rainforest trip

Despite the threat of a category 5 cyclone, on Saturday (3/7), we headed into the rainforest—I mean, the leech forest—for ten days. First, let me tell you about these leeches. They resemble little brown inch worms, but gushier. They have 32 suctions on their heads and butts, and to walk, they latch on with their butt, then flip around and latch on with their head. They leech to you with the suctions on their butt and then they suck your blood until they get really fat and full, then they drop off. They are sterile, so there’s really no harm in getting bitten by a leech, besides the fact that they are disgusting. By some miracle, (as well as constant flicking), I managed to not get bitten by a leech, but I probably removed at least 30 from crawling up my limbs. Jack taught us a method of removing crawling leeches. You just pluck it off, then you treat it like a booger: roll it up and throw it away. However, I usually used the pencil method, in which I got it to crawl on my pencil, then wiped it off onto a branch, usually smushing the leech in the process because sometimes they just wouldn’t come off. I didn’t really want to touch them. At least half of the group had leech bites. Steve even got one in his belly button!!! That was the worst. By the end of the week we were all wearing leech gear (pants tucked into our socks, hats and long sleeves in hot and humid weather, and even goggles, if your name is Chelsea McGorry.)

Despite the leeches, the rainforest trip was great. On our first day, we saw a cassowary!! These prehistoric birds, a bit smaller than ostriches, are very endangered and extremely rare to see in the wild. We were driving in some forest down near Mission Beach, and saw one ahead of us on an old dirt road. It was the first time I was really glad I had been lugging my heavy binoculars around for so long. The second time I was really glad I had been lugging my heavy binoculars around for so long was when we saw a Lumholtz Tree Kangaroo, about 20 meters up in a tree, staring down at us with his cute black face.

For the first two nights of the trip, we stayed in a hostel called the Tree House. There was a snake by the pool, a huntsman spider in the bathroom, and we woke up the first morning to a Hercules moth right outside of our door. It was well-named: about the size of my two hands. There was also a pet cat which I was pretty happy about. We had lunch and dinner cooking and clean-up crews for the whole trip, so we all took turns preparing our meals. After staying at the Tree House, we went back up to the Atherton Tablelands (where we were for orientation) and stayed at “The Lodge.” The Lodge was on some rainforest property: there was a fairly nice house (where Tony, Jack, and Meryl stayed); the annex, where 7 students stayed in cots on the floor; and the dairy, where 7 of us slept in beds. The shower and kitchen were at the dairy, and we all got together in the living room every night to do homework or play games. Living conditions were probably on the level of disgustingness as Scribner Village, but maybe a little bit worse, since we found a dead skink rotting under Julia’s bed. Oh, and a python lived in the ceiling. And the septic flooded, so everything smelled like shit and dead skink. But other than that, it was great.

We spent our days going to National Parks and States Forests. One of our assignments for the whole trip was “Car Window Ecology” in which we had to look out the window on our many bus trips and write down how the landforms and vegetation were changing. We examined topographic maps, aerial photos, and soil samples at the sites we stopped at, and took notes about the canopy cover, vegetation characteristics, cyclone damage, and forest type. Each night, we had to write an entry about an “Organism of the Day” in our Natural History Field Notebooks, but we couldn’t write about any of the organisms that students presented on. (Prior to the rainforest trip, we were each assigned a flora and fauna to research. When we came across our flora or fauna in the rainforest, we were to present what we had researched without notes. I was responsible for Ground Ferns and Honeyeaters.)

On the third day of the trip, we went to Henrietta Creek to walk the Nandroya Falls track. It was the first good hike we’d had in a while, but it ended in the most amazing place ever. There was a huge and beautiful waterfall, probably about 80 meters high, tumbling from straight-up cliff face into a pool of water. But it gets better: we went swimming beneath the fall. You look straight up, and you can barely see the sky, the cliffs were so tall! It was one of the happiest and most exhilarating moments of my life.

The next day, we did another hike (this one in the rain—we had good weather, except for a handful of rainy days) at Mount Hypipamee National Park. The walk ended at a huge crater caused by a volcano. It went so far down, we couldn’t even measure its depth. It was partly filled with water, and apparently people have scuba dived there to find out how deep it is, but no one ever reached the bottom.

On day five, we went tree planting! We worked with a local group, TREAT, as well as the School for Field Studies students (a similar abroad program) to plant native tree species along a wildlife corridor. The soils on the Tablelands are basaltic, so we were thickly covered with red dirt. It was so much fun to be down in the dirt though, and to feel like we were giving back to the community. The people running the planting were amazed at how quickly we planted the corridor: they even ran out of seedlings! They’d never had so many people help with a planting before. After the planting, the owner of the property took us around to show us previous plantings and talk about revegetation projects. We then went to Lake Eacham to go for a swim. We had gone to Lake Eacham during orientation as well, and after the waterfall, it’s the best place we’ve swam. The water is extremely clean and the perfect temperature. We got to go into Atherton for the afternoon to use the internet and be in civilization for a few hours before we headed back to the Lodge.

On two nights at the Lodge, we went spotlighting. After dark, we would walk in a single file line. Jack had a spot light, and some students had head lamps or flashlight. You hold the light at eye level and search in the trees for the red eye shine of possums. We saw four Herbert River Ringtail Possums and one Striped Possum, which looks sort of like a skunk, but is very rare.

One morning, we went mistnetting at Jack’s house. Jack lives in a cabin that he built for himself in the rainforest. I guess you could say it resembles a large treehouse. Next to his house, however, is the “house” he lived in for five years before he built the big one. It is the size of a shed. It’s permanent camping. You do what you want to do. Jack had set up five mist nets around his house, which we checked every 45 minutes or so throughout the morning. It was a rainy morning, so we didn’t catch any birds, until we went to collect the mist nets to put them away and found a Spectacled Monarch. It was really tangled in the net, and Tony couldn’t get it out, but Jack came running, and untangled the bird with the most nimble fingers I’ve ever seen. It was amazing to watch. He brought the bird back to his house to band it. Jack is one of about two people in Queensland who bands birds, so ornithologists here don’t know very much about bird migrations in Australia at this point.

On Friday and Saturday, we got into groups to do our rainforest projects. We had to do eight hours of data collection and analysis, and then present our projects on Monday morning. This was the first actual science project I’ve really done so far. I worked with Geneveve and Steve, and we sampled wait-a-whiles, or climbing palms, in the rainforest behind the lodge. The rainforest grows along a ridge that separates a metamorphic soil base from a basaltic soil base, so we sampled the plants on both sides of the ridge, as well as in areas of closed canopy and open canopy, and made comparisons. The data collection for this project is when most of the leech bites occurred. I definitely relied on my group members for the real science-y parts of the project, but all of the small projects we’re doing have really helped us prepare for ISP.

On Sunday, our original plan was to hike Mount Bartle Frer, which is the leechiest rainforest around. We ended up not going, because of the rain, so instead we drove west to hike Mount Baldy. It was a very steep but short hike. I was disappointed with the short amount of time we spent at the summit, but when we climbed down, we drove to Granite Gorge, where we played with wild rock wallabies. A mother with a baby in her pouch literally jumped over my legs while I was sitting down and let me pet her. We also went swimming at the gorge, which was a little bit muddy, but still refreshing. I would take rock wallabies over leeches pretty much any day.

We got back to Cairns yesterday afternoon. I really can’t believe how fast the rainforest trip flew by. We are only here for two days, and then we are heading to Lizard Island to study the Great Barrier Reef for ten days. Then we’re only back in Cairns for a week before ISP starts! I am hoping to study sea turtles, but have yet to finalize anything.