving through dirt for gems. A couple of people found some big gems worth some money but I didn’t really find anything of value. After the Sapphire mine we went to a small religious community. I don’t really know how else to describe it but that is what it was. We got to the community and about 30 students our age were standing outside our bus just staring at us. It was incredibly awkward because I had no idea where we were or why we were there. It turns out it was camp for Christian kids who want to live in a community that completely supports itself. The kids made quality signs and sold them to different businesses around Australia. The camp had a very similar feeling to the town in the movie the Village. But they made us food that was really good and the awkwardness faded a little bit by the end, but in no way was it ever gone. All of the kids were from all over the world. I think only one or two of them were actually from Australia. After we left the community the next destination was an old town. This was boring and I don’t really want to describe it… ya so we left that and went back to the hotel where I sat around and talked with people for the remainder of the night until bedtime. The next morning we had another wonderful privilege of learning about the history of Tenterfield. This would be comparable to learning about the history of Anderson.. nothing really happened and no one really cares, but the people tried really hard to make it interesting but unfortunately failed miserably. But after the tour we headed back to our home sweet home of Lennox head. Once we got back to camp the next four days I sat inside and did homework because I procrastinated and had to make a presentation and write an eight-page paper on coral reef. Both of those went very well and I was glad to get them over with. But ya that was one week, you all should be looking forward to the next post because it will be all about the TEN DAY…. Which a road trip in the Mystery Machine has to be full of adventures am I right??? Of course I am.

Holy Crap

I just looked at my blog and it just looks boring, tomorrow i will spend time trying to get at least some pictures up... Just for everyones sake

First day of Sea Bird!!!

Ok, so where did I leave off, right the FIRST DAY OF SEABIRD RESCUE. If you don’t know what seabird rescue is let me tell you (I don’t know how you would). It is an organization that rescues seabirds especially pelicans… and that’s about all you need to know. Oh right they also rescue sea turtles, which will turn into an interesting story later on. But right now let me tell you about the first day of seabird. So essentially we arrived there on the bus and all piled into one large room where a prego girl came out with a colorful bird on her shoulders. Now let me tell you at this point I had no idea what we would be doing at seabird and was incredibly excited about it. Our tour began with a couple of videos and a tour of the grounds. The videos go me excited because it showed a lot of the rescues that they had done (including dolphins, whales, sea turtles, and birds). What I learned was that essentially we were going to be doing some research for Seabird, particularly the distinction between a seabird, water bird, and shorebird. We would also be feeding some animals and cleaning cages. At the time there was only one bird in their care, known as the Giant Petrol. This was a hug bird even in its youth. It was about the size of a full-grown vulture. It has the weirdest looking beak that I have ever seen, when I figure out my camera I will post pictures. This bird is known for taking a bird known as an Albatross and grabbing them by the neck and drowning them in the ocean so you don’t want to get your fingers to close to it. It was having trouble with its oil gland, which prevents seabirds from drowning. They were doing what they could to stimulate the gland and get it secreting again. But ya seabird was cool, and so far its only gotten cooler. After Seabird we met up with Phil and went on a nature hike with him. We ended up seeing some wallabies and he had us eat different random plants throughout the bush. Later that night Rusty and I had the great idea of going down and jumping in the tea tree lake around 10 oclock on a freezing cold night. We tried to gather up as many people as we could and only ended up with four. So we put on our bathing suits and headed down to the lake (Me, Rusty, Eleanor, and Chelsea). Jordan and Piper decided to come watch us and followed us on bikes. Eventually we built up the courage and jumped in. It turns out that the water was actually really warm compared to what we’ve been swimming in. It was awesome because all of the stars were out and the water felt fantastic. We stayed in the water for about a half an hour just messing around. Turns out that Jordan and Piper had the bright idea to steal all of our towels, so it was a cold jog back to camp. Saturday I really have no idea what I did on that day, probably nothing spectacular besides the whole still being in Australia part.

Sunday, I decided to go to church again. This time it was actually held in a building about a 25-minute walk away from camp. They had a really good speaker this time. He was very passionate about what he was speaking on and this always makes people easier to listen to in my book. After the service was over we stayed and talked with members of the church and enjoyed a little birthday celebration. After church we headed back to camp through market day in Lennox. People come and set up shop in tents every other Sunday here and some of them have some very interesting things to sell. Well I didn’t end up buying anything and went back to camp for lunch. Later that day a large group of people decided to go kayak in the lake. Once again it turned into a major battle where everyone was flipping everyone else. Then Monday we got the privilege of going and talking to the mayor of Ballina council (pretty boring), revisiting seabird (same videos, so pretty boring), and visiting a Tea Tree factory (not that bad). Tuesday I got the privilege of going on my FIRST SCUBA TRIIIIP. It was a little overwhelming to be honest. I wasn’t that nervous getting into the water of going under for that matter. The major issue was the incredibly strong current. You would be sitting still in the water and then all of the sudden be swept away by an incredibly hard current. The visibility was also pretty poor but we still saw 6 grey nurse sharks, a bunch of Wobbegongs, huge schools of huge fish, and a huge stingray. I am looking forward to dives with better visibility and less of a current. Nothing else really happened until the marine biology trip on Thursday where we got to snorkel on a rocky beach. The only thing I really saw though was a Wobbegong. I am going to try once again to get some pictures up because apparently I am boring some people (HOPE)…… ONLY TWO WEEKS BEHIND NOW!!!!!

WHALES, OCTOPUS, AND SHARKS OHH MY!!

Ok well it has been a terribly long time since I have updated this thing so I think I better. At this time I am in an RV on a road trip down the south east coast of Australia and its incredibly bumpy so ignore any typos you jerks.

So Ah yes I left off on Friday the eleventh, which was GROCERY DAY… This is normally not that big of a deal but this trip was particularly special because of our driver….PHIL!!! That’s right the man who knows it all about wildlife, and I do not over exaggerate when I say that. You will be driving with him and he will spot animals and give their scientific name constantly, not to mention he is incredibly awkward which just adds to his awesomeness. So anyway back to the grocery trip. It began with Phil spotting our first wallaby even before we even got on the bus. It was a big one that was just down a dirt road just behind our camp. Everyone got pictures and eventually it hoped away into the bush. We then piled onto the bus and started our venture to the grocery. Once we reached the top of the head, Phil spotted a particular bird that can literally sit/hover in the air. It was ridiculous. The bird would be completely still just sitting in the sky using the air current to keep itself up like a hang glider. Then we spotted whales in the ocean and pulled off to watch a small pod constantly jumping around in the ocean. I don’t know what they were doing exactly but I would like to think they were frolicking. We made it to the grocery and bought food to sustain us for the coming weeks. Phil then took us to a spot where there bats known as flying foxes. We got to the location and there were literally hundreds of giant bats up in the tree. They all started taking off at once and it was absolutely spectacular. Well the next day I went with Piper and Jordan to Byron to go see the movie Inglorious Basterds, which I must say was an awesome movie. I ended up paying about 25 dollars to see it and it was worth every penny. It will however definitely be the only movie I see here in theatre. Then on Sunday I woke up and headed to a local church service with a small group of people. It turns out that on this particular day it was father’s day in Australia. The church service was held outside by Lake Ainsworth (tea tree lake) and there was a free sausage sizzle after words. It was a good service and the sizzle after words was spectacular. The sausage was by far the best I have had here and believe me when I say that there is some bad sausage here. But it was really cool to sit down and talk with a couple Australians after the service because we are pretty secluded back here in the Lake Ainsworth camp. But another positive thing that came out of this was on the walk home the greatest decision ever was made…. Road trip. It turns out the group that went to church didn’t have any idea what they were going to do for the ten day. Someone mentioned the word road trip and it was settled in a heartbeat. After church a medium sized group of people decided that we should all go kayaking in the lake. Well we got there and out on the lake and it turned into a major dunking fest and we all had a good time. Then Me, Kurtis and Jordan decided that we were going to try and snorkel at the lagoon. It was much more successful this time, still freezing but more successful. It was probably the lowest tide that I have seen yet which made it perfect for snorkeling. We snorkeled for about 20 min and that was all we could take. In that time I saw three octopuses, a stingray, a small shark, and a weird giant slug thing. It was a full day so that night I just sat around and talked with people

Well Monday we had another boring class in Australia life and Culture. It was on Australian sports, which was cool the first hour but dragged on the next two. At this point I cant really remember what I did that day because there was no field trip so I had the afternoon off. I most likely did something at the beach. Tuesday I decided to go down to the other head with Kurtis and Carrie. The other head is about two or three miles from our camp and let me just say its 15 times cooler than the closer more popular one. There are giant rock faces to climb, large tide pools that we saw a small octopus in, thousands of crabs, some of the smoothest roundest rocks, and great views. We spent about three or four hours exploring and decided to head back because it was starting to get dark. If you go past the other head you can make it to Byron, which I haven’t done yet but I plan on doing soon. Nothing much happened Wednesday I had Terrorism Class and that’s about it. Thursday however was a good day. For our marine class we got to go out on a boat and watch for whales. I went out with the first group. We didn’t see anything for a long time but then we finally spotted on off in the distance. We rushed over to it and it turned out to be two humpbacks and a small pod of dolphins. We got incredibly close to the whales, which was awesome, so close actually they swam underneath our boat. This was one of the coolest experiences of my life. The whales were absolutely HUGE. I have never seen an animal that large that close. After that we went to a lab and looked at some plankton underneath a microscope which some of them were crazy looking. After that we went back to Lennox and had class. And that was my week four weeks ago at this point…. I am going to try and catch up a week ever day so look for new post daily for about four days straight