Sept. 30 - Brisbane

Back to classes today.  We had one terrestrial ecology lecture and three marine bio lectures.  The marine bio lectures were on the Great Barrier Reef and what to expect when we go there.  It all sounds really exciting!  The main reason for today's post is to show you all pictures of the magnificent jarcaranda trees in bloom all over the campus and city.  They are not native to Australia, but they sure are beautiful!!

Jarcaranda in Bloom

Closeup !

Sept. 29 - Brisbane

On Friday we decided to get out of Dodge and went back to the beach at Burleigh Head.  As soon as we got there, we bought a boogie board and I bought a wetsuit (I love being warm!)  Unfortunately the beach was really windy and the surf was rough.  I put on the new suit and went in a couple of times, and Annie braved the cold water and got in for a while too.  It wasn't the best day at the beach, but I have to report I love the new suit (especially because it was a kid's suit on sale..)  The trip home took 3.5 hours rather than the usual 2.5 due to missing a bus by about 20 seconds.  Bummer!  Of course a bad day at the beach is still better than a day at work :)

The beach babe

Saturday was rather tame - it actually drizzled in Brisbane for the first time since we have been here (The rainforest rain doesn't count, right?).  Last night there was an amazing fireworks display on the river called Riverfire.  I hate to admit that we watched it on TV, but it was impressive there, too.  It was 20 minutes of razzle-dazzle.  Here's a photo shamelessly stolen from the web:

Sept. 26 - Brisbane

Hi to all our fans out there.  It's been a quiet week here so far.  We have been recovering from the week at Lamington and starting to plan some trips for ourselves.  We actually have a long weekend this weekend and next weekend, too.  We will probably take ourselves on our own personal field trip out in the country away from the coast next weekend.  This weekend we will stay close to Brisbane in case we are needed by the students - Nicole and her family are off in Sydney.  The main reason for posting now is that I couldn't resist sending you a picture of the view from my computer, and here it is:

Life is pretty tough, wouldn't you say?  We are at the pool because it is supposed to be over 90 F this afternoon.  I have my computer here to do some grading, and obviously I am working hard.  Annie is in the pool, also working hard.

Sept. 20 - Lamington to Brisbane

Friday we packed up and headed home to Brisbane, and by then "home" was looking pretty attractive!  It turns out canvas tents do not exactly block the neighbors' noise, and we felt a bit like we had been living in the middle of a college dorm for the week....  The big excitement at breakfast was a kookaburra who decided to join us in the dining room up on the rafters over our table.  John says we will see them again in Girraween, site of our next field trip in two weeks.

Sept. 19 - Lamington

Thursday I got up early (5 AM) to go out and listen to the birds with John & the gang.  On the way back we saw a bower bird's bower.  Tis particular species decorates the area around his bower of arched sticks with only blue stuff arranged in a particular pattern of his liking.  If you move a blue object, he moves it back.  Everything has to be perfect to attract a female to his mating bower.  Once the deed is done, she flies off to build a nest and he hangs around his bower to attract another fair damsel...

Dawn!

Bower of sticks decorated in blue

After breakfast we had a free day, so of course Annie and I went on a hike.  This one was three miles downhill to a pool in the river in the valley, then three miles back uphill to the camp.  May I say that our legs were tired??  After dinner we did "bush dancing" which was basically like square dancing.  Everyone really got into it, and it was a fun way to spend our last night in Lamington.

Sept. 18 - Lamington

Another day, another hike!  This time we started out with the students, but branched off on our own and did the caves hike.  Once more the weather was beautiful, and we had great views of the valley below.  All told, it was a short day for us - maybe only four miles of hiking, but it was enough!  A brown snake crossed the trail between Annie and me, but the folks back at the lodge did not think it was the "brown snake" of deadly fame.  It would have been a good story!

We saw koalas and pademelons (little kangaroos)

Big trees - little me

Annie the Intrepid

Still smiling despite the weight of the world

Sept. 17 - Lamington

After a night of the hardest rain I have ever heard, we awoke to clearing skies and the loudest birds I have ever heard.  It took most of the morning, but the rain left us and we went on a seven hour hike with John through several different ecosystems in the forest.  We saw a huge variety of trees ranging from Antarctic beech to eucalypts to strangler figs.  We also saw a huge blue crayfish that looked like a lobster, and a python that must have been at least six feet long.  By the time we got back to camp, we all were exhausted (students as well as us!)

John of the Jungle

I'm here too

Liana knot

Annie

Egg Rock

Mr. Python

Sept. 16 - Lamington

It's really a week later, but I decided I'd make a series of entries for last week.  It was the field trip to Lamington National Park, and it was packed full of adventure.  On Monday we hopped on our bus and drove from Brisbane to Lamington.  On the way there, it started to rain for the first time since we arrived in Australia.  In a perverse way this seemed fitting, since Lamington NP is in a rainforest.  We arrived to a cold drizzle, and after a little while sorting out the organizational stuff we made our way to our safari tents.  They were big canvas tents with wooden floors and beds.  Annie and I were in the middle of a row of three tents, sandwiched between two sets of students.  Here is our tent which we came to love and/or hate, depending........ :

View from the porch

Home sweet home

After lunch John Hall took us on our first hike in the rain.  He was quite excited that  we would see the forest in the rain, and so were we!  We fed some leeches along the way (two for me; one for Annie) and saw some magnificent trees and lianas (the giant vines that twist and curl around the trees).  We got back at dinner time, cold and hungry.  Annie and I immediately bought ourselves some fleece jackets which we wore for the rest of the week.

Sept. 15 - Brisbane

Annie and I just finished packing for our trip to Lamington National Park.  It will be a five day field trip with "limited" electricity, no phones and no internet.  Guess you won't be hearing from us for a while!  We have our sleeping bags, hiking shoes, warm clothes, rain gear and the kitchen sink all packed away into two day packs and a duffel bag.  We also have our cameras, and with any luck they will keep working for the week.

Yesterday we had a great day at the beach taking surfing lessons.  Annie instigated this, and I have to hand it to her - it was a great idea!  The teachers were very good, and had us up on the boards in no time.  They also managed to take some pictures, but unfortunately missed Annie on the board.  Here's what we have as proof that we went.  We figure we were about 3 times the average age of the group, and are proud of it!

After the class we are still smiling :>)

Note the fierce determination .........

Sept. 13 - Brisbane

I feel like starting with "Well, it has been a quiet week in Lake Woebegone" but then you might get the wrong impression.  It has been a busy week in Brisbane, full of classes either attended or taught!  I had to give my big energy lecture this week, and actually spent a lot of time getting it ready (in spite of the fact that I worked on it for a LOT of time in the US before we came.)  I think it was a case of the task expanding to fill all available time.  If you ever want to know how to power the whole world with wind, water, and solar, just ask....  Annie survived listening to me, and enjoyed the biology and Australian classes (I did too!)

Today (Friday here) we went on a field trip to St. Helena Island in Moreton Bay.  The island was a maximum security prison opened in the mid 1800s,, and as the guide said, Alcatraz was a walk in the park in comparison.  They really packed the prisoners into cells, made them work really hard, and would punish them with up to 28 days solitary confinement in dark, muddy holes in the ground.  The island itself was quite pretty (and windy!) and had tons of wallabys running around.  We saw
 lots of big blue jellyfish during the boat ride, so that was kind of fun, too.

Here are the jellyfish - more exciting in person!

One of our guides dressed as a prisoner.  He is in front of one of the buildings built by prisoners from rock quarried on the island.  He said the workmanship was good because in the Victorian age good workmanship was prized.

...... However the wallaby was not impressed!

Tomorrow Annie has us signed up to take a surfing lesson, then Monday morning we leave for a 5-day field trip with "limited" electricity, no phones and no internet.  Should be fun!  I'll try to post again before we leave.

Sept. 8 - Brisbane

It's Sunday night and we just got back from a day at Burleigh Beach.  We went by train and bus (about 2.5 hours each way) with Nicole and her two kids.  It was a great day, with beautiful weather, of course.  Burleigh is at the end of the "Gold Coast" which is pretty tacky and glitzy, reminiscent of the worst of  Florida.  We were at the end of the glitz just at the edge of a charming little National Park.  We walked through the park for a while, and then spent the afternoon on the beach  Annie, Nicole and the kids had a great time in the surf.  Here's the proof:

Here are some shots from the walk through the park....

And here's Annie at a surfer monument.  Apparently it all started here!

And finally here's a look back to all the high rise condos on the beach:

So tomorrow is Monday, and it's back to work.  I have to give a big lecture on Tuesday, and the students have already handed in work that needs to be graded.  Annie will be back to the classes, and I'll try to go too.  

Sept. 6 - Brisbane

Today is Friday, and the end of the first "normal" week here in Brisbane.  The students are busy with classes, and Annie and I have been sitting in with them.  All the courses are great!  Perhaps the highlight so far was learning about some wasps and orchids.  It's pretty complicated, but basically the orchid tricks the wasp into trying to mate with it.  I'll leave all the lurid details to tell you in person some time.  It's really quite entertaining!  I decided I needed some pictures of life in Brisbane, so here you go:

Life on the UQ Campus (don't ask me.....!)

Annie and friends in Brisbane City Center

This weekend we plan to go for a nice long bike ride on Saturday, and head for the beaches on Sunday with Nicole and her kids, so we should get some good pictures to post.

September 3 - back in Brisbane

We spent the week with the students at Moreton Bay Research Station on North Stradbrooke Island, aka "Straddie."  We couldn't have had a better time!  The weather was perfect, and the island was beautiful.  The theme of the week was marine ecology, but we saw all kinds of things, from koalas and kangaroos to kookaburras and breaching humpback whales.  No kidding!  We saw it all!  We went on field trips to the ocean beach, mud flats and mangroves, and saw critters ranging from mollusks to green worms to sting rays. I think maybe the whales breaching off the ocean beach were the best, but don't have any pictures to prove it.  Here are some pictures of what I can show you..

Annie and the mangroves:

 The beach at Lookout Point 

Monitor climbing a tree (like a lizard - look closely) 

Sue at the beach looking cool:

Checking out the mud flats: 

Now we are into our first week with the students in Brisbane, and deep into the courses.   All the UQ professors are really enthusiastic, and Annie and I have been going to all the classes,  learning marine and terrestrial ecology and Australian culture.  We've also been bike riding and exploring, and marveling at all the strange sounding birds (and trying to avoid the attacking magpies!)  Here's an interesting one - it's a kind of turkey that builds big mounds of yard litter, then lays its eggs in the decaying warm compost so it doesn't have to sit on the nest.  They are big and kind of ugly, and a pair of them live next door.  This is the male - he has a bigger yellow necklace: