Brisbane Dust Bowl

So I woke up this morning and groggily read my facebook wall. Olena had written something about the sky being red and such so I was entirely confused. Then I opened my curtains. Apparently there had been a huge dust storm that blew up the whole eastern coast of Australia in the night and covered Brisbane in an orangey haze. We had to close all the windows, but it was still so hot outside that it was a very strange day. Hardly anyone was walking around and there wasnt even a line for lunch! But I still went to class and walked around. All the asian kids were wearing masks and such it was fairly amusing. I do have to admit though that the dust made it pretty disgusting to breathe.

There is also a very cute kitty that lives in and around our bike rack. Since I had my camera outside with me I decided to take his/her picture.

The Whitsunday Islands: Best Three Days of My Life

Very seriously, I have not been as happy/content as I was this past weekend. Ever. The Whitsunday Islands are north of Brisbane by quite a bit. They are about a two hour Greyhound trip from the town of Mackay, which has an airport that serves 3 gates? Maybe two. Anyhow the islands themselves are actually the tops of a flooded mountain range. They lie at the bottom of the Great Barrier Reef, and as far as Im concerned, are heaven.

On Thursday we cabbed to the airport very early and took a flight from Brissy up to Mackay where we sat for two hours in the airport waiting for our Greyhound bus. It was a bit late which made us nervous because we were supposed to get there at 2:10 and get on our boat at 2:30. Well we watched HSM3 on the bus, good times and finally made it to Airlie Beach at 2:30. We ran to check in and caught a cab down to the marina to an audience of crew and passengers.

No worries though, we made the boat and didnt even take to much crap for being the late Americans. We boarded a 34m sailing yacht and from there its all a hazy dream... :)

I had a cabin with my three friends and even had a porthole to sleep next to. We left the marina and cruised up through Whitsunday Passage and anchored for the night off Hook Island. The night was mostly spent making friends with the other kids on board and we were visited by a dolphin that hung around the boat for most of the night. The next morning we woke up early and cruised into Tounge Bay off Whitsunday Island. From there they tendered us in to shore and we hiked up to a lookout point. From the lookout point we were able to see Whitehaven Beach in all its glory. The beach itself is the most photographed beach in Australia and is pretty spectacular. It is the product of an extinct volcano which put down huge quartz deposits which have since been ground into the purest sand in the world. It is 98% silica and was used to make the Hubble Telescope lens. We were told its great for exfoliating, jewelry polishing, and teeth brushing. Im fairly certain I could have stayed on that beach for months and months if someone would just bring me some food and water! While we were playing in the sand we saw a few lemon sharks and stingrays, but I couldnt get any to be friends with me :(

From there we got back on the boat and cruised to Luncheon Bay off of Hook Island. Here I got to go on a very nice dive and saw some absolutely huge angel fish. The viz was a little compromised and currents were strong but the coral was spectacular. While we were out we got to see a few Green Sea Turtles! I love them! The rest of the day was spent lounging about the deck and enjoying the sunset/stars.

We woke up obnoxiously early again the second day and cruised down around Hayman Island. Hayman is the site of the only 6 star resort in the Souther Hemisphere just in case you were wondering. We dove off the back of the boat in Blue Pearl Bay and it was INCREDIBLE. Perfect visibility and coral arches, tunnels and swim-throughs that made me feel like Ariel in her treasure room. There is also this fish that hangs about the bay named Elvis. He is a Great Maori Wrasse and has been sort of socialized to hang out with the divers. I got to feed him and give him a hug. We are talking about a fish that is 2/3 my size. After my second dive I snorkeled for a while and hung out with Elvis a little more. We also did flips and dives off the stern of the ship (5m high) plus we had a water slide. So eventually we did have to come back to port and Im pretty sure I shed a tear or two. I certainly was the last person off the boat.

Oh well. Back to Brisbane...

Conservation Trip: Wild Mountains

I know I havent posted in a while! Ive been busy!

Two weekends ago I went on a volunt

eer trip with a few other American students. We all headed over to the headquarters with our

sleeping bags in tow and piled into a Landy... which they called a Troopie. There were ten of us in this thing for two hours into the boondocks of Australia! I personally loved it... and rural Australia looks like rural anywhere USA plus kangaroos. There are broken down utes (pickups) in the front yards of doublewides. No worries :) But we did see some roos just hanging out in the shade. When we finally got to the last turn in our directions we went down this little cow path road which climbed and climbed up a crest of this huge ridge. There were really spectacular looking mountains just jutting out o

f this fertile pasture land. We passed two vehicles that had been left because they couldnt make the 20% grade. We made it. Slowly.

When we got to the top we were greeted by the caretakers of this camp and shown to our A-frame tent/cabins for the weekend. We had a spectacular view! Even the toilet/outhouse had a view! But we changed and hung out for a while before dinner and some work. We built two bridges out of logs and railroad ties to finish a fire track across the mountain. Occasionally they do controlled burns of the mountainside so that wildfires dont get out of control during the arid months. So finishing up the access track was sort of important as summer approaches. We made good progress the first day and finished up easily the second which was awesome.

The only complaint I really have about the weekend was that the whole place was vegetarian. Sort of sad but we did alright. We made our own dinners and got pretty creative. Plus they gave us chocolate cake and we whipped our own cream for dessert! We also saw the most spectacular stars I have ever seen. The Southern Cross is a little smaller than I would have expected, but still impressive. Side note. Koala noises are terrifying. It is a weird cross between a bear growl and a wild boars grunting in the middle of the night. Honestly. You need to go to youtube.com and search "koala noise". It will astound you.