LIZARD

Let me preface the next series of blog entries by stating that it will be extremely difficult and nearly impossible to explain how amazing this place is.

On Thursday morning, we got up early for a 9 o’clock flight from Cairns to Lizard Island. We were taking a small plane that perfectly fit the 17 of us (14 students plus Tony, Meryl, and Darren, our marine trip leader.) There were two pilots for the plane, and some students immediately asked how long they had been flying because they were so nervous about taking such a small plane. We all boarded and got settled and were putting our nerves behind us…

Well, then the left engine wouldn’t start.

We had to get off the plane, so we all convened in the small waiting room (this wasn’t part of the Cairns airport) where we waited… for several hours. Finally, around noon, it was decided that instead of taking one small plane, we would be taking three much smaller planes. By small, I mean that students had to sit in the cock pits because there wasn’t enough seating. My kind pilot was Andy, and Lauren was the lucky one who got to sit up front. Genevieve, Darren, Sam, Melissa, and I were in the five seats behind the cock pit. I was squished in the middle seat. The flight was about an hour long, and Andy (who got his pilot’s license in 1995) did a few tricks. One of them was letting Lauren drive the plane. She wasn’t actually driving it, but as she had her hands on the steering wheel (although it’s not actually a wheel, so I don’t know what you would call it), Andy made the flight a bit rocky. He also flew up in elevation and then swooped down, so the things in my lap literally flew into the air. The coolest part was when we flew over some cool portions of the Great Barrier Reef, he flew down pretty low over it so that we could see. Needless to say, we had a safe landing at Lizard Island.

Lizard Island is named for the goannas that inhabit the island, but I’ve only seen one small one so far. There are plenty of geckos, however, as there are everywhere in Australia. The only things on Lizard Island are the marine research station and facilities, where we are staying, and a resort that costs about $1,500 a night to stay. Only about 10 student groups get to use the research station each year. How lucky am I??

My drive from the air-strip landing to the research station was standing up on the back of a tractor, but only four of us were lucky enough to do that (the rest were in a van). The living conditions here are nice—much nicer than during the rainforest trip! There are two houses that have bedrooms with screen doors and a long veranda. The house I’m staying in also has a kitchen and our dining room, which is a huge table on the porch. We have about a 30 second walk to the beach.

I can’t explain how beautiful it is. Just picture the perfect tropical island in paradise. Imagine the bluest greenest water you could ever want to swim in, then make it five times brighter. Picture another island in the near distance covered in cliffs and rainforest.

Imagine the Great Barrier Reef! The reef was incredibly amazing the first time we saw it during orientation, but the reefs here are so much more amazing. The colors are phenomenal, the fish are everywhere. Purples, blues, yellows, pinks, oranges…the corals are almost neon sometimes. We snorkel twice a day, every day. The first day we simply swam out to the reef. Today we took boats out to different reefs.

Two amazing moments: On the reef this morning, Megan (my snorkel buddy) pointed out a Green Sea Turtle. When I swam up to it, the moment beat even the amazing waterfall we swam under during the rainforest trip. We followed it for a while, swimming over it. At one point, it stopped, turned, and looked at us. I am just amazed by the grace and majesty of sea turtles, and I am even more amazed at the fact that I got to swim with one.

On the reef this afternoon, I was calmly emptying my snorkel of the salt water that snuck in to try to choke me to death. When I put the snorkel back on and looked down, there was a shark about five feet across from me. It looked directly at me. It was as scared of me as I was of it! We both swam in the opposite direction as quickly as possible, but the opposite direction for the shark was DIRECTLY under Megan! Scared by both of us, it swam away very quickly.

Megan and I also had fun picking up creatures (like sea cucumbers, fungi corals, and bright blue starfish) and touching the corals. There is so much to see. I thought I understood the concept of biodiversity before I came here, but there was no way I could have known.