There's not TOO much to write today as the day was mostly taken up by just traveling to and getting settled in the island!! Luckily, even after tales of how easily the ferry ride can make people sea sick, I don't think anyone in the group actually got too sick. Overall a pretty smooth ride just enjoying the vast ocean around us. Most interesting land marks along the way were the oil rigs...which as people going to study the health of the coral reef they aren't the greatest thing to be seeing everywhere... We made it! And Heron Island is STUNNING! It feels kind of surreal to realize that everything I read about and saw pictures of is actually real and in person now. Over the last couple months as I've prepped to leave it's almost felt too good to be true that I could really be coming to this little island in Australia for a university class. But here I am. By the time we go home, my camera roll will probably be just a collage of blue and green pictures because it's all just too pretty to take in. Words can't express how incredibly excited I am that I get to be here. When we first got to the island, it was lots of briefings and inductions to make sure we're all up to speed of where to go, where to look, and what to DEFINITELY not touch (aka cone shells and turtles). With the island being so small though, the tour only took about twenty minutes. We all got settled into our rooms and I remembered how difficult it is to make the bed of a top bunk! There's four others in my room: Brinley, Aime, Avery, and Cambrey. I get to stay in Noddy 2:) Once we all got unpacked, we took a little wander down the beach! Littered everywhere on the beach is broken pieces of coral and oodles of shells. As someone who collects shells and sand from everywhere I travel, not bending down to pick them all up is quite the difficult task. As we walked, I was on the hunt for all the different animals I memorized before coming here. Although memorizing them all wasn't my favorite task, it was kind of fun to be able to identify what I was seeing. We saw some shovel-nose rays (even baby ones following mom! adorable), some swift-footed crabs, and a chiton. Getting fitted into our wetsuits this afternoon was an adventure for sure. I swear they always feel just a little bit too tight but I guess that's the way you want them. All worth it though because I got to go snorkeling at sunset in Australia which to me is one of the coolest things I've ever been able to do. I kept having to stop swimming to just look around and take in the reality of where I was. While snorkeling, a green sea turtle and a loggerhead turtle swam right below me, close enough to touch! It was incredible. I almost couldn't believe they were actually real and right there since I've only ever seen photos. A black tip reef shark and a lemon shark also swam real close by, which is a little more intimidating, but still pretty darn amazing. (Picture above is just a giant clam in the touch pool the university here already had set up) And now here we are! All trying to figure out how exactly we are wanting to blog this experience. This group has been pretty sweet already so I have a feeling this class and trip is going to be once in a lifetime.
Now's time for bed to prep for the first early morning snorkel! Let the adventure begin:)
0 Comments
|