The Magical Mystery Tour and Camping

Our wildlife biology class takes place over 5 weeks, luckily, most of this time is spent in the field. We went on a tour through Border Ranges National Park, and even got to camp in the rainforest. This is a picture of our class (minus me as I am taking the picture.)

Our magical mystery tour (the prof's words) began at 9am Thursday morning. We made a stop in a town called Nimbin before heading to the rainforest. Nimbin is like... what I imagine the 1960s were like. I'll just leave it at that.









We took a detour to see some of the huge fruit bats that live in the area. These are called flying foxes, because they are about the size of a fox - so cool!

After Nimbin we drove to Border Ranges National Park and took in several of the views. These pictures are really a poor representation of Australia. The vast majority of the country is hot and dry and flat, we just happened to be on the East coast near the Great Dividing Range. This is most topography there is in Australia.

The land we were on is actually Aboriginal property, given back to the indigenous people fairly recently by the government. One is supposed to ask the elders of the tribe permission to actually climb Mt. Warning (indigenous name is Wollumbin), the volcano that is the focal point of the area. Our professor did this prior to our arrival. Before this field trip, I had looked into climbing the mountain myself, and found out that women weren't actually supposed to. It's so interesting to ask an Australian what they think about the indigenous people. I inquired about Wollumbin to several locals, some told me that I should definitely get permission as it is the right and respectful thing to do, and some were angered that Aboriginal people even have control of the land at all. (One told me to "stuff them," which basically means forget them.)

Personally, I have huge amounts of respect for this people group. They are probably the most under-appreciated group of indigenous people in the world. We hear about the Actecs, Incas, Mayans, Native Americans, and their great contributions to society or how progressive their architecture or agriculture was. However, I am ashamed to say that I had never even heard about Indigenous Australians, let alone knew that they are the oldest surviving group in the world. It's thought that Aboriginal people have inhabited Australia for 60,000 years. - and Australia is not an easy place to live considering most of it is a desert and the ocean surrounding it is swimming with deadly sharks, jelly fish etc. etc. Furthermore, instances of massacre and murder have taken place, relatively recently in some cases, and nobody seems to know about it. As much as I have doted on Aussies, I will say that sadly racism is alive and well in this country. Australia still has a long way to go regarding this (just like the US).

Anywho, we saw lots of cool wildlife during the day. This is a Bower bird, who was being very camera shy.

Bower birds like to find random objects that are blue to decorate their next with. Our prof told us a story that even a topaz ring once got pilfered by a bower bird.

We stopped at a koala rehabilitation center. Almost 90% or of koalas are infected with a strain of chlamydia which can cause blindness and is often fatal.

The camping trip was a few days later.  We took our final exam for biology class in the evening. The next morning  I woke up at dawn and was thrilled to see a few wallabys wandering around.  What a privilege to get to see these animals in the wild.

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Blue Mountains

These are the word Charles Darwin used to describe the Blue Mountains when he saw them for the first time. An accurate description, don't you think?

After leaving Sydney, we got back on the train and took it two hours west toward the Blue Mountains. Now, "mountains" has a very different meaning here than it does in the States, and these mountains were more like big hills. But they were blue, and they were very beautiful.

The three points are called the Three Sisters.

A group of us rode the "scenic railway" down to the bottom of one of the mountains. The area used to be a coal mine, and the railway was used to transport coal. Now, it is like a theme of the mountains and the surrounding city, Katoomba. The little train here is mostly just a means of getting to the bottom, not a ride. But it was nearly a 45 degree angle, and "Indiana jones" theme music played, so it had a roller coaster feel.

At the bottom, we were surrounded by sub-tropical rainforest and the remains of the old coal mine. This is Katoomba falls.

As a part of our scenic railway ticket, we got to take the skyway back. It was like a giant ski lift for 40 or so people.

Unfortunately, this picture wasnt taken the day we actually rode the skyway. The day we rode it there was fog that reduced visibility to less than 100 meters. But, floating through the fog and clouds was exciting.

The next day, the fog turned to a cold rain. The temperature didn't get above 50 F and the fog was so thick we couldnt see trees that were 15 feet outside our window. So, we spent the entire day lounging around the hostel watching Disney movies and working on homework. It was actually really nice to have a day to relax after running from place to place during the last week in Sydney. We played this game called "signs," one of the many "camp" games we've taught eachother throughout the trip. It was such a blast.

The lounge area near our rooms was the location for a breast cancer awareness jewelry party. So, each time we went between our room and any other area, we had to pass through trays of finger foods, cakes, and champagne. This was rough, considering most of us had no money, and only brought ramen noodles or peanut butter sandwiches for the stay in Katoomba. As the event was wrapping up, the cleaning staff, a few women, came and offered us all the leftover food. You should have seen us! I've never seen college students put away so much cake in champagne in my life! The staff had clearly drank half the remaining champagne already, which made the whole thing that much more interesting. One of the women said, "How often do you stay somewhere and party with the staff like this?" But thats an Australian for you.