Unfortunately... I did not survive the entire five days. I came home early because I'd had enough pythons, brown snakes, poisonous spiders, poisonous fish (yep they exist), and ticks for a life time. It was definitely an experience and I can definitely say that I got the whole Australian camping experience. I only came home one day early and I obtained all my data I needed so it will not affect my grade.
The camp was not even in Hornsby. It was at a place over 5 hours away.
Side note- most Australians are very unorganized and very care free. The teachers come in to class late. When I was working you could take as long of a lunch break that you wanted. Teachers don't tell you where you're going on the field trip. My Australian advisors didn't even tell me what classes I was signed up for until I got here... and so on.
Anyways, the camp was really run down. I got to sleep in a cabin, but the mattress I slept on was falling apart from mold. There was a ceiling so rain didn't hit me, but there was not four walls, only three. There were so many creepy crawlies in my room. This was the spider that lived above my bed.
Yucky isn't it?
During the four days I stayed we did school work all day every day. But the school work was collecting spiders and bugs in nets and analyzing them, collecting fish carefully because there are poisonous fish here, looking at the red worms and critters that live under the beach sand, and bird watching. I really loved the bird watching. I love the birds here. But knowing what lurks under the beach sand sort of scares me.
They have pelicans here- and lots of them! You know the bird on Finding Nemo that helps Nemo and his dad? With the huge beaks? THEY ARE SO COOL! Their bills jiggle when they move because the bottom of their beak is just skin that is stretchy. I really liked playing with the pelicans. I would pretend to throw them fish and they would open their beaks really wide. I had so much fun with them.
One of the nights, I think the second night I was there, we went on a moonlight hike. It was really cool. I saw a kangaroo, bats, bilbies (which are really cute) and possums. They don't spell it like we do at home, so I'm not misspelling it I promise :) My camera doesn't work really well at night, but these are the best pictures I could get.
This is the kangaroo.
And this is a possum with its baby hanging onto it's back. The mom would run up and down trees and the baby wouldn't even slip off a little!!! Impressive.
I really missed Philip while I was gone, and it was only for a couple days. I don't know how I'm going to handle when he goes back to uni in Pennsylvania!
Today I got bitten by a black house spider. Holy cow does it ever hurt. You can see the fang marks on my poor hand :( Here is a picture (since I know you all want to see... haha)
The second picture is the picture of the spider that bit me. Owwie! It still really hurts. Philip got bit on his neck by the same spider. We need to find it again and get rid of it!! The bite feels like if you got burnt on the stove or something. It's not very fun.
The temperature here is now the same temperature as it is at home. But it's fall for you, and spring for me. All of the lizards, skinks, snakes and spiders are just loving this spring weather and they are all over. When I was taking my laundry over to the laundry mat with Philip, we saw a snake slither into a gutter. It startled me!
Although I would not do ecology camp again, I do appreciate understanding the bugs and animals of Australia more. I like knowing what is deadly and what is not. I also liked being with 40 Australians and learning their culture and eating their food. I like being able to see a bird or hear it's call and know what bird it is. I also like being able to say that I survived such a crazy adventure!! :)
Well tomorrow I have a statistics class all day, and the next morning at 5:00 am I leave on my two week adventure! I am not taking my computer, so you will have to wait until October 10th to hear all about my adventures :) I will post my schedule for my mommys sake so she can keep track of me (and you can too if you want.)
25th September- 5:00am flight to Hervey Bay. Relax in Hervey Bay at the hostel.
26-28 September- 4WD Fraser Island tour. (camping, 4 wheeling, and exploring.)
28th September- overnight bus ride to Airlie Beach (10 hours)
29th September- Arrive at Airlie Beach at 9:00 am. Check in at the hostel and relax on the beach. It will be HOT here.
30- 2nd of October- Whitsunday Islands! We will be sailing, snorkeling, kayaking, and bushwalking the islands. This is right on the Great Barrier Reef.
October 2nd- Overnight bus ride to Cairns (11 hours)
October 3rd- Spend a few hours soaking up some Cairns sun, then flying to Darwin. Check in the Darwin hostel.
October 4th- Adventure Tours picks us up at 7:00 am! We are doing a seven day safari in the outback seeing the desert and all it has to offer such as Ayers Rock, Devils Marbles, Kings Canyon, and so on.
October 10th- Leave Ayers Rock and fly back to Sydney. Be back to school on the 11th.
Talk to you guys October 10th :) :) :)
Love,
Brittaney
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