Days 60 & 61 Aquarium

Let's see Thursday brought a day of work at Cafe 99. I had soccer training afterward followed by an early tea (dinner) because of the GAM (General Annual Meeting). Each year Whitley holds a meeting to review Exec. stuff with the students and then there are elections. It is mandatory to attend for anyone living in Whitley - but even though I attend I can't vote because I haven't been here more than a semester. All of the candidates made up videos or speeches and it was actually quite entertaining. The meeting was followed with a visit to the Pub which I attended but only briefly since we had another early soccer game in the AM.

Friday's game didn't start till 8 but it was reallllly windy. It was a close match and in the end we only lost 0-1 but unfortunately that means the end of the girls season - boo. Oh well it was fun, I think I played better on Wednesday though I just couldn't get on target this time around - grr. After second breakfast with the team I retreated to my room for some attempted homework time and cleaning. After lunch I hopped on the bike and headed to the Melbourne Aquarium! I couldn't convince anyone to come with me but it was still pretty entertaining by myself. It wasn't a bad aquarium, but sorta small and many of the fish weren't labeled which was bummer. I learned a bunch of random facts about fish. It also turned out that the aquarium only really covers Southern Australian fish, so my plan to be well educated while snorkeling in W.A. failed. In the evening after dinner I went to a dance recital with some of my friends to support our fellow Whitlian performing. The pieces were all student choreographed and even though I didn't understand most of them - it was still fun watch, unfortunately I didn't get any good pics - the lighting was rough.

The aquarium

Some species of unlabeled seahorse

The Murray Cod - Largest freshwater fish in Australia

Some species of unlabeled Angler Fish - he didn't have his little glow light thing on though :(

Gino's distant cousin!!! A side neck turtle species - instead of drawing their head back like our turtles they just bend it over to the side to protect themselves

A lungfish!

One of the displays...

Axolotl - which I'm not sure are even native to Australia???

Blue Blubber Jellies - straight from out in the Philip Bay - and apparently according to the sign, they are considered a delicacy for eating!!!

Southern Lion's Mane Sea Jelly - this is part of the family that has the toxins in their stingers - apparently the biggest one (an artic variety) can have a bell of 2.2 meters and tentacles reaching up to 36 meters (over 90 ft) - um holy crap.

This was probably the coolest part of the visit - a big room called the fishbowl where you could stand in this tunnel and all of the fish would swim around you!

Days 57, 58, and 59

Back to class as usual... Monday brought my first and only "midterm" - wasn't too bad. The rest of Monday simply brought some classes, hall, and time to catch up on emails and homework.

Tuesday is my busy day of classes but in between I had to pick up gear for my Western Australia trip - the backpack is smaller, which is sad. I also checked out STA (student travel assoc.) for backpacking trips up north but no such luck! In the evening I bought my tickets for my Sydney trip in October so I was pretty pumped. I made myself got to bed early so I could wake up for my first Whitley girl's soccer game - apparently I made the team even though I couldn't make any of the trainings because of class!

Wednesday came too soon and in no time we were out warming up for the game - who plays soccer at 6:30 am??? Anyway we ended up losing 0-2 but I think we put up a good fight - IH (International House - another college) had a pretty strong front so we were lucky to have a good goalie. I didn't play near as bad as I thought and only completely embarrassed myself once when I chose to be indecisive about taking a chest ball or header and ended up using my face - oops. After a quick breakfast I headed to class. My boss called me off today so I decided to go for another bike ride after lunch instead of being worthless in my room. I headed out to pick up the Yarra Trail where I left it off at the Yarra Bend Park - as the trail continues it heads into the suburbs of Melbourne and the area became beautiful! I saw some new birds and even an Echidna! I saw a lot of those blue-tongued skinks basking in the warm sun - but no snakes :o( Unfortunately I had turn around before too long so I could make my 5 pm class - which I was late to anyway - oops again. After class and a late meal it was back to homework for the evening before calling it a night.



A Galah feeding in the grass


A Common Bronzewing

Some Noisy Miner Chicks being noisy

Day 56 - Wilson's Prom - Sunday

The day started much earlier for everyone because we needed to be back at the van by noon. I got up extra early to try and walk down the beach and catch the sun rise but again I was thwarted! First off the sun was coming up in the wrong place again, curse my navigational skills and second I couldn't wade across the little creek because the tide was up. (I have an irrational fear of wading through water when I can't see the bottom) I sat on a big rock and waited for light before finally getting up the nerve to cross the creek. I only went about halfway down the beach so I could be back in time for breakfast. After breakfast and cleaning up we headed off onward to the final leg of the hike, only 10 km but mostly all uphill. The hike started off on the beach then continued onto a boardwalk and then worked its way up over the mountain side. The vegetation switched to a temperate rainforest category which was cool. The weather was cooling off quick and we soon were rushing to beat the oncoming rain clouds. We managed to make the carpark just before the storm hit, unfortunately the "after" shot is not on my camera. We headed down to Tidal River visitor center for some hot chips and lunch. A bunch of people friendly Rosellas tried to steal our food and I tried to catch one that was hanging out on my foot but I just plain missed. I wish people wouldn't feed them because the poor diet makes them look sickly. Anyway I managed to sleep most of the way home so I had energy to do wash, homework and unpack once I got back to Whitley. All in all the experience was amazing and I am now doing the research to see if I can squash in another backpacking trip somewhere, somehow. Hopefully I can work it out!

I love the Eucalypts against the skyline

A little crab that came out of the sand


The final trek begins...


The boardwalk

Temperate Rainforest

Day 55 - Wilson's Prom - Saturday

I decided to get up and try to watch the sunrise because I definitely didn't want to sleep 9 or 10 hours and be a grumper all day. I was a bit stiff and my muscles felt a little tight but other than that I was feeling pretty good. When I got out to our little beach I realized the sun would come up just out of my view but it still looked pretty cool with all of the colors in the sky. Will came out and took a few pictures as well and also contemplated a swim (insane) but ultimately decided to head back to his bag. Since no one else was moving by 7 I took a hike back to the bigger Waterloo bay beach in hope of catching a glimpse of a Wallaby, but no such luck. I saw some little birds and tons of fairy wrens but I still didn't get a good picture - little rascals! When I came back to camp at 8 no one was moving so I ventured down to the creek to look for crayfish but didn't find any. I did see an eel who had come up with the tide foraging for food which was pretty neat. Just for clarification the water at the campsites is piped in from upstream so we don't have to drink the brackish stuff. Eventually other people started stirring and I was able to make breakfast and start packing up for our next trek. The ravens got into everyone's stuff during breakfast and stole my granola bars and stabbed our cheese block, bold buggers. We needed to make a 14 km hike to the next camp at Sealer's Cove. We didn't get a move on till after 10:30 though - slow people. The day brought a lot of ups and downs as we needed to go over two smallish mountains. We hiked out of the fire damage area so the vegetation changed drastically, I spent every second scanning for any species of herps but saw nothing but a few skinks :o( We took breaks for photo ops, snacks and water. We had a minor detour at the Kersop Peak which was fantastic and really showed how beautiful the area was. We reached Refuge Cove at about 2:15ish and took a nice long lunch break on the sand. Will spotted some whales - which was absolutely the most exciting thing ever - and we spent so long watching them that we almost got trapped by the tide! (at high tide some of the beach trail sort of goes underwater -there are ways around but it's a pain) We made a run for it and made it down the beach with only slightly wet feet. With another 7 km to go before dark we headed out and up - the whales stuck around so I was able to get some pretty good pics from up on the mountain side down into the bay. The rest of the hike was similar to the first half - a lot of up and downs before we reached our destination. A couple people saw Wallabies but they spooked pretty quick so I didn't get to see them - too busy hanging back taking pictures of everything. We reached camp at about 5:30 and set up tents before heading down to explore Sealer's Cove. Named for the Fur Seal slaughtering that once took place there, the cove is really shallow but I finally go to see my Oystercatcher and some other shore birds. After dark we made our dinner, Penne pasta with pesto sauce, red peppers, cheese, and snow peas - we're gourmet- don't be jealous. Anyway it was yummy especially followed with some hot chocolate - yay! Of course our dinner was rudely interrupted because as soon as the sun set the possums attacked. I mean attacked - they we in our bags, tents, food, everywhere! Will literally picked one up and through it out of the German's bag, while I tackled one to get a chocolate bar back. We learned quickly that these devious little creatures could open zippers and fully enjoyed trying to get into everything. Nothing was safe. Eventually we secured everything known to mankind and the possums backed off. We ended the evening with more star gazing and mint biscuit competition. Of course another possum ruined my beauty sleep by breaking into Amber's bag in the middle of the night.

Just before sunrise... my favorite time of day!

Pretty

More pretty

Beach at our campsite

The set up

That's a fur seal - it may just look like a brown blob to you - but it was really neat

Change in vegetation

The view from Kersop Peak

Lunch time at Refuge Cove

Starfish

Southern Right Whale, there were actually two of them and this picture does the whale no justice because they were ENORMOUS!

On the trail again...

Termite mound

My favorite shorebird - I think I like ours better. Notice the leg band

That's our tent and that's a brush tail possum coming out of it. Notice the new color variation

This is the one I tackled - chocolate thief

Day 54 - Wilson's Prom - Friday

I have returned from my adventure and what an awesome one it was! I have a lot of pictures, I managed to take over 400 (no worries I am not posting them all...), anyway I have a bunch to share so I am going to break this up into the 3 days worth instead of one major entry. So...

Day 1 - Friday

Just as a background, this trip is for my Education in Natural Landscapes class (same as the farmer) this time we are experiencing "bushwalker". Friday morning the group from my class met at our scheduled location and loaded into the van starting our journey. There were 8 students (7 Americans and 1 German) and our tour guide Will, who works for the National Park agency. We had all been given backpacks on Wednesday and been split into appropriate tent and cooking groups. Of course my pack was significantly full and probably started off weighing between 40-50 lbs or more I am terrible with weight estimates. We each had to carry a sleeping bag, sleeping mat, clothes, food and then any other essentials. Each tent pair split up the tent parts and then groups of 3 for cooking had to split up the stove and fuel for cooking. So needless to say we were all pretty bogged down. It's about a 3 1/2 hour drive to "The Prom" so I used it to catch up on sleep and take in some scenery. We arrived a little before noon and quickly unloaded, after some safety speeches and pep talks we were on our way. Just a little background on the Park - Wilson's Promontory is one of the most well known National Parks of Australia and is located on the most Southern tip of the continent. It was founded in 1898. It is a peninsula jutting out from the mainland with numerous granite outcroppings and many different ecosystems. There are lots of websites about the park if anyone wants to learn more. We were hiking a trail called "The Circuit" which begins on Mt. Oberon, works it's way to the coast in a big loop and then event cuts back to Mt. Oberon, the total distance only being about 36 km ~ 18 miles, the trail isn't bad, but there are a lot of ups and downs which made the going difficult at times. Our first day we needed to hike 12 km from the carpark to the Little Waterloo Bay where our first campsite was located. The weather was spectacular, best since I've been here and soon we were all rolling up our pants and sleeves to enjoy the sun. We hiked a good 8 km before taking our first break for lunch. The hiking wasn't too bad but it took a little for me to get used to the backpack's weight and gain proper balance. After lunch we headed onward and finally reached Waterloo Bay - everyone shed their shoes and ran up and down the perfect sand through the surf for almost an hour before Will rounded us up and kept us moving. Fortunately we didn't have far till our campsite and we headed onto our own beach to explore after setting up camp. When it finally got dark we all huddled around cooking dinner over our little camp stoves. My group made mac n cheese and vegetable soup. The water in the park is pure (or close to it) so we could drink right from the creeks which was nice, it had a nice yellow color though from the tannin in the tree bark. After everyone was full and happy we walked out to the beach and looked at the stars. Try as I may I could not get the "starry sky" function on my camera to give me quality shots but believe me the sky was fantastic. After the beach we stalked the several critters prowling around ofter our food taking pictures of them. My tent mate and I went on a crusade for frogs in the nearby swamp but nothing was talking at all! Buuuummmmmmmmerrr! Since no fires are allowed everyone went to bed pretty early. All in all it was an excellent first experience.

The map - our exact route isn't pictured cause we did a somewhat shortened version of the 44 km trail outlined. As mentioned we stared on Mt. Obernon and walked down the lighthouse trail before cutting over on a different trail to Waterloo Bay.

Our first new siting - the wild Emu

The group ready to go!

This first 12 km was through an area that had had a big fire, about 4 or 5 years ago, as you can see the trees are still recovering - Euclypts sprout all along the trunk after a big fire.

You can see all the dead trees here with the new growth coming up underneath

Echidna Butt! These little guys would hang out along the road and then when they saw us freak out and dig themselves into the bank. Very cute. One of two existing monotremes...

Tunnel of dead trees

A field of grass trees - very cool plant - the big stick/cone things are the flowers - gorgeous when in bloom...

Some rocks balanced on a hill

Whoo who! beautiful beach!!

The first of many Raven attacks

Most of the non-beach coastline looked like this, giant boulders balanced along the edge

These are my cooking partners Victoria (Conn.) and Amber (Cal.) and I enjoying the beach, Amber was my tent mate as well

We hiked all of this

WOMBAT!!

Wombat close up - it's a shame they are conditioned to people but it was convient for picture taking, we scared him away afterwards to make sure he didn't eat any of our food. Apparently they have a habit of running right through the side of a tent if they think there is something good to eat in there.

A brushtail possum - a different species than in the city but still so cute! Nothing like our Opossum

Days 50-53

Nothing exciting happened again this week except school and work. I spent the rest of my time running errands getting for this weekend and job hunting. I also decided to try out for Whitley's soccer team - but I couldn't make the practices because of class, so they are just going to play me anyway - eek. I am leaving for a backpacking bushwalk to Wilson's Promontory for the weekend this(Friday) morning. It isn't a bad hike, I think he said an 18 mile loop or something, I am really excited though. So hopefully it isn't too cold or rainy. I got a new headlamp for the trip and I look forward to stalking noctural mammals with it. I'll be sure to report when I get back!

Day 48 - Maribyrnong River Trail

Today I woke and read my book for a while before heading down to breakfast. After breakfast I finished up some online work (geez I feel that's all I ever do) and then helped a friend with his Exec video (when someone wants to run for a position in the College they make a video about themselves). After lunch I headed out for the Maribyrnong Trail which starts down by the Docklands part of the city and then runs Northwest-ish along the Maribyrnong River. It rained off and on so I spent some time hiding under bridges and the wind was horrid, to the point where it was painful to ride against it. This trail was nice but much hillier than the others which make it more difficult. Since I left after lunch I was worried about taking it too far and then having to ride home in the dark. Though I think I ultimately called it quits close to the trail head so maybe I should have stuck it out. I didn't really see any new wildlife but there were a lot of little wetlands along the trail and I am looking forward to warmer weather so I can explore - I need to get some snake chaps or something so I can walk through the grass without fearing for my life. I made it back to College just before dinner. Afterwards I worked on some reading for class and then attended a little art show put on by Uni. I should have entered some of my wildlife photos - what was I thinking??? Eh, anyway the show was nice and some of the pieces creative. Soon it was getting late I was ready for bed.

Under a bridge trying to stay dry!

I stopped at little park called Pipermakers Park and it had all sort of weird little statues and tile pictures. According to the website the area is a transformed Pipe and bluestone industry, but serves as a reminder of the aboriginal heritage of the area. There was this little wooden path that led out to a platform that stopped in front of this...any thoughts?

Here is a little decorative garden that was also in the park, they used pieces of the pipes to make art - I think it will be really nice once things start growing - plus there were ample basking zones about

The river from a very shaky bridge

View from on top of one of the hills, the skyline is of the city in the distance

Some Geo stuff - sandstone I believe

Up close...

I little hidden parked I found tucked between the suburbs, i look forward to exploring more thoroughly