Australia Continued...

Originally I was having technological issues. I couldn't find a computer capable of uploading my pictures to the web. Sorry about the long post, you may want to read it in installments, especially if you are clicking on my links or enlarging photos.

So without further delay, here's the rest of my Australia study abroad experience.

After experiencing the Great Barrier Reef, we headed West into the interior of the "outback." Our group spent three nights camping at the Tyrconnel gold mine. The gold mine isn't really in full production anymore, and is registered as a heritage site because of its' historical value. Apparently there used to be a town of 10,000 people in the area in the hay days of prospecting. Now there's about 7 people total in the area. It's eerie that besides the mine and it's restored buildings, there's little evidence that a town ever even existed. Just an empty field of termite mounds and dusty infertile soil.

Here's a photo of one of the rock crushers at Tyrconnel gold mine. It crushes quartz, sifts the dust through water and actually pans out the gold. The guy on the right is Andy, he bought the mine years ago, and has maintained everything meticulously. This rock crusher still works and he fired it up for us. It really is an amazing machine. The rods you see rhythmically pound the rock as belts are whirring all around you.

Here's the gold after it's been panned out by the machine.
The owners of Tyrconnell (Andy and Kate) are really great people. They live remotely with their three kids, and have quite the little life in the outback. They get all of their power from a solar panel, and get all of their drinking water from collected rain water. They have a diesel generator for backup and run on so little amperage they actually have to fire up the generator to use a common household toaster.

The three boys at the house were a blast. They have tons of energy and I ended up playing with them whenever there was a spare moment from studying, they never got enough piggyback rides. They run around barefoot on sharp rocks and have the toughest feet of anyone I've ever seen.

Here's a photo with Andy and the kids in their ute. We were about to drive down to the creek to pan for gold. We didn't get much gold, it really takes alot of hard labor and hours of patience to collect even a few specks of gold. On a side note, Andy actually panned every speck of gold for his wife's wedding ring. It took him seven years. It's really quite romantic, and also a bit cheap. I got along with Andy pretty well.

Here's a picture at Tyrconnell on our first day. I hiked up a hill to a granite ledge with a panoramic view to catch the sunset. The colors and lighting in the outback really are intense.

I really enjoyed the spectacular views, amazing sunsets, and the brightest stars I have ever seen. Queensland is nothing short of spectacular. I attempted sleeping under the stars all three nights I was there. The first two nights I was driven back into my tent by mosquitoes, but the third night I made it all the way through.

Here's a photo back at the gold mine on the first night. It's a 60 second exposure taken at the moment the moon phased into a new moon.

Here's a photo of the sunset on the second night.

Tyrconnell was one of the highlights of my trip. I really enjoyed living simply and sleeping outside. Not to mention the amazing views and scenery.

The group went to Chillagoe Caves. It was alot of fun. Cave photos usually dont come out too well (for obvious reasons) but here's one of a skylight in one of the cavern rooms.There's a very strange insect that lives in the cave. It apparently feasts on the massive cockroaches that also live in the cave. It is related to centipedes and called a scutigeromorpha. I dont have access to photoshop so I cant crop any of my photos, so I'm forced to post all of my photos as I took them. You'll have have to click on this photo to enlarge it to see what this bug actually looks like. It is worth clicking and waiting for the image to load.

Here's a photo of the study abroad group with their cave lanterns. Pretty cheese stuff but good times

We also went swimming at an amazing swimming hole. It had waterfalls of clean cool water you could lie in. It was perfect weather for swimming and hard to leave the place.

Amidst lectures and doing module work, we made time to stop by Granite Gorge to visit a gaggle of wallabys. They look cute, but they were surprisingly aggressive. It was actually pretty hilarious. For a dollar you could buy a little sack of wallaby feed, and the little buggers would freak out and claw at your legs once they knew you had food. They also fought over every scrap and the same little wallaby kept getting his ass kicked by a collective gang of pirate wallaby. Here's a photo of the little guy.

After Tyreconnell we ended up in the tablelands and Yungaburra for a few days. It's a nice little town and if you go there I highly recommend staying at the backpacker called "On The Wallaby." It's a great little place, and the owner Paul is a great guy. He carted the group around in his bus for the majority of our trip. It wouldn't have been the same without him. On The Wallaby also has the worlds largest platypus bean bag chair. Here I am modeling on the platypus.

Yungaburra included night canoeing, spotting platypus, spotting tree kangaroos, ring tailed possum, a visit to Nerada tea plantation, and visits to a winery that makes amazing wines out of bruised exotic fruits that would otherwise be tossed.

We also visited some really nice aborigines that make handcrafted didgeridoos and boomerangs. We chucked some boomerangs, they taught us didgeridoo basics, and we all shared an amazing meal cooked in a traditional earth oven. I wish I got more photos, I was too busy hanging out. I met an aboriginal woman with over 100 grandchildren. It was awesome, I really felt at home and wanted to hang out longer, but the nature of the program is to keep moving.

Here's Pat playing the didge in the didgeridoo shop. He is an amazing player.

Our next leg of the trip brought us to the Daintree Rainforest of Cape Tribulation

Here's a photo of a golden orb spider. It was taken at the Cape Trib Beach House hostel. These things are massive, this one was close to a foot across! They have a very strong web which you dont want to walk into while walking through the rain forest. They have actually found the remains of birds in their webs.

Another impressive rainforest animal we were fortunate to see in the wild was the endangered cassowary bird. It is a flightless bird that can get almost six feet tall and weigh over 120 lbs. They say there is as few as 1500 remaining on the planet, and I actually saw one in the wild!

Here's a photo of it, my camera was on max zoom (280 mm) without a tripod from about 200 feet away from it so it's a little blurry. I stayed far away because these birds can actually kill you if you piss them off. They have a razor sharp 5" spike on their foot and they will ran at you if they are cornered or threatened.

The Daintree Rainforest was amazing. I learned alot about the interconnectivity and interdependence between forests, mangroves and reefs. I really enjoyed all of the lectures our instructor Paul Dowd gave. We also planted some trees as part of a service project and rode in a canopy crane. Lotsa fun.

Here we are, saving the world. It's hard work being captain planet.

Here's Sean and I in the canopy crane. Notice the required safety harnesses, they look like sweet suspenders. We are 300 feet above the ground and 100 feet above the canopy of the rainforest, the Pacific Ocean can be seen in the distance.Here's my final photo for this post. This is the mangroves on the beach of Cape Tribulation. This is where the rainforest meets the sea.

Studying in Australia has been an amazing experience. I have only just begun to reflect on it, but I already know it has had a huge impact on me. This trip packed in so much fun stuff, it seemed like a vacation most of the time. The itinerary was a little hectic, and it required staying up late to finish assignments sometimes, but it was all worth it, every second. After cape trib, we went back to Cairns to take our final exams before parting ways with the majority of the group. I skimmed past alot of stuff in this blog, I barely talked about the actual academic component of my trip and there were many photos I didn't post. But I hope you all enjoyed reading about my study abroad trip to OZ. In August I am going back to Australia, this time without the education part. I can't wait.

Stay tuned for my future blogs: Fiji, New Zealand, Australia part 2 (Southeast), and travels across America.