The second part of the Forest Ecosystems course was completely different from the first (mangroves) but it was still equally amazing and ridiculous. A friend of mine described our experience as summer camp, and (despite the fact that I never actually went to summer camp growing up), I would complete agree.
We started out in Yungaburra within the Atherton Tableland (a volcanic plateau in North Queensland) staying in a hostel called "On the Wallaby". We then headed to Undara National Park to a resort/camping lodge. Its so hard to keep track of days here, since we are essentially in the middle of nowhere and have class usually through the weekends. Normally, each day we had 2-3 hours of lecture, then spent the rest of the day “in the field”. Our "field" was different types of Rainforests (did you know there’s such a thing as a dry Rainforest?…well there is! We learned all about it…) Here is a little break down of what we did each day.
Sunday
We arrived in Yungaburra and ventured off to the Curtain Strangler Fig Tree.
This amazing fig tree began when a seed was deposited in a branch of a tree (through animal droppings). The seed germinated and aerial roots grew down and around this host tree, eventually pulling it down (strangling it). It was pulled it into another tree at an angle, while the roots continued to grow 50 feet through the air to the ground, creating a curtain effect. 
The original tree rotted away so you can almost see completely through it at places.
We also headed to the gorgeous Lake Barrine
where we walked around, exploring and finding some cool musky rat kangaroos. It’s really hard to take a picture of these animals, but they are essentially tiny little marsupials a little bit bigger than a rat, found in the rainforests of New Guinea and northeast Australia.
At night, we went on a night canoeing/wildlife spotting trip on a nearby lake. We saw a bunch of possums and musky rat kangaroos!
Monday:
We started with a tour of a tropical Rainforest walking around Lake Eacham (a crater lake),
then went for a little afternoon swim
before heading to a dry Rainforest at David’s Creek.
Tuesday:
Today was an early morning! One of our assignments included listening to the “morning choir” and identifying bird calls. Well, the morning choir begins before sunrise, so we were up and out the door by 5am! No worries though, watching the sun rise in the rainforest while listening to the calls Rainforest birds make is completely worth waking up for.
Morning Chorus Group
After a morning lecture we hiked through a tropical rainforest to this gorgeous waterfall pool
(where we swam of course)
then dried off and headed to Bonadio Farm.
The Bonadios are experiment then had a bbq dinner where we got to try both kangaroo (marinated this time) and crocodile. Both were surprisingly good! Since we were eating in a covered area pretty much in the forest, they put out a table of food and possums, bandicoots, and pademelons all came around to snack while we ate!
We also saw a joey (baby kangaroo) that was rescued after his mom was hit by a car. It was adorable!
After dinner, we took a tour of their glow worms caves! Not as many as we saw in New Zealand, but still really cool!
Wednesday:One of our tutors, Claire Baker, is essentially an insect expert, and she gave us a bug lecture and let us hold Gretel, as GIANT stick insect!
We left On the Wallaby and began our 3 hour journey in our Troopies to Undara National park in the outback. We broke the long drive up with a swim in yet another gorgeous waterfall pool.
We hiked up to the highest rock, bird watching on the way up,
then sat and watched the sun set over the outback.
Thursday:
We explored the “schlerophyll forest” vegetation of the outback in the morning then had a guided tour of the Undara lava tubes. The view was crazy!
We hiked up and watched the sun set,
and it was just as amazing as the night before. After dinner we hiked back up to the same spot in the dark. We stayed for about an hour stargazing. You can see soooo many more stars than you can it home. I can’t even describe how many stars lit up the sky. Since this was our last night of the course, we headed back down for a campfire with roasted marshmallows (apparently the concept of s’mores doesn’t exist in Australia) and campfire songs!
O ya, and sometime during this busy day we attempted to find time to study for our final which was Friday morning.
Friday:
After an early morning kangaroo-watching walk, we took our final (yayyyy!) then began our trip back to Yungaburra. I stayed at Yungaburra with 7 other students, while the rest of the group headed off to Cairns for 5 free days. Since my TRP is in part of the Coastal Forest Ecosystems component of our class, I have my 3 research days in Yungaburra (but its okay cause I still get 2 days off when we join the group on Monday). We haven’t finalized our research plan yet, but it will involve platypus watching!
