Girraween

Last week I was camping in Girraween National Park. When we got there, we unloaded the bus and pitched the tents. The tents were set up in rows of 4. On this trip, there were 3 professors, 1 "tutor", 25 college students, and 1 11-year-old girl (me). The professors were my mom and her colleague, but the third professor's name is John Hall. John Hall is the professor who gives all of the lectures on this trip. John Hall in a botanist which means he is a tree hugger. Just kidding, his studies plants and he teaches students about plants animals and fires in national parks. On this trip, we had a tutor/assistant named Sheree. Sheree was so cool, she studies microbiology and she is a volunteer firefighter. Sheree went on hikes with us and she even brought special cameras so that we could watch the possums walk around our camp kitchen at night!  Every day in Girraween we would go on a hike. One of the hikes we went took us to Castle Rock, the Sphinx, and Turtle Rock. When we got to Turtle Rock we had the choice to go through Turtle Rock or just go back the way we came. The whole group chose to go through the Turtle. What I mean is we scrambled over and under 200,000,000-year-old granite rock, it was so much fun.

Girraween National Park is a 3-hour drive from Brisbane. Girraween is also part of the Granite Belt, which means that everything is made out of granite even the soil is made out of granite sand. The rock in Girraween is 200,000,000-years old, that means these rocks were around during the dinosaurs! Sheree told us how soil forms in the region. There are 2 different ways that soil forms from granite. The first way is when rainwater washes away tiny pieces of granite from the rocks and eventually forms a pile of sand. The second way is when algae and lichen are growing on the rock together.  Algae and lichen have a symbiotic relationship, that means that they help each other thrive without taking more or less from one another.  When lichen and algae grow together, they output an acid which decays the rock. When the rock decays, tiny loose pieces of granite come off and eventually turns into soil.

The quality of the soil that comes from this rock is very poor in nutrients. Not a lot of plants can grow in this kind of soil. The main things that grow in this soil are eucalyptus trees, banksia plants, acacia shrubs and different native grasses. Another plant that grows really well in this soil is the grapevine.  That is why the Granite Belt region has a lot of vineyards that grow grapes and make wine. On the way back to Brisbane, we stopped at 2 wineries and got to hear about how they make wine. The students got to taste lots of different wine. My mom got me a box of lolli's since I couldn't drink the wine!

On top of Turtle Rock, this is a granite boulder.

Invasion of the kangaroos in our campsite!

Climbing the Pyramid with the students.

Thumbs up! (under Turtle Rock)

John Hall lecturing us in the freezing cold.

A week ago I went to North Stradbroke Island with 25 college students, 3 professors, my family and a nice bus driver named Brentan. The locals call the island Straddie for short, so that is what I am going to call it. On Straddie, we stayed in a little house that was the color teal. The house was a one-floor house stuck in the 1950’s. The whole house was covered with pastel colors and jelly belly patterns. No joke. It was really cute. The house had a front porch, and we loved to sit out there and watch the sunset at the end of the day.

     

On Straddie, we spent most of our time at the University of Queensland marine research station, where we went to lectures. The lectures were taught by a professor named Tom Cribb. Tom Cribb is a marine biologist that studies parasites in fish and other marine animals. He has identified over 1,000 parasites in fish.

As part of the class, Tom took us on a few trips around the island. My favorite was when we went to a beach called Cylinder Beach, and we played football, soccer and swam.  We also climbed a big rock. From the big rock, we saw a humpback whale.

One day during low tide, we all went out searching for creatures and shells in front of the research station. We found a bunch of oyster shells, a large starfish, a needlefish, giant sea cucumbers, coral, and sponges.

One of the sponges we saw was the poisonous, black slimy sponge. I didn’t touch it. On the last day, we went to Point Lookout for a walk on the boardwalk.  From the lookout, we could see more whales and dolphins and we even saw THREE wild kangaroos next to the path!

                                                                                      

One day during afternoon tea at the research station, Tom brought out a box of Weet-Bix and said, “So guys, we are going to have a contest, to see who can eat the fastest. Now what you will be eating is a piece of so called food that looks like cardboard and tastes like cardboard, but is actually compressed cereal flakes that are really dry. Good luck.” The students were split up into three different groups and whoever ate their bar first moved onto the final round. The student who won the challenge was Will, and he is from Union College. I didn’t try the Weet-Bix, but I know at least one of the students liked them, even though they looked really dry.

student excited for the WEAT-BIX challenge

            

Tomorrow morning we are leaving really early for a camping trip. I am not going to have internet. I promise to write more when I get back next week. I hope everyone is having a great time back to school!

Fun fact: The sea cucumber when it’s under its last resort for self-defense, it poops out all of its organs. We learned that first hand.   

Family photo

                

Poems

I would like to say how much I miss my brother Emil and my friends from school. I also want to wish you a good year at school.

Poems

Since I’ve been in Australia, I’ve gotten into writing short poems inspired by songs I hear. I pick a song, and from a line or a phrase I create a short poem from it. I thought it would be cool  to share them with you.

So here it goes. The first one is from Paul Kelly - From Little Things Big Things Grow. I heard this song in the car, when my family was driving from Darwin to Litchfield National Park. That’s the park where the termite mounds were. If you don’t remember, check out my old blog post. This song is about the Aboriginal people trying to get back there land. Here’s my poem:

I am not one big thing,

I am many little things woven together.

The next song is from Mumford and Sons - White blank page.

A blank page is the difference between history and  the unwritten future.

The poem I wrote was inspired from a song by Lisa Mitchell - Neopolitan Dreams.

I turn my head up to the sky

I see you flying high.

I also have another poem I wrote, it goes like this:

When I close my eyes

all I see is light,

but when I open them

all I see is darkness.

Here are the songs that inspired me so you can listen to them.

Neopolitan Dreams - www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RowAc-H3EM

A white blank page - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw-ko6aINI4

From Little thing dig things grow - www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_ndC07C2qw