Life in smoky New South Wales

Life in Smoky New South Wales

Dear Family and Friends,

Three weeks ago we went to Newcastle which is about 2 hours away and north up the coast from Sydney. We went hiking there. In the night we saw flying foxes (bats) they were huge and we saw thousands of them leaving their mangrove forest home for a night of eating fruit and nectar. I’m not exaggerating. The next day we went hiking again. We saw tadpoles (I caught one), 2 pythons, a tree monitor (lizard), and a crayfish (which scared me).

Barrington Tops NP

Crayfish, note the eggs on the underside of the tail.

Python

Tree monitor lizard

Two weekends ago we went to Manly (a suburb of Sydney next to the beach). We went hiking (again). Then we went to the beach where I found a lot of shells. The next day we went to the beach. Then we went hiking (do we ever do anything else? Yes).

Last weekend my dad and I went to a model park run by the Sydney Society of Model Engineers.  It has been a club for over 100 years. It was a lot of fun; it had HO model trains, ride-on trains (not full size regular trains, but small ones), slot cars, a garden railway, RC planes, RC boats, and RC cars. We rode on the ride-on train. We watched the large RC cars that are about 1.5 feet long (which sounded like motocross if you’ve been to motocross, that is). We also raced the slot cars. That was a lot of fun!

There have been fires near us (apparently they reached U.S. headlines. WOW.). We are ok. There are lots of fires which means there is a lot of SMOKE (very annoying). The fires started almost two weeks ago.  My dad's friend David Tissue lives right near where it started. Because the winds kept changing direction, the fire burned past his house 4 TIMES!!! Each time burning in vegetation that was unburned the previous times.  Not only had that happen but the fire started 2 houses down from his house. :o . Also the fire fighters are staying in the dorms near us and they have taken the field on which I play soccer and football (NO!). The local media has stopped covering the fires because the immediate danger is lower now, but it may take six weeks to get them fully under control.  That is unless the winds pick up again.  My school has been doing a goods drive for the firefighters and we donated some items today.

Travis

Firefighter encampment in front of our house

Quick note from Karen - I'm just back from giving seminars on my tropical forest restoration research at James Cook University and the University of Queensland.  At UQ, my host, Margie Mayfield, organized a mini-symposium of rain forest researchers so I also had the opportunity to hear about the work of other graduate students and faculty there who work on tropical forests in Australia and the Philippines.  I spent Saturday in Brisbane where I went hiking with a researcher there, John Dwyer (Travis wasn't with me so he didn't have to hike and listen to nerdy plant discussions) and then rode the boat that runs down the Brisbane River which runs through the heart of the city; people actually commute by boat there.  We'll now all be in Richmond for the rest of our stay except for some short weekend outings.

View of Brisbane from the boat