08/05/13 Beth's Blog
Part I
This is my third week on Cap
Ternay and I have to say I am absolutely loving it. Time has never flown by so
quickly. The past few days have been quite difficult as it has been thundering
and raining. When it rains here it is not a little shower it is torrential rain
that can last either 20 minutes or up to 2 hours. Before these black clouds
decided to holiday here we were able to celebrate Anzac Day. On the 25th
April the Australians and a couple English climbed up Mount Matoopa at 5:30am
to commemorate the soldiers of Australia and New Zealand. We were able to get
to the top and overlook the whole camp as well as the two beaches that surround
us. As 6:10 neared the sun started to make its appearance and produced all the
different colours of the sky. The view was spectacular. As the sun started to
rise to the top the angry black clouds blocked its view, it was still worth
going to the top though. The clouds will hopefully pass by and we will see the
last of them today.
We almost got caught in the storm
on the boat today when we did our plankton pool. It was the first time I had
done the plankton and learnt very quickly how to do this on rough waters. We
had to pull the rope in as quick as possible without falling in the water so we
have definitely improved our balance!! While pulling the rope in all of us
cheered the puller on (even when a business call was being made and we had to
whisper the cheers) and I have to say I’m quite impressed for our first time as
we had good times. We are all looking forward to the sun now so we can get back
to sunbathing and dry clothes.
Part II
This week started on a Saturday,
three people left from camp so it was a sad morning with all the goodbyes. But
it meant that four new people came!! They’re going through all the lectures we
had when we came which means we now have much more time. Earlier on Saturday we
went to the Natural History Museum and taught the children all about sharks. We
had many different stations where the children could colour in, do worksheets
and puzzles and the messy station where we had the Whale Shark that was made
out of chicken wire and the children covered it in paper machè.
Yesterday I went on my second
survey dive at Willie’s Bay which was beautiful and definitely my favourite
dive spot now. We saw a Scorpion fish and a giant Moray Eel; it’s a very rocky
dive site so there were hundreds of oysters, Christmas tree worms and Feather
Duster Worms.
Today we had a Cap Ternay clean
up; we went up Mount Matoopa and cleaned up the trail to make it more visible
for the next walkers. We hacked away the leaves and roots that trip you up on
the way. We couldn’t go all the way up because it had been raining all night
long and so it was a bit slippery. Apart from the ants and spider webs it was a
fun cleanup with everyone joining in.
We are also currently doing our
biological surveys, so those doing the internship and the Dive Master have
different tasks every week. Our first task was to talk about the different
species that we survey we had to explain how to identify them and their
importance in the ecosystem. This week we had to present in front of everyone
the importance of the Coral Reef, the Mangroves and Sea Grass Beds. I’m finding
the lectures really interesting, as I don’t know much about this is in the
first place. The term ‘you learn something new every day’ definitely applies
here!!
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