Mid Semester Break

Mid Semester Break Adventures

29 Sept - 7 Oct

Magnetic Island Weekend Trip (29 - 30 Sept)

I took a mini staycation by myself out to Maggie Island for sunday and monday. Walked around the island and spent some time swimming and relaxing at one of their beautiful beaches. I watched the sun set over the mountains and enjoyed pizza and a drink at the hostel I stayed at. Very well rated, great atmosphere and area to sleep in! They also had an animal sanctuary apart of it where I got to see up close some of Australias iconic animals. An interesting thing that I learned was that a koalas brain is the size of a pinky nail… then I proceeded to make eye contact with the one there and couldn’t help but say to myself, “you’ve got nothing going on up there, do you?” haha! Ended my last day walking to get a huge acai bowl that I proceeded to eat on the beach and then walked that beach all the way back to the ferry terminal. Made the most of my weekend and it was a nice little trip!


An echidna and koala

A black cockatoo and black headed python 

Orpheus Island Field Trip (1-3 Oct)

Next, I had a 3 day field trip with my Coral Reef Ecology class to Orpheus Island! Here we were practicing sampling skills to determine the trophic structure of the reef, i.e. which types of fish were most abundant; planktivores, herbivores, piscivores. As well as the benthic cover at each site we visited; what types of coral were most abundant, algae cover, bare ground, etc. It was really fascinating and you can’t beat getting to snorkel for two days! We stayed at the universities field station on the island which had very nice accommodations and they fed us really well! In the evenings we were either completing our species identification lists from the day or playing Kubb, which is a traditional swedish game. It’s a pretty simple game rule wise, but it’s harder than you’d think to try to knock down a block of wood with another block of wood haha. Overall a great trip though and very thankful to have been able to do it! When I was selecting classes to take here apart of this one’s description was 40 field ours, which amounted to this trip. I met great people there and my professor is an amazing lady! She let me film a time lapse video for this “grand prix” race she does with the 4 wheeler that goes super slow. Everyone lined the pathway and were waving their fins in slow motion, it was a fun way to end the trip! 

My surveying buddy, Julie from Denmark! sneak
Cheeky little tree frogs that were always in the sinks

Camping in Tully (5-6 Oct)

I went camping for the first time!! Now I know that sounds either like a very sad statement or a complete shock as to how i’ve never been camping before, but it is not my fault… it is my bloods fault for being so irresistible to mosquitoes and thus making me dislike the outdoors haha. I went with a friend of mine up into the mountains a few hours north of Townsville. We set up camp for a night surrounded by a lot of other people camping, whether with a tent, like us, or a campervan. We went to the Tully Gorge National Park because my friend had done a prior film project there on tree frogs… so we went looking for tree frogs! Next day we went chasing waterfalls and just enjoying the drive listening to music and looking at the endless fields of sugar cane around us. Absolutely loved the experience... except for the morning we woke up and the march flies had swarmed... those were awful and are another reason why I don't camp hahaha.

 

Wallaman Falls