Turtle Island

Amazing Green Sea Turtle

Wow, we're almost done with Heron Island. We leave in two days and start the treck up to the Daintree Rainforest. Some pretty cool things have happened in the past couple of days, though. Two days ago we had our midterm for Coral Reef Ecosystems. It wasn't that hard, but I keep thinking of things I should have said. Oh Well. The rest of that day was a blast. We had a boat snorkel in Wistari Channel, where there are lots of reef canyons. I saw heaps of parrotfish, which are magnificantly brightly colored - lots of irridescence and rainbow. I also saw two green turtles...one I tried to follow off the reef crest... After about 45 minutes in the water, I started to get pretty chilly, though, so I was happy we got out.

That evening we had a celebration. We played volleyball (although I'm really bad), had sunset "nibbles" (they like their morning and afternoon tea), and then a great barbeque dinner. My group was pretty excited because they were selling beer and wine, so people got a little tipsy. The meal was followed by salsa dancing lead by one of the tutors. It was tons of fun and I hope we do it again. So much better than dancing to the other music they play! I started feeling pretty ill after dancing and so I headed off to bed, but people went a little nuts late that night.

Uneventful next day. Ran, did species cards, napped, etc. Last evening we had species presentations. I of course presented my lovely Silvereye. There were some really funny presentations. One guy did Juanas carlosus (AKA Juan Carlos - our tutor). Another guy presented the porcupine fish, but his whole powerpoint was on SPAM. Two other guys did mythical creatures (Kraken and Leviathen). Notice how these are all guys...

Anyways, I conked out early again last night. I woke up at 5:45am this morning and had a lovely stroll around the island. I was at Shark Bay, and there, halfway across the beach is a loggerhead turtle returning to the water. I was so excited that I got to document it! That made my morning and made me late for breakfast, but more than worth it!

Update: 10/31 Saw atleast 6 turtles this morning. Two were actually mating about ten feet offshore!

-Over and Out