This is already the fourth week of the second semester! And the smell of holiday is finally no longer lurking around... it's time to do some serious reading, and I don't mean fiction. Eversince I picked up Chocolat by Joanne Harris from a Salvation Army thrift store in Sydney a month ago, I had read three other novels- I got kind of hooked somehow! Luckily there are not many good titles in the fiction corner of our library, but I manage to pick a thin one today about a story of the "stolen generation" in Australia. Should be interesting.

I know I have ben lazy in posting entries, I can't probably blame it on the winter cold, can I? Temperature can drop to 1 to 2 degrees in the wee hours, but inside the house it is still manageable without a heater, but I will have to wear socks and bedroom slippers and some nights a beanie and gloves! 

I wish I can simply Bluetooth the words and image in my mind to the internet..... (no, I have not been reading science fictons). Ok, so what interesting stuffs have happened after the last post....

The fauna survey is defintely one. It's the first time I get up close with native wild animals here like the bandicoot. It was AWESOME (must say it like the Aussies) to peek into the pouch of a female bandicoot at the little babies (they call them pinkies). I saw my first monotreme (mammal that lay eggs)- a echidna, which fell into our pit-fall trap! When released, it started to dig beneath itself and sank steadly into the ground! Quite an amusing sight! I guess this is a way to protect itself from predators by pressing it's vulnerable unprotected belly tight against the ground while exposing its long and sharp spikes. 

Now, this photo does look like a decomposing wedge of durian shell right?

 

The trip up north is pretty good too. It's the first time I backpacked alone, taking the Greyhound and sleeping in dorm beds and I am surprised that I actually enjoyed it very much! Of course there were times that I wished my friends were with me, or that I have another like-minded person whom I can share the joy of seeing really beautiful nature masterpieces, but there are also the freedom to do whatever you like and the peaceful moments you can engage in serendipity with nature. You are also more likely to step out of your comfort zone to do something different and also to talk to people you meet along the way.   

I saw the other monotreme in my trip- platypus! Some people I met later told me they are elusive animals, but because I stayed 2 nights at a place near the national park (Eungella National Park), I actually had the opportunity to be at the viewing platform over Broken River on three consecutive evenings, and I saw at least two of them each time. You have to be fairly patient though, my first sighting came about thirty to fourty minutes into the wait. You also have to be observant enough to differentiate the ripples made by them from the many terrapins in the river. The platypus is smaller than what I had imagined, about 30-40 cm in length. They are such a delight to watch. 

Oh dear, there never seems to be a good time to post the things that I wanna share with you guys! 

There were the photos that I took for the "typical days" series, my animal handling pracs, the BBQ and drinking session that we just had after the other girls cleared the last paper.... after exam, we actually got ourselves into another busy frenzy- to plan where to go during this one month holidays! 

Can't we just don't do anything and stay at home? Well, I suppose we can. Especially after I started to read Paulo Coelho's book again... there's a theme in his recent writings about how people must always have something to do to feel meaningful. When they do not have anything to work on or keep themselves busy, they feel uneasy because they do not know what to do with the void. 

I was pretty anxious and somewhat sad before I finalised the trip up north. Guess among a few other things, I was upset about my worry of independent travelling, and the lack of confidence to drive from place to place, which is what I really like to do. Why not travel with my housemates? We get along more or less okay in the house, but I thought we should give one another a break for a while. We can give and take in the house, but I kind of value my travelling, seeing it as a journey for new experience and reflections.  

At some points, I have also thought about going for a 10-day vipassana course, to learn how to "do nothing", but I didn't gather enough courage to do it in the end...

Anyway, tomorrow, I will be heading to Dundowran to do a fauna survey with three other uni students. Then on the 26th, I will be at Hervey Bay. I signed up for a tour for Fraser Island, a World Heritage Site. Then I will hop onto Greayhound to Mackay in search for platypus ;-)
My Greyhound ticket allows me to hop on and off from Hervey Bay to Cairns, so I should eventually ends up in Cairns. Hope to visit Daintree National Park. 
 

 


     

 Four days to exams!!!!!

Haven't quite read all that I am suuposed to read yet.... times passes so fast. But still, was able to go out for a breather at Brisbane city last Tuesaday- right after finishing the tedious management plan, and also went to Fernvale market early this morning. Brought a lavender plant and a small pot of rosemary.

More pixs later guys- lazy to put them up now ;-P
 
Am studying the chapter on cat behaviour and come across this paragraph on catnip response. Googled and found this video that depicts this interesting phenomenon very well. Cat ganja, ha ha... and the best thing is, it didn't seem to have any side effects for the cats. 

Check it out: 

Dear folks,

I have just received my take-home exam questions for Principles of Wildlife Management and we are given a week to work on it. I haven't been catching up with the readings and therefore it's not easy for me to clear the 3 questions that test our understanding of the principles. These questions are framed in such a way so as to test how you are going to manage a wild animal popultion if you are a wildlife manager. It will be interesting to work these questions through. I should be alright.

At the same time, I still need to attend a few more lectures, do an assessable statistic quiz and a management plan on a fictitious national park (worth 30%!). All 3 are due at about the same time and so you can imagine that the week ahead is a bit tough here for me. PLUS the weather has turned colder after the rain last saturday. I have already "upgraded" from doning a normal fleece to my North Face medium-thick fleece. 

Good thing is I can now show off the beautiful knitted scarf that Shihui brought for me so long ago in Korea ;-P 

So you can skip visiting this blog for a week plus cos I will not be posting.

Wish me luck!  

It seems early this year, but the people who will be coming to join me at UQ here next year were confirmed. Time is moving fast even in this small town, probably because we can never manage to catch up with the stuffs that we are supposed to read...  Anyway, it's one of those unproductive nights again, and I shall devote such time this week to do a YK's typical week at UQ on this blog. People coming next year shall get a preview of what's life going to be like. 

My Sony Ericsson k800i will assist me in presenting my perspectives to on a typical monday here:

Date: 12 May 2008

My first lesson today is the National Park Management tutorial at 11.00am, but I arrive on campus earlier for a meeting about a presentation that we are going to give in Wildlife Management class later. This arrangement is good as I can come together in a car with the others, who have classes at 8am. 

We are running a little late this morning because we didn't sleep well last night. Something happened- a mouse was found running in our house at 2am! I was waken up twice by the commotion and was a little upset that they were making so muh noise. I thought they must be killing spiders again, although I did wonder why they need to be so dramatic this time. Could it be some big interesting insects instead? Anyway, I was too tired to bother and went back to sleep after burying my head between pillows.

I woke up to see the door to the laundry and toilet closed, the gap below stuffed with papers and a chair place before it. A note tagged on the door knob said: Do not open the door. There is a MOUSE inside. 

Oh dear... now I understand the reason for the drama. This is not exactly a typical monday afterall... Anyway, I have to get to the sink where my toothbrush is, so I enter by the back door and do a search for the mouse. Coincidentally, I had told the girls yesterday about my experience with handling house mice in my animal handling practical last Friday, and now, we have a mouse in the house! 

I search thoroughly and even look into the toilet roll as I know how small a house mouse can be! No mouse. It must have slipped through the back door somehow. 

 10.47am- heaing for tutorial from the library. Two beautiful rows of Canary Island Date Palm (Phoneix canariensis) under a clear blue sky. Another wonderful morning ( I have forgotten about the mouse).
 

11.26am- at National Parks Management tutorial. We are having a stakeholder meeting and one of our favourite lecturers here is acting as the head ranger of a fictitious new national park. Each of us have to give a short presentation on our needs and whether there are conflicts with other stakeholders. I am in the team that represents the bird-watchers and we have issues with many of the other groups! These include the 4 X 4 driving club, pastoral owners and tour operators. It is quite a fun session and a good way to learn about the various issues that a national park faces. We will need to address these issues in a management plan that we have to submit by the end of this month. This takes up 30% of our final grade, so it's quite a major assignment.      

12.15pm- lunch at Dining Hall. I must be too engrossed in my meal and forget that I have set out to do this post. Will talk about the dining hall next time. A buffett meal here costs A$6.60, so we usually eat here only once a week. Most of the other days, as classes for the other girls are only in the morning, we have lunch back home.   

12.56pm- at my hide-out in the library. An hour more to the next lecture, shall do some last minute work on my presentaion script . But half of the time I am sleeping here, guess it's after lunch?  This is quite a nice place to snooze though ;-P

14.02pm- This lecturer, Luke Leung reminds me of LTM, especially when he laughs. Today's lecture is a special one as a few 3rd-year students have expressed interests to learn more about the job market for wildlife ecologists. I pick up some useful points on how to articulate your experience to address the criteria set out by the employer, so as to increase your chance of being shortlisetd for interviews.      

15.20pm- relaxing after our group has finished presenting. This presentation is the 2nd one out of the 3 assessable tutorial presentations (by peers as well as tutor). There are 3 groups in total and we are all doing the same topic. Thus, by the time the 3rd group is done, we will all be experts on predator-prey interaction. This slide is funny.

4.00pm: Pesentation Over! The feeling of "one more down" is always good.

4.05pm: near Dining Hall. I play "hero" to the rescue for yet another crested pigeon that is attacked by the noisy miners! Mari helps to chased the aggessors away with me. Actually, there are 2 birds- a big one and a small one! The mummy pigeon (I assume) is protecting the young one by shielding it against the pecks of the miners. The small one is really really adorable. "Kawaiiiiiii". 

I really think we should cull the noisy miners, but I guess it is going to be complicated. There will be both ecological and social challenges.  
   

      


18.29pm: 4 women in a small kitchen- it's a wonder that peace and order is still maintained. Curry and tom yum- are we killing ourselves? We have Nik, Janice and YH with us tonight and Janice has managed to convince us to cook tom yum soup even though we have planned to cook curry. This little lass can probably finish the whole pot if we didn't stop her. She starts drinking already when the soup is still cooking...The way she drink soup makes a nurturer like me want to cook soup for her next time.   

21.11pm- half-dead as I try to figure out where we have gone wrong in our calculations. We are doing a statistical analysis report for a simple germination experiment that Nik, YH and I have done for Biometrics module. When we still cannot figure out by 11pm, we surrender and decide to clear ur doubts at the tutorial tomorrow.

There was no time to worry about the little mouse at all. 

   

I must take a photo with this Old Mobil!

We "burnt" quite a few weekends now, either doing or stuggling with assignments or worrying about struggling with assignments, or getting upset over having to struggle or worry about struggling with assignments on weekends...

Anyway, that's only part of the reasons why I was happy this morning when I tagged along to visit a retired professor and his wife at their lovely property at Minden, which is only a 15-minute drive away from Gatton. Another reason is that Mari was going to explore the possibility of doing a research project on the property, and I was sure that I was going to learn a lot of new things today. And I was excited to meet new people too. I was not disappointed. Thanks to the friendly and warm couple, we had a great time this morning.
 
Before we arrived at the 50-ha property (5 times of Hindhede Nature Park!), we stopped by at their neighbour's place to witness the making of authentic German's sausages. The family is the third generation of German pioneers who arrived in Australia in the 1860s and although they may have lost their mother tongue, some of them had learnt how to make sausages from their parents.
 
That's one new thing I learnt today- that there is a community of German descendants in this area and after looking up the internet, I realised that some of the towns around here are actually named after cities and towns in German, such as Marburg. And I chanced upon this particularly interesting blog aout German migrants in this area by a writer, which has given me a historical perspective of the area out here. 

This family grows pineapples too, just like their grandfathers did. There are also papayas and bananas, but I was told they struggled during the droughts. Oh dear, when I saw the banana plants, I thought of eating Goreng Pisang... 

         


Mari and I stood by to watch with much amusement as the men/boys and a lady went about their work in this tarven-like sheltered area. This scenario in which people coming together to do work and cooking with firewoods in the open, reminds me very much of my kampongs days in my grandparents' house at Jalan Ulu Sembawang. My grandfather was in the business of catering for weddings and funerals and I witnessed much of the food preparation and cooking in open areas at the back of our kampong house when I was small. 

Don't you agree with me that this wood shelter has so muh character? 

Working out the formula to great sausages delayed the mincing process a bit because some peopl were calculating in pounds and others in kilograms! It was all good fun watching them work together!

The sausage-making brings family members and neighbours together. Apparently, a family contributed the pig while another the cow.

Part of the carcass, after the good portions are removed for the sausages, and the livers go into these boling pots to make liver sausages- minimal wastage to the sacrifices. Another thing I learnt today- the existence of liver sausages.

         

We had a mincer like the one they were using here too and for a moment, I craved for our traditional yam pudding because my relatives would send steamed yam through such a mincer to render it a smooth texture. The characters at the scene also reminds me of my folks at home! Especially this jolly big man who teased us by passing us the pig's snout (which had been chopped off and not included in the boiling pot so as not to taint the mix with strong odour) and telling us that the other pot was boiling a dog when I asked what was inside there, and a lean lady who looks like she can do a lot of hard chores despite her small built. They reminds me of my uncles and aunties.

Another thing I learnt today- pig's snout is soft to touch. I recalled the other day when the lecturer was talking about pigs, that snouts are like fingers to pigs. We made a few jokes about the pig's snout, which I guess many people will do, given that pigs are one of the most misunderstood creatures in our concious. But I felt a bit bad afterwards and I decided that I will try not to make fun of animals who have to die to give us food. That's not something I learnt exactly today, but part of a development that is occuring in my concious, I guess, after I got to get in touch with animals more in my course.   
 
When we came back later in the afternoon, they were stuffing the minces into the intestinal casings. The minces were mixed with garlic and herbs and according to jolly uncle, marijuana as well. Ha ha ha... I laughed not because the joke was funny but because he is such a jolly good fellow. 

Self-propel scooters- a popular play equipment in the park. I tried it once, and no, I didn't break it.   

After walking for 12km for the first day, I thought we would be hiking along shorter routes on our second day. I heard Weiling mentioned about 3-km and 5-km trails, then I asked casually,  "what's the total distance?" And then she realised we will be walking about the same distance if not more! We had a good laugh at this realisation but we decided to still proceed with the 3 trails we selected earlier, namely Rainforest Circuit (1.2km return), Tullawallal Circuit (5km return) and Gwongoorool Track (6km return). 

The Rainforest Circuit  was meant to be a short walk in the morning before we checked out at 10am, and then went back to do the Tullawallal Circuit. In retrospect, we could have checked out earlier and just do the Tullawallal Circuit. This is because to get to the start of this circuit, you have to first walk 400m along Rainforest circuit. When you return, you can then choose to walk on the rest of the Rainforest Circuit to get back to the starting point.

If I should bring my parents there one day, I will bring them along the Tullawallal Circuit. It is an easy walk with not many ups and downs. We met a group of people in their 50s or 60s doing the walk too. 

The Tullawallal Circuit is worth visiting for an experience of a cool temperate rainforest (the most accessible one in the park) and you will also see a pocket of Antartic Beech (Nothofagus moorei) on the summit. According to the QPWS brochure, this pocket is the northernmost location of this species in Australia.  

Nothofagus is an ancient genus because fossil pollens were found in sediments as old as the Late Creatceous (about 75-80 million years ago) (Macquaire University's site). It was thought that the genus was widespread in Australia when the continent was wetter and cooler- about 50 million years ago! At that time, Australia was still part of the Great Southern Land more commonly known as Gondwana. 

There are about 40 species (Mount Toma BG's site) of Nothofagus which only occurs in the Southern Hemisphere. Their distribution: in New Zealand, New Guinea, New Caledonia and Chile, adds to the other evidence that these continents or islands were all part of a supercontinent.  

Woah, isn't that cool? In fact, it is literally cool at the so called summit (because it doesn't look like one) which is a rocky area surrounded by Antartic Beech. I had to fish out my windbreaker seconds after reaching the area.  

According to an interpretive sign (which I think is due for replacement), the trees encircling the rocky site are actually from a single seed. This is possible because the species is known to grow asexually through coppicing. The amazing thing is that the seed began its life 2000 years ago!!!  


These photos do not do justice to the beautiful Antartic Beech. You have to be with them to appreciate their beauty. Meditate here and you might be offered a trip down their memory lane to the ancient past! 

I felt so good to be in the tropical forest again, eventhough it was cooler than usual. The forests of Lamington National Park do remind me of our forests in Singapore and the neighbouring countries.

Look at these pictures; don't you agree they can easily be passed off as BTNR or CCNR? Other than the familiar layered struture of a rainforest, there are also the familiar lianas and epiphytes like Bird's nest fern and Stag horn ferns. Where there are gaps, there are also plants like gingers.  

             

 
But before long, I knew I was not at the equator after all, especially when I saw the Hoop Pine among other more tropical-like trees. "What's a X'mas tree doing in a tropical rainforest?" Well, it's a sub-tropical forest afterall.




Anyway, I was only "homesick" for a short while because Lamington National Park, which may have comparatively less species per ha than the rainforests of our region, has quite an interesting variety of forest ecosystems. These include the "typical" warm subtropical rainforest, the dry rainforest (which is regarded as an example of the rise of the "dry adapted" flora now widespread in Australia, according to the QPWS brochure), the cool temperate forest with a pocket of Antartic Beech that are one of our remaining links with the ancient forests of Gondwana and sclerophyll forests. That's a lot to offer for an area of about 200 square kilometres. 

I almost forget it was part of a World Heritage site. The city people here is very lucky, for this site is relatively accessible and is surprisingly very near to Gold Coast. At cetain sites, you can see the looming skyscrapers near the coast at the horizon.  

We started our hike after a lunch of breads and cakes. At first, we wanted to do the 2km Bellbird Lookout, but perhaps we had thought it was too short, or maybe because the entrance we were at is also the one for the 12km Lower Bellbird Circuit; somehow, we decided to do the latter instead. If we can do the 10-km TreeTop Walk back home, this one shouldn't be a problem, so we thought. 

The route really seemed to stretch on and on but there isn't a lot of drastic ups and downs except a slightly uphill climb towards the end. Thus we felt the tireness in our calf muscles more than in the thighs during and after the walk. Towards the end, my lower back felt slightly strained too and that's when I become aware, yet again, that strong back muscles are essential for hiking too, especially when I was carrying a not too light backpack.     

3.5 to 4 hours into the hike, I had to agree with this sign- this is one of the GREAT WALKS indeed!

                                                                     


But the tiredness is still manageable, and we were rewarded with views of different kinds of plants and birds as we tracked along. It was really cool to be able to recognise that we had entered another area with a different type of plant communities. The hike reminds me of the one we had at Mt. Kinabalu, where you can see a change in plant communities as you reached a certain altitude, except that in Lamington, it's probably the soil factor that causes the change rather than the difference in altitude.   

Here's a "Palm Valley": An area dominated by elegant stands of Bangalow/ Piccabeen Palm (Archontophoneix cunninghamiana): 

                           


A group of refreshing Cordyline petiolaris:  

                                      
                                       


A wilful arrangement of grass and matching trunks:

                                      


Delightful little plants grace this part of the way: 

                                    


A natural scuplture clothed in bryophytes:

                                    


A recently fallen giant (note the way it hasbeen left to balance on the trail): 

                                   


HUGE TREE! Do you see a face jutting from the trunk??!!!




At the Yagahla Lookout, an ideal spot for a picnic.




Wonderful rock-dwelling orchids!

                                       


The Lower Bellbird Circuit (this link gives a good descrption of the route but the distance should be 12km, and if you are like me who stop to look at plants and birds, you probably need at least 5 hours) ends at the road, which was not very ideal, but we got little surprises along the way. 


A top-down view from the road of the area we had just walked, which used to be a dairy farm area. Lots of weedy plant species but the open area attracts a variety of birds as well.
 
                                       


Other than the sighting my first macropod (a pandemelon) since I came to Australia, we saw this fat lizard with a snake-like head lying on the tarmac. I have to overcome my initial fear to get closer to it as it really look like a short snake with legs!

                                      

 
This was how close we could get near to it, which prompted us to think that it was injured. But as Robin nudged at it with a stick to get out of the road for its own good, it started to move towards the bush and also showed us its tongue- which was not blue as we thought but pink. So, it's not one of the blue-tongued lizards afterall.  

(Anyone can tell me what species is this lizard?)


 

Conclusion: I don't mind doing this route again, but will have a fuller lunch and bring along better stuff for the picnic point.  

These two days, the temperatures of the early mornings were freakingly cold- below 10 degree celsius. Just 2 days ago, the temperatures were still regarded by us as "normal". So is it really true that after a week or so of rain, the weather will "change"? Anyway, just hope that any changes will be gradual.   

The coldness here is considered mild in comparison with many other areas of this vast island, but I am still a bit worried about how cold is cold. Don't forget, I am a flower of equatorial origin ;-)

I also wonder how will our A$11 Pandan take the cold. We brought it from the Chinese medical hall in early Feb and Jackie told us he had been looking for it without any luck for the past one year. The plant is growing very slowly, and we probably need to repot it. The initial idea is to plant it straight on the ground, but that means we will not be able to move it indoor should the weather be too cold for it.
 
Amy, our Thai "cooking teacher" bought for us 2 pots of Sweet Basil.

Almost every moring, I will bring these 3 pots out to bask in the morning sun and if I am at home, I will shift them into the shade in the afternoon.
 
I think it will be a long wait before we can harvest some pandan to boil some "Cheng Tng".