March 21 – 23, 2014
By Nicky Wolff
On our last full day at Lamington Plateau we had
a free day to roam the beautiful national park. Seven of us decided we wanted
to take a longer walk deeper into the park on a loop trail that would take us all
day to complete. We started off with packed lunches and plenty of water to
sustain us while we roamed the rainforest that, thanks to our professors, we've
quickly gotten to know over the past few days. Log runners (small birds) darted
past the luscious undergrowth on the dank forest floor as we ventured deeper
into the forest. Overhead nearly
all the sunlight was blocked by tall trees caked with epiphytes and heavily
draped with lianes. The hike took us along three raging waterfalls each with
moss-lined pools underneath. As adventurous college kids, we eagerly took
advantage of the plunge pools to cool us down. Anthropods, isopods, arachnids, true
bugs, and normal bugs all greeted us from the surrounding rocks. We have
adapted to the presence of these crawlers and face them not with fright, but
with increased interest. Yet as we continued we soon realized our greatest foes
of the day would be leeches. During the thickest part of our trudge through the
forest (where we were wishing for a machete) we flicked off at least ten
bloodsucking leeches per person. After about 17 kilometers of walking and
checking for leeches, we happily scurried back to camp, feeling like we knew
what it really is like to be in the rainforest—in order to understand the diverse
rainforest and all its birds, plants, bugs, and mammals, we had to lose a
little blood from leeches.
The next day we packed up camp and left
Lamington Plateau to start our week of independent travel. I went with a buddy
to Tasmania for a bit of hiking. As I flew into Hobart, the capital city, I was
reminded of other remote towns I've been in. Hobart has the harbor and seafood places
of Maine, but the practical layout of Anchorage or Juneau. The rolling hills of
the countryside filled with wheat and livestock remind me of my home in
Wisconsin. I could tell tourism season has ended, as the town was dead quiet by
8 o'clock. Australians have a phobia of temperatures dropping below the 60s, which
they are prone to do in Tasmania, so it didn’t surprise me that the only people
visiting seemed to be from places where they put dots over their letters. I can
tell it’s my kind of town though; there are more outdoor stores then any other
type of store. Tomorrow we will head to Freycinet National Park to camp for
two nights. This trip will be short but good, giving us a little relaxation
before we push through our final few weeks of the program.
-Nicky
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