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Today was our last day of planned activities and it was an early morning as you can see from the photo above. We had the chance to drive to the town of Sorrento and "Swim with the Dolphins." The company that we use is one of the few that can allow people to see the dolphins in their natural habitat. The company is owned by Judy Muir who you see below, she is one of the leading advocates for environmental issues in Port Phillip Bay. She talked very passionately to our course about the controversial dredging project that is currently about to get started and possibly destroy the wildlife in Port Phillip Bay.



Here is a picture of one of the lovely 89 dolphins that live in the Bay. The group in the morning only saw 2, but the later group saw probably 10. That is the problem with going into their natural habitat, you may not get to see them.



However, both groups did get a chance to snorkel a bit and see some of the other local wildlife like this stingray. We also had a chance to swim at Chinaman's hat where there is a colony of seals. You can see some of those pictures also.







Due to regulations to insure the safety of the dolphins not everyone was able to swim at once. Therefore we had to split our groups. When you weren't swimming with the dolphins you were out on this beautiful walk near Cape Schank. This walk went to Bushrangers Bay and had some great looks. Hope you enjoy.



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Today was our free day in Melbourne. Not many more days to go. Many of the students decided to use it as a shopping day for souvenirs for themselves and loved ones. A number of the students went to the Crown Casino to watch the NFL playoffs. I know many of them will be happy with the outcomes because I heard many talking about the Giants and Patriots.

Mallory and I decided to go to a small seatown called Williamstown. Williamstown used to be the primary sea town instead of Melbourne. It was a very quaint little town. We walked a heritage trail and saw many of the historical landmarks in the town.

One of our favorite sites was seeing the Tall Ship, the James Craig. We were able to walk and explore the ship and it was quite impressive. It is normally docked in Sydney, but happened to be in Melbourne for the first time in 87 years. It was a neat place to be.





This is a picture of the Bolte Bridge that we passed under on our river cruise to Williamstown. Two interesting things about this bridge is that the politician it was named at had a history of drinking and driving charges, weird I know. Secondly, it is the tallest bridge in the Southern Hemisphere, however, what makes it the tallest bridge are the two towers on each side which cost something like $5 million AUD each. The sneaky thing is that neither of these towers actually touch the bridge. Just a little trivia for you.



One last picture of the Melbourne skyline as we came in from our cruise.



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We have arrived back from the Great Ocean Road, where we stopped at Airlie Point, learned to surf, learned about Rainforests in Victoria, and, of course, saw the 12 Apostles. It was quite an excursion -- filled with new challenges and fun memories!







We headed out on Saturday morning and when we got to Airlie Point we split into 2 groups -- half of the group headed to the beach for a surf lesson and the other half headed to see Eagle Rock and the lighthouse on the point. The students had a great time learning to surf, some were even able to stand up on their first few tries!







After our morning of exploring and surfing we headed to our destination for the evening in Apollo Bay -- we stopped to see some Koalas in the wild too. After our detour we arrived to our backpackers right off the Great Ocean Road -- it was quaint and perfect for an aussie barbeque and for some of the students to learn to play backyard cricket!



We departed bright and early the next morning for another round of surfing and a bushwalk through Maits Rest Rainforest. It was a bit chilly Sunday morning for us, but many still perservered and we caught some great waves -- we had the beach all to ourselves at Apollo Bay, which is great when your surfing! In the Rainforest we saw new trees and plants and we learned a good bit about forestry in the Victoria area. The rainforest in Victoria are definitely different from the rainforest that we experienced in Queensland -- it was neat to see the different fauna and even to recognize the differences from both.








After our morning activies it was off to the 12 Apostles -- absolutely amazing and I know my pictures don't do it justice. I have heard and seen pictures of these limestone rocks, and to finally see them in person was magnificent! The students really seemed to enjoy the views and I'm sure they got some great pictures too!






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Today was spent at one of the premier tennis tournaments, the Australian Open. This is the only grand slam event played in the Pacific/Asia Region.

Many of the students (and faculty) decided to upgrade from the ground passes that were purchased to tickets in the Vodafone arena. The Vodafone arena used to be center court, but when Rod Laver Arena was built it became the off arena. New policy has it that you need tickets to go in. Many decided to upgrade so that they could see players such as Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. However, there were also some matches by male players ranked in the top 10 (Dayvadenko and Gasquet).

Some of the students also took in matches on the show courts. The two matches that drew most attention was the morning doubles match by Bob and Mike Bryan. They are currently the number one ranked mens double team in the country and are from the USA. The afternoon saw the Williams sisters play doubles (and win).

It sounds like everyone had a great time at the Open. Mallory and I decided to get a nice meal in Little Italy. Here are a few photos from our day, please Enjoy.











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Yesterday was a very long day. We were picked up from the hotel at 9 am and met our guides from the University of Melbourne (Andy and Phil) and did not get back in until midnight. Just in time to see the end of the last tennis match on TV.

We started off the day with a long bus ride to San Remo where we took a short break and watched the feeding of the Pelicans. A local eatery feeds their leftover fish and scraps to the pelicans. After our break we went on a beautiful coastal walk which had some great beaches and views.



After our walke we went to the town of Cowes and grabbed a quick bite to eat. From there we went to a Koala Conservatory and the Phillip Island Wildlife Park. Both of these spots allowed the students to get some great pictures of native Australian animals. Many of the students took advantage of the opportunity to feed many of these animals. Below you will see a few of the pictures. I will label them for you also.

Here is a great picture of a younger Koala (not bear).



Here is Mallory feeding a Wombat, her favorite animal.



David and Matt stalking a kangaroo and her joey.



Here is an Emu.



Here is a Cassowary, Mallory talked about these in Daintree.



We also saw some Tasmanian devils, snakes, birds and a few others.

After the wildlife park we went to dinner before heading to the Nobbies (picture below). The Nobbies usually have some seals on them but because of the sunset it was hard to see them, but did offer some great views.


After the Nobbies we went to see the Penguin Parade. This is when many fairy penguins come in from the ocean and march up to land to rest after days/weeks of fishing in the ocean. The Penguins are very cute but don't come in until after the sun is set which is why we got in so late. The picture below is of a fairy penguin that some of us saw at the Nobbies. We were not allowed to take pictures at the Parade.

G'day to all who are still reading.


]]> http://idd.elon.edu/blogs/australia08/index.php?entry=entry080116-044822 We will probably not be able to update the blog for a day or so because we have an all day activity planned tomorrow. Please tune in for when we get back. Take care.
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Mallory and I decided to do something different. We had heard about the town of Kuranda which is at the top of a mountain and can be accessed by car, scenic train or skyrail. We have had enough of cars and buses so we decided to go up via scenic rail and then down via skyrail. As you will see from our pictures, we had quite a good time and some amazing views of the area North of Cairns.





One of the major scenic sites in the area are the Barron Falls which were quite brilliant and you could hear the power in them when we saw them both by train and skyrail. The interesting thing about the Barron Falls is that they are used to generate power and are considered a green source of energy that is used in Cairns and surrounding cities.

After some shopping in Kuranda and walking the town and enjoying the sites, we were able to head back down towards Cairns.




Once again the sites were amazing, but it is also interesting to know that the skyrail was built in such a way that the natural environment was not harmed. Most of the materials for the towers were brought on by helicopter and manufactured on site so that trees would not have to be destroyed. We saw a video of the building, it was quite amazing. After watching the video I am considering adding this to our course on ecotourism because of the sustainability principles used to create the skyrail. Besides, it was fun also.





The last photo is of what they call the "Flying Fox." When we were coming up via train they talked about this was a common way to transport materials and that some people even "commuted" to work via the Flying Fox. Now that might be fun.

Mallory and I finished off tonight with a dinner at a restuarant where we sampled the local fare. We enjoyed the "Ozie Trio" which consisted of Emu, Crocodile and Kangaroo. It was quite tasty, YUM.

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Today we headed up to the Daintree Rainforest, the oldest rainforest in the world and it was a great day to be out exploring -- despite being a "rainforest" it stayed pretty dry on us -- perfect!


(This is a speed bumb sign were someone decided to make the speed hump look like a cassowarie)

Our three guides Tom (owner of Wilderness Challenge), Evan, and Dean were a wealth of knowledge and we learned loads about the different fauna and birds -- we all hoped to see a Cassowarie (a giant bird similiar to an emu or ostrich), but instead we saw plenty of flying foxes (otherwise known as bats). The other thing that was prevelant on our rainforest experience were spiders -- we saw a ton of golden orb spiders and one of them was just slightly smaller than the size of my hand -- don't worry, they're not poisonous -- ugly, but not poisonous!





On our bush walk through Daintree we saw some pretty neat wild life, a King Fisher bird and we saw a rather large lizard (the name is escaping me at the moment). In addition to walking in the bush we also got to walk along Thorton beach -- it was beautiful and one of the neatest things to think about as we were walking was that the beach looks like it did when Cook discovered these shores back in the 1700's -- pretty cool! While we were on the beach we found pumice stones that had washed up on shore as well as mangrove seeds, one had actually sprouted, which was unusual!



After the beach, we headed to lunch and then we dropped by a fruit grove and bought homemade ice cream -- the flavors we got to eat were Jakefruit, Wattleseed, Blueberry, and Coconut -- we got all four -- it was served that way and the flavors were determined by what was ripe at the grove -- yummy!



From ice cream we zoomed off to our boat trip down the Daintree River, where we actually got to see a mother crocodile nesting -- it was hard to get the right picture through the brush, but were hoping someone got a decent shot! While we were out on the river we also saw a python curled up sunning itself in a mangrove tree, and then of course the bats sleeping in the trees! We definitely got to see some great wildlife on today's excursion.

Today was full of learning and experiencing new things -- I think the students really enjoyed what we saw and the knowledge that was imparted to us. Our guides were great and answered so many of our questions - there wasn't anything that they didn't seem to know (or know how to get the answer to)! Great day!]]> http://idd.elon.edu/blogs/australia08/index.php?entry=entry080113-060452


Today was the day that many of the students and faculty have been waiting. The opportunity to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. The weather in Cairns was a little sketchy this morning but as we traveled away from the city the weather got sunnier, but the waves were still choppy. The choppy waves caused many to experience some sea sickness, but everyone survived and then had the opportunity to explore the Reef.

After a two hours of snorkeling we grabbed some lunch before heading to our second destination for the day. Right before getting in the water at the second destination a quick storm came through and caused the water to be a bit choppy but the views at the second site were even better than first and we were able to see a number of great fish and coral. More importantly the students were able to use their new found knowledge from the Reef Teach the night before.

I have included a few photos that I took today that attempt to capture the beauty that we saw, but you can tell from the photos that I am not a good photographer or not able to at least tell the full story.

Enjoy!!! See if you can find NEMO in the picture below. By the way, we found NEMO twice, once in the picture below but one of the workers on the boat we went was named NEMO, so regardless, we were successful.











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We have just arrived back to civilization from Lamington National Park -- what an AMAZING experience up on the mountain! We got in a bit later than anticipated on Wednesday (cancelled flight, but the students handled it well and used the time to catch up on journaling and catching up on reading for the course!)

While we were at O'Reilly's we had several group experiences together and then others that we could choose to participate in, from bird watching, a glow worm trek, or other bush walks -- the choice was ours! In addition to enjoying the many activities, I must tell you that everyone also seemed to enjoy the food -- it never seemed to stop! O'Reilly's activities revolved around food -- from breakfast we would move to our morning activity, break for tea, finish the activity, head to lunch, then participate in an afternoon activity, break for 4pm tea, then dinner at 6pm -- seriously, these Aussies know how to eat, and we definitely enjoyed trying to keep up with them! I might add that a good number of the students ate Kangaroo on our last night dining!



On our first day Tim O'Reilly, the activities director held a special session for the Giant Swing and the Flying Fox -- it was AWESOME (and I'm going to work on posting some video, so definitely check back). Tim instructed us on a few safety precautions and we were off to play!





First, I'll start with the Giant Swing -- this contraption hoisted you about 50 feet in the air and then you were released to swing -- the dropping sensation was amazing and it literally felt like you were on a rollar coaster! The other activity we got to experience was the Flying Fox -- a zip line contraption that you flew down, and for the brave you could zoom upside down! The students really seemed to enjoy this activity, zooming down several times trying to top their last zip -- it was great fun!





Flying Fox Video

In addition to flying foxes and giant swings we were also able to experience a little bit of Aboriginie culture from Douglas, a member of the Yugambeh language group. Douglas taught us how to throw a boomerang and several of the students did pretty well almost catching their boomerang upon it's return! The majority of us however were ducking and running away as boomerangs flew erradicly through the air! After our boomerang lesson we headed in for a bit of a lesson on aboriginie culture and we learned loads more about boomerangs -- there are 5 different types and they were typically used to hunt roo's and different fowl.



We also learned about some various musical instruments -- from gourds, clapsticks and, of course, the digiardoo -- we even got to play with several of these instruments too! The digiardoo was of course quite popular, and because it is custom for only the men in a tribe to play the girls did not get to play the digi in the presence of Douglas -- however, there is ample opportunity for them to try at one of the many shops while we are here in Cairns.

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