orientation week

Our week of orientation was certainly an adventure. It’s quite possible that I already know much more about the North Queensland environment than I do about Northwest New Jersey. After all, that’s one of the goals of this program.

We left Cairns on Monday. Our first stop was an Aboriginal cultural center. (Aboriginal people actually prefer to be called Murris; they won’t be offended if you call them Aborigines, but they will acknowledge that you are more respectful and culturally aware if you call them Murris.) We entered the building in a room filled with Aboriginal art depicting creation stories and myths. It was the first time I was able to get my camera out, because we weren’t in the rain!
We saw a brief historical film about the European invasion of Australia and the ways they treated the Aborigines, which can be compared to any other area that Westerners conquered. When Europeans first arrived, the Bama people (“Bama” simply means “the people”) thought the white men were spirits of the long dead returning. We also saw a film/play about Aboriginal creation stories: the Aborigines believed that in the beginning, there was a cassowary egg. From the egg, the world was born, and it was shaped by the Wet and the Dry (seasons). We went to the Tjapukai Dance Theater, where we listened to the didgeridoo, watched Aboriginal dances, and learned about rainforest medicines. We also learned to throw boomerangs and spears. The boomerang I wasn’t so hot at, but the spear is actually thrown in a similar way to serving in tennis, so I was a bit better at that skill!


When we left, we hopped on the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway, a 12 km journey to the town of Kuranda. We traveled above the rainforest canopy, where we were able to identify epiphytes, palms, climbing palms, nonnative species, and emergent trees from the sky. It was a really interesting way to apply what we had learned in the rainforest on our hike. There were two places where we could get off the Skyrail and walk around. The first was a short boardwalk trail through the rainforest. It was a fairly sunny day, not raining, and walking through such amazing vegetation made me really think that THIS was why I came to Australia. The second stop was at Barron Falls, a HUGE waterfall that was used for hydroelectric power. The water was very muddy from all the rain, but the falls were absolutely impressive. When we got to Kuranda, we had about an hour to walk around. I ended up at the Australia Venom Zoo with some other people, and while we did not want to pay to go inside, we did discover some Spiny Leaf Insects near the gates. One of the men working at the zoo explained them to us and let us hold them! They were pretty crazy; endemic to Australia, the females grow about a centimeter a month and live for about 16 months. The males are much smaller. They feed on the leaves of fruit trees. We held an almost full grown female, and you could feel the spines on her thorax as she crawled on our hands!

We stayed in another hostel that night, and after we had dinner, a few of us walked down to the beach, where we saw a jellyfish net. At this time of year, you still have to wear a stinger-suit, even when swimming in a jellyfish net, because the Irukandji jellyfish only grow to about 12mm, and they can squeeze through the holes in the jellyfish nets! We only walked on the beach for a little while before heading back to the hostel. We’ve all been falling asleep quite early each night, usually 10:30 at the latest, because our days are so busy!

In the morning on Tuesday, we went to Daintree National Park on a Kuku-Yalanji Tour. Our guide, Harold, led us through the rainforest and told us about different plants and their uses. Notably, he pointed out the tar tree, a tree which secretes a black sap that will give you blisters when you touch it and is used to tip spears in order to paralyze animals; the soap tree, the bark of which can be used to cure muscle pain and the leaves of which foam up like soap and can be used to wash with; the arrow tree, which can be bent to point in a certain direction and will heal and continue to grow with the bent still in it; and the matchbox seed, which was hollow and used to store dry grass to start fires, among many many other plants. We also walked by a 4,000 year old strangler fig tree! The strangler fig begins its life when a bird or other animal drops a seed on a host tree. The fig, a hemiepiphyte, drops its roots to the ground, where they take hold. The roots then begin to strangle and overtake the host tree, eventually killing it. The roots of the strangler fig can stretch for 4-5 km!

When we left Daintree, we went to Mossman Gorge, where we had lunch and swam. The water was very cold, but quite refreshing. The current was strong, so you could swim and swim but stay in the same place! We slid off rocks in the current that carried us down the gorge. We also hiked through the rainforest and learned more about the plants found there. We cooked dinner together at the hostel that night, which was fun, and saved us each a lot of money.

On Wednesday, we left our hostel in Port Douglas and went to the Rainforest Habitat. It was basically a zoo, but referred to as a “semi-natural habitat.” Most of the Habitat was filled with birds, including the cassowary, and I got quite a few neat pictures. We also watched a koala feed (or you could hold one and get your picture taken for $15, which I didn’t do), and we fed kangaroos and wallabies! They eat right out of your palm. Later that day we also walked through the rainforest at Malanda Falls and at Curtain Fig National Park. We stayed that night at another hostel, “On the Wallaby.” We were able to go look for platypus on the creek. It was pouring again, and we walked barefoot through the muddy path beside the creek, but we did get to see a platypus floating down on the current! It was small, less than 2 feet long, but it was worth it!

On Thursday, we had the mysterious “Drop-off.” All SIT programs have a drop-off. We all imagined it would be much more intimidating and difficult than it actually way! We were each dropped off in a random town in the area, by ourselves. We were just to spend about 5 hours in the town, talking to people and immersing ourselves in the culture. I got dropped off in Malanda. Two other SIT students, Megan and Lauren, were also dropped off in Malanda, but we weren’t supposed to get together. I started off at a thrift shop, but the woman there just acted like I was crazy and really had nothing to offer. I then talked to another man with a dog waiting by his car, but then his wife came, and she looked at me like I was crazy, so I left then. About half an hour after I was dropped off, I had pretty much seen the whole town. It was basically only two streets. There was absolutely no Aboriginal culture to be found, and very few people around at all. I had lunch in a small park, and then headed for this Dairy Museum, because it seemed to be the only show in town. The museum was about the size of my bedroom at home, though. There were tours of a dairy farm, but the last one started at 11, and I didn’t get there until about 12:30. Megan, Lauren, and I all ended up at the Dairy Museum at the same time, so we decided to just spend time together. We tried to go to a craft studio that was recommended to us, but it was closed for four weeks, starting about a day before we were there. We also tried going to a movie theater, the first one in Australia, but that was closed too. So we got some drinks in a coffee shop and read for a little while, and then I decided to try to do some research for my ISP. We went to the library, town council, and visitor center asking about local conservation and environmental groups. That part at least was helpful. After the drop-off, we all met Tony at a bar and had a drink, and then went back to the hostel for dinner and bed.

On Friday, we left On the Wallaby and did some bird-watching at Peterson Creek. We then went to Lake Eacham, which was absolutely beautiful. It was a crystal clear lake with rainforest all around, and the water was a perfect temperature. There was a dock that we could dive off of, and I really could have stayed in that water for days or more. We got back to Cairns that afternoon after a very muddy, very buggy, very humid, very wet week. But it was all perfect.

Today we took a boat out to the Great Barrier Reef! I got seasick. Threw up once before I got in the water, felt TERRIBLE while snorkeling at the first stop, got out and threw up again, and then felt fine! I snorkeled once more at our third stop (skipped the second one due to my stomach.) It was really amazing. We saw beautiful corals and tons of reef fish. I got a water-proof casing for my camera, but I couldn’t really see what I was doing underwater…I got a few good pictures though! We’ll be spending another 10 days on the reef (on an island, no boats next time!) so I’m sure I’ll learn much more about it and get some cool pictures and see some great wildlife!





Now, besides all this fun I’ve been having, I’ve also been doing work. Each day, we get a worksheet about local flora and fauna that we have to complete as we learn. We also have readings to do, and a Natural History Field Notebook, in which we can write any information, stories, reflections, or facts we learn, along with drawings or sketches. We all get together as a group in the evenings to do our homework before we fall asleep. It’s a pretty academically driven group, but the work is fun.

There are more pictures that I wanted to post, but my internet is cutting out! So I'll add more later. Hope all is well with everyone!