This is the last post I will make regarding my Australia Study Abroad trip. Monday, May 23rd, I was scheduled to work in the veterinary hospital (I wish I could have gone; they were treating wildlife like koalas there), but the doctor I was supposed to work with got stuck out on Lizard Island after releasing a turtle there due to stormy weather, so I went back to the Fitzroy Island turtle center with the all of the other students from my group. While there, I cleaned filters, prepared food, and skimmed debris from the turtle tanks. We finished earlier than usual due to the larger group of volunteers.
Then two other students from my group, Bridget and Lacy, and I decided to stay on the island and walk the path to the lighthouse and then to the summit of the tallest peak on the island. The trail to the lighthouse was grueling, uphill most of the way, but there was some nice scenery. The lighthouse itself was a little disappointing, nothing like the drawing on the map at the dock. The summit climb was also a bit tiring and challenging, but the view from the top was amazing. I even climbed the rocks to the very top of the summit. After we got back to the dock we walked on the beach for a while until the boat came to take us to the mainland.
The next day, Tuesday, another student, Bridget, and I went to Cairns Marine Center, which is a company that acquires fish and other sea life for aquariums and zoos. This company, unlike many fish suppliers, harvests fish, coral and other aquatic creatures sustainably, without the use of cyanide, and quarantines them for a few days or weeks to be certain they are healthy before selling them to private owners, aquariums, or zoos. They had many varieties of sharks, rays, fish, corals, anemones, and other aquatic animals, even including hog-nosed turtles and lungfish. I spent my day there working with the filtration system guy, which involved cleaning filters, preparing food, feeding fish, and siphoning debris from tanks. That last part got me really wet, wish I had known about that beforehand, then I could have worn my water shoes.
The following day I began my journey back home, 26 hours in planes and airports, though when I landed it was still Wednesday, isn’t that kind of weird? Australia was a lot of fun; I’m glad I went. I now feel I know a bit of what it is like to work with marine animals, and while I don’t think that’s where my passion is, this was a wonderful learning opportunity.
This was an eventful couple of days, starting with our visit to Hartley’s Crocodile Adventure, a zoo and crocodile farm. While there we got to feed fruit to a cassowary, which wasn’t as vicious as you might think, but then again, all the cassowaries were in separate cages be cause they are territorial and would fight. Then we got a brief tour of the crocodile farm, which raises saltwater crocodiles for their skins, meat, and other stuff. We also got a boat tour where we watched them feed crocodiles using a lure on a pole.
