Earthwatch Australia Teach Live

DAY 1 - Sunday 4th April

Up at 4am to catch the 6:10am flight to Cairns. It’s the end of daylight savings so I did get one extra hour to sleep in. I had to make the last minute check to make sure I had everything (I’m sure I left something at home-time will tell what it is).

At the airport the flight was delayed by 1 hour, but considering I would have to wait at the Cairns airport for 3 hours when I arrive it didn’t make much difference which city I was in.

Arrived in Cairns – ‘Sunny Queensland?’ It was raining the moment we went through the clouds and then touched down! Eventually 12:30 arrived – I was at the rendezvous point where I met up with the other 18 people who were going on the expedition to the rainforest with us. We loaded everyone into 4 four wheel drives that took us into the Atherton Tableland – Lamb Uplands (look it up) it is 700m above sea level. It was still raining (hence the word RAIN forest) as we set up our tents (thank goodness the research staff knew how to set up our tents – a few of us had ours back to front and in the mud, which is where mine currently is).

Time for dinner, Collin had us chopping up fresh vegetables and meat and we created a delicious stir fry with rice.

After dinner we had a PowerPoint presentation from Professor Steve who told us about the do’s and don’ts about being in the rainforest area, these include: enjoy the rainforest, keep together, call out if you stray away from others, look at everything but don’t touch (some things may be poisonous) – some of the don’ts are: don’t eat the fruit or berries of the plants; don’t wander off by yourself – always let someone know where you are.

We were then informed about the ‘dangers’ of the rainforest:

The’ Wait-a-while’ plant has barbs that can catch in your clothes and skin (think about Velcro and how it hooks onto the barbs of material) ; Professor Steve told us about a time when he got caught up in some ‘Wait-a-while’ plants and to get out he had to reverse out of the plant and they unhooked themselves. Did you know they can actually hold the weight of a man off the ground if you get caught in them? Ouch!

‘Stinging trees’ like cleared areas and sunlight and they’re really painful if you get stung; they are a plant that has heart shaped leaves with fine hairs that feel like they’re burning you if they make contact with your skin.

Watch out for snakes – red bellied black and small-eyed snakes – both of which are venomous.

Leeches are clean parasites which like to suck your blood (we were shown a photo of how a leech got into someone’s eye – I couldn’t look at that – Yuk!) You can flick a leech off, it doesn’t really hurt you- once it sucks your blood it falls off after it’s had its fill.

Don’t sit on the ground – you never know what’s under the leaf litter or under logs.

Wow, maybe this was too much information but it’s better to be pre-warned and know what’s out there.

An early night – time to get into bed in the tent – I hope my tent doesn’t leak or my lilo doesn’t go down.

DAY 2 Monday 5th April

It rained spasmodically throughout the night and as I lay there during the night I listened to the sounds I could hear – crickets, frogs croaking; someone snoring – was that a strange animal snuffling near my tent? I don’t want to know!

After breakfast a group went to check some sites at 900m altitude and a group went to find some microhylid frogs. I went with a group who were walking down a research track through the rainforest, this is where a majority of the research we did was going to be undertaken. We went walking through mud, through a creek and along the walking track viewing all the sites of the rainforest. It was amazing to identify the layers of the rainforest – there were the emergent trees (some said to be 30-40m tall); the canopy layer and then the shrub and leaf litter- just like on the websites I found for you. Leeches were everywhere and we were constantly picking them off each other until ONE FELL IN MY EYE!!!!!! OMG! I had been looking up at the emergent trees and felt something fall onto my face – I initially thought it was a rain drop but Collin (Professor Steve’s research assistant ) confirmed my suspicion – yes it was definitely a leech! I didn’t know what to do – I think I started to hyperventilate and then wanted to cry but what good would that do? Collin said not to panic and it would be in there for about “30 minutes or so”. What else could I do? I continued with the walk and wanted to constantly rub my eye – but thought better of that – it would do no good and might just go to the back of my eye to escape– I’d just have to wait for it to have a feed and then fall out!

Back at camp – (one and a half hours later) – it finally did ‘pop’ out! What a relief! It didn’t hurt to have it in there but it was slightly uncomfortable. Usually when a leech attaches itself to you it causes you to bleed after it comes off as it omits an anti-coagulant which prevents the blood from clotting and makes the blood flow more freely – people were expecting me to be crying blood – but fortunately that didn’t happen. Leeches have, and still are used in microsurgery to get rid of clots in capillaries while doing the surgery. It was definitely time for chocolate after that event!

After that, ten of us went for a swim in Lake Eacham, it is a volcanic lake – the water was very clean and fresh and it was a popular swimming spot. It was also a good opportunity to make sure there were no leeches still on us from the morning activities. This was my shower for the day.

It started to rain about 6pm and after dinner I was rostered down to do gecko surveying along the rainforest track. I headed off with Arnoud (pronounced Ar-noo) , Rachael and Janet and we spent two hours traipsing through mud and rain to discover one gecko up a tree. It was very well camouflaged and blended in well with the bark of the tree. We saw many barred frogs , crickets and a bush rat. We also discovered 2 Lord Bearded Dragon lizards. It took us 2 hours to walk the 1 km track and then finally it was back to base camp, a check for leeches and bed. (It rained the whole time we were out and we were saturated!)

Did you know the difference between a skink and a gecko is that geckos are nocturnal; they have pads on their feet and the bottom of a gecko is smooth, while the top is spiny and geckos don’t have eyelids. Skinks have scaly skin and are smooth and feed primarily on insects found in the leaf litter.

When I went to the bush toilet I turned off my headlamp and was greeted by dots of iridescent lights from algae on the ground, it reminded me of a scene from Avatar.

DAY 3 – Tuesday 6th April

I was awake at 2am (it was raining); 3am (it was still raining); 5am (yes, it was raining) so finally at 7:30 I thought it would be a good time to get out of bed (and yes, it was raining). Because of all the rain, it prevented the bird watchers from getting up at 5:15 to go looking for birds and it stopped me from doing my reptile survey (reptiles need sun and don’t appear often in the rain). So to help pass the day Professor Steve took a car load of us (7 people) on a site surveying trip where we drove through another unsighted section of the rainforest looking for places for Professor Steve to conduct further future surveys. When determining a site Professor Steve uses his GPS and topographical maps to determine a section of road or track that has the same elevation for the distance of approximately 1 km. While we travelled we actually went over a mountain range which saw us go from driving through a rainforest through to driving through a eucalyptus forest (all in the space of 100m). It was interesting to see the varying trees and shrubs in such a short distance - the reason for this was because of the wind direction balance between rain and fire (wet enough for a rainforest ).

The afternoon was spent measuring and recording data of barred frogs which had been collected by one of the research groups the night before. Frogs were measured in length, weighed and had a section of toe cut off for DNA analysis and to inform future groups that this frog had been sampled. The DNA tracking is important because it allows the scientists to tell how climate change has affected the animals in the past, as well as whether the same species in two different areas can stand the same conditions and environment. All the animals caught and tested are treated with great care and are re-released back to the area they were taken from.

I then went spotlighting as my night activity. Two of us had to walk a 1km transect of road looking for any indication of animal life. Collin walked in front with a big spotlight scanning the tree canopy (he was looking for eyes in the trees and once he spotted some he would use his binoculars to identify the animal). I walked 5 metres behind him using a head lamp to see if I could spot any animal life in shrubs or along the ground – I didn’t see a thing!

Collin found possums up the trees; frogs on leaves and we heard an owl hooting. It sounds easy to go spotlighting but the only things I tended to see were glow worms up on a rock face (very pretty I must say). These give a similar iridescent light to the fungus from the night before.

As part of our spotlighting the temperature was measured; humidity was determined using a wet/dry thermometer (hygrometer); cloud cover was noted; and also if the moon was present and if there was any wind. All these factors may have an impact on the survey. I am pleased to say that the thermometers used for measuring air temperature are the same we use at school when we do our experiments on temperature.

Collin and I walked the 900m altitude and where animals were spotted we had to indicate on a data sheet the type of animals; altitude it was found at; where in the rainforest it was found (i.e. ground, vegetation or canopy). While we were there we released the frogs that had been collected from the night before – they were very happy to be released into the area they had been taken from.

The spot-lighters from the 1100m search found a leaf-tailed gecko which they collected so it could be measured and a DNA sample would be taken – these samples get sent off to a lab for processing by experts in a laboratory and the results returned to Professor Steve.

All of the researchers were excited by the gecko as it had its original tail intact – the tail is quite spiky (yes you can see it on a photo in the gallery). Geckos can drop their tails as a defence mechanism, and they grow back short and stumpy once this has occurred. The gecko was identified as a she and it even had camouflaged eyes. Did I mention that Sarah from Melbourne also got a leech in her eye today – we’re all wondering who’ll be next?

DAY 4 – Wednesday 7th April

Last night was the best sleep I’ve had all week. The rain stopped and I slept soundly. I did wake up and hear frogs croaking NEXT to my tent. First one frog would croak and then the other would answer . I heard the bird surveyors get up at 5:30 and then I heard the birds start their morning calls! This is the first morning I’ve heard the birds- they are quite noisy (maybe they are celebrating the fact that the rain has stopped).

After breakfast I went for a little walk with Ralph (he is a scientist from Switzerland and he has joined us for a few days). He studies parasites that live on reptiles and are spread by mosquitoes – his study is equivalent to elephantiasis in people (look it up) but it doesn’t affect reptiles. Elephantiasis makes lymph nodes in people become misshapen). While on the walk we heard whippets and I can now distinguish between a male and female call and then, guess what, it started to rain!

I found a wild pig’s jaw-bone today, so I’m planning to clean it up and bring it back to school . Apparently wild pigs are found in a rain forest – I haven’t seen one of those yet (thank goodness).

It was drizzling slightly so a few of us decided to toss a Frisbee – welllll – the Frisbee landed in some long grass by the road and when we went to get the Frisbee a carpet snake was discovered resting in the grass. Arnaud picked it up and once it started to get used to his body warmth it started to become more mobile, as it is a cold-blooded animal. Check out the photo of me with the snake(it’ll be in the gallery soon).

Did you know snakes are not poisonous (i.e. you can eat them) but they can be venomous ( i.e. they can bite you and kill you). Luckily the one I was holding was completely harmless!

Once the paparazzi had taken a lot of photos of it, it was returned to where it was found and then we discovered a small saw-shell turtle sitting in a body of water. A red-bellied black venomous snake slithered from the grass to the edge of the base camp kitchen area. Prof Steve picked it up carefully and took it well away from the campsite – we all breathed a collective sigh of relief as it was removed from our living area. Needless to say we tentatively looked through the grass area near our own tents to make sure we had no more uninvited visitors.

I went reptile hunting in the afternoon. Three groups set out and we had 50m each to look for reptiles – we spent 10 minutes on the main road and then went into the rainforest to look under logs and leaf litter. We were looking for skinks, lizards, frogs or any reptilian types – once we sighted a lizard we recorded the temperature of the area it was found at using a digital thermometer. When we got back to base camp we measured the lizards that had been caught when doing surveys. Measurement included species; head length and width; length of the body; sex (if it could be determined) and they cut the tip of the tail off for DNA research. The reason they do these measurements is to determine if the reptile types found at these areas are genetically related. Scientists can tell using genetics how climate change has affected reptiles in the area. They have discovered that in the northern areas lizards are more tolerant to drying out. Watching Professor Steve measure and weigh the skinks and reptiles really highlights the importance of taking measurements correctly eg. right to the nearest millimetre, and the weight to the nearest milligram – this is real life science.

After dinner I was on gecko spotting (again) except this time it wasn’t raining! We had to walk the 1 km transect to see if we could locate any geckos – we saw 2 and captured 1. We then placed a gecko that had been caught and measured back into the rainforest and the aim of the night was to sit and watch the gecko and study its habitat. To do this, 2 strips of reflection tape were super-glued to its back and the gecko was put back to where it was collected from. We observed it for 2 hours and it had moved only 1 metre! We were lying on sheets of plastic on the ground in the middle of the rainforest – with all the lights out you could see the forest floor light up with iridescent dots of light....fascinating! We were only able to use red light head torches (eg. No white lights) when observing the gecko –the theory for this is a lot of animals can’t see red light so it doesn’t disturb them if we shine the light at them. We gave up observing at 12:30am but before we did this Arnaud covered the gecko (and himself) in iridescent powder and he was going to come back at 4am to monitor where the gecko had been while we were away), he would use an ultra-violet light to track its progress. As we headed back to base camp – it started to rain (what a surprise) and we were very pleased to be back and to get to bed.

DAY 5 – Thursday 8th April

I heard the bird surveyors leaving at 6am this morning (along with the sounds of the birds indicating it’s the dawn of a new day). It rained all day so many games of cards were played. Arnaud went to check his gecko during the night but he couldn’t find it! Geckos don’t retain the iridescent powder on their skin – research has indicated that the gecko’s skin is hydrophobic – it repels water (this keeps the skin clean and nothing sticks to it – including mud and reflective lights)!

Try this experiment to test hydrophobic theory – if you put fabric softener on towels, they don’t dry as well as towels that have NO fabric softener (if they do, it is harder for water to be absorbed – the fibres of a towel have a hydrophobic tendency. Another test is if you put oil into water – the oil is hydrophobic, as is wax – this is why a surfer will wax his surfboard! The opposite of hydrophobic is hydrophilic (loves water) e.g. a microfiber towel will draw water into it, just like a kitchen sponge!

I’m on bat surveying tonight so the afternoon was spent driving to the 1100m mark and setting a bat trap. This consists of a large net which has 2 layers of fishing line hung across it like a harp or the inside of a piano. On either side of this harp net, a mist net is placed to catch any that fly around it. The bat gets tangled in it if it flies into it and we then rescue it and gather important information from it. The nets stand about 8 metres high. At the bottom of the trap is a large bag to catch and trap any bats that may be caught.

Any bats caught are identified and weighed etc. Unfortunately we sat in the middle of the rainforest until 11pm and no bats came in sight! So we packed up and went back to base camp and bed. GUESS WHAT??!! It then stopped raining!

DAY 6 - Friday 9th April

YEAH the sun is out and so are the snakes! We saw the carpet snake again in the grass and a red bellied black snake was also spotted on the road. I went for a reptile survey at three sites and saw some skinks and then I went with a group to the Misty Mountains to drop off the frogs that had been collected on Monday. Misty Mountains is 1½ hours away (approximately 100km). On the way we saw 20 large wind turbines on ‘Windy Hill’ – it must be windy there – the trees are windblown and even when it’s not windy they look like they are standing in the wind. The turbines stand 46m high and the blade length is 20m. They create power to supply 2 townships in the area with their power.

We had a lecture from Professor Steven in the evening about Climate Change and what causes it and its impact on the world. He highlighted how the world temperature is rising and what the impact of this has on the species of animals worldwide. Steve demonstrated how all the results we have been collecting is used to monitor animal behaviour and the impact climate change is having on their survival. The question was then asked what can the students and children of today do to improve climate change? To this he replied:

“Be aware it is a serious problem with no one answer. If we increase everyone’s awareness they can let the government be aware it is important and then maybe they can do something”.

While we were contemplating these words of wisdom we set up the chairs out under the starlit sky and spent the evening enjoying the star gazing! (This means it wasn’t raining).

DAY 7 – Saturday 10th April

We packed up the camp today and headed to Cairns – it’s time for a couple of days of hot showers , real toilets and read beds. I’m planning on going snorkelling tomorrow so I’ll be back on line on Monday.

DAY 9 - Monday 12th April

What a relaxing weekend we spent in Cairns. Once we arrived at our accommodation in the caravan park on Saturday it was time for a swim and to wash clothes – oh to feel clean again!

Sunday we were up at 6:30 – seven of us were heading out for a day of snorkelling. I’ve never been snorkelling before – can I tell you – it was fantastic! The Great Barrier Reef is alive with colour and many wonderful organisms and fish – the water was warm and the sun was shining and it was a day to really enjoy myself. I frequently slipped, slopped, slapped and slid (sunglasses) but still managed to get a little bit of sunburn from where I missed the slop. Back to the caravan park and we had a barbecue and then a good night’s sleep before heading back to the rainforest.

Once we hit the road today, the four cars travelled in convoy to Julatten, approximately 100 km north of Cairns. We are staying in a lovely caravan park, 'Kingfisher Lodge' which prides itself on being a bird watchers haven – perhaps I’ll find out more tomorrow when I’m on bird surveys bright and early in the morning.

The afternoon was then spent setting up tents (I finished drying out my tent – it still had a little pool of water in it from last week), then the boys played Frisbee while the girls relaxed and gave each other facials and hand massages – I wonder who had the better end of the deal there?

After dinner we went spotlighting the great unknown of the new transects. I went with Jeff and Arnaud to the 600m site. We saw 2 possums up trees and it was a gecko lover’s night – we saw 9 geckos and caught 2 for sampling. I must admit I wasn’t doing very well at spotting the geckos but eventually spotted two, one of which we caught – I was very excited about that and finally feel I am doing my part of research for the scientists!

Off to bed at 10pm – I have to be up at 4:50AM to do a bird survey – I’ll let you know how I go.

DAY 10 - Tuesday April 13th

Wow – what a day! Up at 5am and then off to the 600m range to listen to and identify the calls and type of birds that are in that area. As soon as we hopped out of the car there was a chorus of bird-song! Personally I couldn’t identify one of them, but Professor Steve very quickly reeled off a list of names of birds that he could hear (Grey-headed robin, Lewin's honey-eater, Chowchilla and Golden whistler, just to name a few). The bird sampling is done to determine how many species are in the area and how abundant they are. We walked for 150m down the track or into the bush and listened for 5 minutes at each interval. To determine the 150m distance, a hip chain is attached to a volunteer (namely me this time) with one end of cotton tied to a tree and as it unravels a meter clocks how far we have gone. We repeated this for 3 transects. It was interesting to note that when the sun was rising the bird calls were more prevalent, but as it grew lighter the call numbers decreased.
Back to base camp for some breakfast and then some of the group went reptiling, while some headed up to the 1200m transect (which is over 1 hour away) and were staying a couple of nights. I went with Batgirl Tammie to set up ‘Anabats’ and to collect data from data-loggers* that have been set-up at varying sites. The ‘Anabat’ is a high frequency sonograph, or listening device, that records the bats high-pitched calls over a period of time (once we have completed all the research, Tammy will have to analyse the calls and she can determine the types of bats in the areas by the types of calls recorded). We placed ‘Anabats’ at 5 locations (400m, 600m, 800m, 1000m and 1200m) – it took all day to do this and we didn’t arrive back at base camp until after 7pm – needless to say I was too tired to go spotlighting so after some dinner I heard my tent calling my name and it was time for bed.

* Professor Steve and his research officer Collin, have data loggers set up at different sites at each of the transects – the data collected includes soil moisture, leaf wetness (condensation), soil temperature; air temperature and humidity; the measurements are taken every 15 minutes and Professor Steve and Collin have records of this information for the past for the 3 ½ years. (There are actually 28 sites set up over a 400km span ranging from 100m above sea level to 1600m above sea level). We emptied Malaise insect traps, they collect the insects in the area and are used to analyse the types of insects in the area and how they are used as a food resources by animals in the areas. Research has indicated that most insects are found in the wet season while not as many are found in the dry season. We also saw leaf litter traps which have been used in past research -they show the productivity of the rainforest by analysing the make-up of the leaf litter eg the percentage of twigs, leaves, branches that fall from the tree canopy and are caught in the trap.

One thing I have noticed about this site is that there are lots and lots and LOTS of mosquitoes! I used Aerogard all over myself and at one stage decided it would make good hairspray. All the different types of mosquito repellents are finally being put to use (i’ve got plastic wrist bands, bushmans insect repellent; mosquito patches ) you name it – i’ve got it! Remind me to tell you which is the most effective.

DAY 11 - Wednesday 14th April

After a relatively good nights sleep (I did have to get up to go to the toilet at 3am and encountered a bush rat on the way) I got up, had breakie and then it was time to start the day.

We went to investigate where the geckos had been released the night before (five had been captured on Monday night in total), these geckos had a tiny harness of gauze rigged up with spools of cotton attached and these were superglued to their backs. The intention of this was that as the gecko moved a cotton trail would be left making it easier for us to follow the gecko movements in the morning. When we arrived at each of the five sites we discovered that the spools had fallen off the back of the geckos - we found the cotton but the geckos were nowhere in sight!

I've finally found internet coverage so here I am - I'll be back with more tales to tell soon.

We headed back to base camp and it started to rain so then we went to the Internet Cafe where I spent some time uploading my highlights and responding to the questions that have been asked.

That night I stayed back at base camp – I was going bird watching the next morning so thought an early night was in order.

Day 12 – Thursday 15th April

I was up at 4:30 this morning! Last night it turned out that the group who went spotlighting got bogged and didn’t get back until after 11:30pm. This is what happens when you go off the open road onto dirt tracks! They tried to call for assistance on the radio but because of the mountains, the others were getting distorted messages and were unsure whether the message was for them or other people in the area. Eventually when the ‘batters’ got back they realised that the spotlighters were missing and went looking for them – this demonstrates the importance of always ensuring someone knows exactly where you are and when you are due back!

After our early rising we went bird watching at Mossman Gorge (check out the website) www.mossman gorge. com.au. It was very humid in the rainforest!?!

It was the usual survey with walking the 150m transect with 100m being in the set track and then we went ‘inland’ for 50m. Again we heard lots of bird calls – we identified 25 species on one of our surveys. The trees in this area are very large and have fantastic buttress roots. We then went into the town of Mossman for a second breakfast (first breakfast was 5 hours ago and consisted of a piece of toast and a cup of tea). Back home (the tent) and it was a time for a nap. I think I’m starting to get a cold, my nose is running and I’ve got a sore throat! I’m hoping the sleep will help.

A small nap and time to do some washing and catch up on reading. A group have headed off to a place called Windsor this afternoon, where they will be staying for 2 nights. They’ll do the usual spotlighting, bird surveys, reptiling etc, while those who were staying up at the 1200m site have come back to base camp and another person has gone up to stay on the mountain. The two teachers who stayed on the mountain had a great time, they were sleeping in a 3-sided shed on a concrete slab. Poor Janet got a leech in her eye and one on her tongue!!!! She was lucky that one of the researchers who was there used some tweezers and very quickly managed to get the leeches off her.

As our numbers are dwindling (11 people are left at base camp) we divided off into two groups to do our night activities. One group was going batting and I was tagged to go gecko hunting – our aim was to catch six geckos for sampling and to see if we could track the geckos to monitor their behaviours eg. where they go during the day. After walking for an hour we hadn’t caught one gecko but then our luck turned. Janet spotted three geckos in a matter of 10 minutes, then I spotted a gecko and Colin spotted two! We caught all six geckos and took them back to base camp for further studying.

The batters also had a successful night (at long last) and managed to trap three bats in the harp net. They caught two Rhinolophus megaphyllus (better known as a horseshoe bat) and a Nyctophilus bifax (Eastern long-eared bat). When Tammy catches a bat she places it into a cotton holding bag (this is a barrier between her fingers and the bat’s teeth and it helps to calm them down before Tammy starts her measurements). She measures the forearm length (this is like from our elbow to the wrist). Did you know that the bones in a bat’s wing is exactly the same as in a human’s arm (except a bat’s fingers are more elongated)? She then measures ear length, tail length, weight of the bat (an average is 10 grams) before determining the sex and bat’s age (done by measuring the wing extension). Did you know the wings are a skin membrane? She uses all the measurements to identify the bat species. Forearm length is very characteristic of the species. She releases the bat and records the navigation call they produce when they are released.

When she holds the bat in her hand, it produces an ultrasonic call (we can’t hear that call), the bat pushes the sound out through its nose and mouth and that sound bounces off objects in front of the bat and then the sound bounces back as an echo, the bat receives that sound in it ears and it can formulate a picture of the environment in its head and then it has an idea of where it can fly to get away. Tammy records the calls because each different species has a unique call and frequency which can be saved and used in her ‘call library’. The Anabats that we put out the other day records ultrasonic sounds and echolocation calls, Tammy can recall which bats in the area are using the calls.

I wasn’t fe1eling well when we got back (my nose is running like a tap) so off to bed.

Day 13 – Friday 16th April

It’s raining!

Today was spent measuring geckos and getting them ready for monitoring and observation when they go back into the bush.

In the evening only one car went up the mountain so four teachers (this includes me) took it upon ourselves to do a self-guided spotlight around the base camp. Boy! Were we good? We spotted different types of frogs (hopping frog, barred frog and a couple of cane toads – they are very warty). We also saw bats, an Eastern Water Dragon and a Sooty Owl. Other animals seen foraging in the bush included; 2 northern Brown Bandicoots and 2 rats (at least I think they were rats). I heard a noise in the tree and noticed a striped possum and a green ringtail possum – we were amazed at how far we have come in two weeks - not only can we now spot the animals but we are beginning to identify them by sight and sound. We were very proud of ourselves.

Day 14 – Saturday 17th April

This is our last day! A car went up in the morning to do a last bird watch, gecko survey and to collect Peter, who had been staying at the 1200m site for the past two nights. Back at base camp we started to tidy things up and pack things away. As the others who had gone to other sites for a few nights started to return, the campsite suddenly got noisy again. I noticed that Professor Steve was getting a little anxious and then some of the researchers started to as well – I realised it was time for the famous ULTIMATE FRISBEE GAME! Two teams were set up and it was on (I’ll teach you back at school how to play). Afterwards we went to Port Douglas for a celebratory dinner and then off to bed for my last night of sleeping in a tent.

This is my last entry – tomorrow we pack up camp and head back home. What a wonderful experience this has been, the people who were on the Earthwatch tour with me were fantastic (teachers, researchers and others). The study Professor Steve is doing impacts on us all and I am so proud to be have been able to contribute to it, albeit in a small way.

Thank you Earthwatch, you are doing a great job.

PS: Do you remember way back on day one when I thought I’d forgotten something? I know what it was – I forgot to let my husband know what time I’m due in on Sunday – a quick call from the airport can fix all that!!