A new volunteer

Friday morning, I woke up with a new roomie. She arrived late Thursday, I didn’t notice since I got to bed early to be ready for work.

So, I got up and got ready as usually and then just before I went down stairs to get picked up by Kimberly she asked me if we were going to get picked up now? I thought to myself “WE” oh, you are a new volunteer at the sanctuary? And she is, her name is Nile and she is from Germany so now we are back to two German volunteers, but luckily, she speaks okay English.

It was a good day at the sanctuary and Nile got started with the work.

In the evening i made dinner with Jarla and Nile.

Saturday, I learned that a Car is Called a UTE (Ju:t/Yoot) short for “utility vehicle”. I went in the UTE!!!! With Tabs (Tabatha) and a local volunteer, Cathrine to do the afternoon feeding, there were only two seats so I sat on the back, it was so funny… and a bit scary, since the paths were really bad to drive by car.

Saturday evening Kenzo wrote to me, him, Carolina and some other were down at The Courtyard having a beer if I would like to join?

Sure, why not, I brought Nile, so she could meet some people and see the city aswell, it was really nice and cozy (Hyggeligt). Martin was there too and a new girl from America, Alisson and she was about to start as a night guard at the hostel, just like Kenzo.

Found a Frog

The UTE

Spaghetti with Meatballs for Dinner

Sailing with locals

Wednesday i was a bit tired in my head from the diving.

I went out to the local diving center to check up on any dive tours to “SS Yongola wreck” unfortunately they don’t have any tours at the moment and the guy in the shop said he had no idea when they will be back up and running again, because the conditions at Yongola are so bad at the moment.

On my way back, I went out for lunch and did some smaller shopping at a really cool street shop, with a really cool surfer dude.

When I got back to the hostel I spoke to Kathie and she unfortunately had some bad news to tell me, that the waterfall trip I was planning on going for on Saturday was canceled and won’t be going before the 27 of march and I will be home by then, that is so sad...

I had to leave the hostel at 04:45pm to get to the local yacht club, I checked in for sailing at 05pm. I met two Norwegian girls from the university, it was their first time for the local sailing aswell, but they were going on a different boat. I was going on Zoe (name of the ship) with a crane guy as captain. We got ready to set sail at 05:30pm and headed out at 05:45pm. We started as the last ship and got back first. We were back in the harbor at 06:50pm and started packing down the sails again.

We were all done at 19:30, a good day ey…

First time seeing Great barrier reef

Tuesday, I got up at 05:30am, had breakfast and headed down to the harbor. I was at the harbor at 07am, where I met up with an American couple that was going on the dive trip aswell, but just for snorkeling. We tried fins on and got a suit, we sailed at 07:30am at 08am we picked up some more people from magnetic island. Now we just had a two hour sail out to the reef. I was seasick from 08:30 to 10 and I threw up three times within 30 minutes. But it was all worth it, when I got out to the reef and into the reef there was no problem. I saw a small blue spotted ray and the Cots were everywhere eating the corals our guide had a stick to poke them off the corals and down to the seabed. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures because of technical issues, but it was a good experience.

I didn’t get seasick on the way home, so it might have been something that I have eaten. I got back to the hostel at 05pm. I was so tired, I just fell into my bed and relaxed for the rest of that day. I had a new roommate who was singing in the shower, ahahah… my roomies went out to party, but it was ok because it was my weekend, so no worries.

The Harbor in the morning

On our way to the Great Barrier Reef

A day in the city

Sunday, we had a lot of rain. We did the most necessary cleaning and feeding, we were all soaked from top to bottom by 9am.

Monday, we got a text from Kate at 7:30am she wrote “if Dave haven’t already picked you guys up you have a day off, since Kimberly is ill(sick) today.”

So, I figured what I have planned to do Wednesday I could do Monday instead. I changed clothes and went for a walk to the other side of the bay to see the “Maritime war museum”. When I got there, it was supposed to be 5$ entry but the lady said that due to technical issues I could have free entry, Jubiii. There was stories and models of everything from the flight war between Australia and japan to the history of “SS Yongola” a ship wreck I hope to dive soon. It was pretty cool and just next to the sea with a view over the bay.

On my way back, I got acai bowl for lunch and went out for some local shopping, I dropped off the couple of things I bought at the hostel and went to see the Reef hq aquarium. I saw a giant grouper (a fish species), reef sharks, nurse sharks and much more. They had a whole arear telling about how the Great barrier reef is dying, with the climate change and so on... One specific species in particular is really bad, “The Crown of thorns starfish (also known as cots)” which diet consists of corals. So far it has eaten 40% of the reef, and because of the increased nitrogen level in and around the reef there is an increased amount of plankton which means an increased number of cots that survive till adult stage. That is really bad, right now they don’t know how to react, other than collecting them and spray vinegar directly into the starfish to kill it. But they only do this in certain arears, they can’t do it in the whole reef.

Once I left the aquarium, I did some necessary grocery shopping and chilled the rest of the day at the hostel to be ready for diving Tuesday. I hung out with Kenzo and Carolina, they got an idear, if I could get a day off Monday we could go for a day trip. I was ready, just had to ask for a day off, but I had to do the waterfall trip on Saturday, but I will ask anyways to see.

Ship Bell from SS Yongola

Picture of SS Yongola Ship Wreck on the Seabed

A Model of SS Yongola

The View From The Museum

A Giant Spider in the middle of the street

A Dusky Grouper and a Nurse Shark

Crocodile Babies

We had really nice weather with a lot of people in the park.

We did our morning feeding and cleaning, while during food preparation Kimberly came running into the kitchen that the Crocodile eggs were hatching. We all went into the reptile room to see them hatch. The rangers helped them get a larger hole in the shell and they just popped out of the eggs like small rockets. The rangers put them straight into a container of water. It was amazing, first crocodile hatching all well done :).

After lunch i got to help with the reptile show, there were a lot of people at the reptile show.

When i got there Jess and Pio were already in the middle of the show. Jess were handling and telling about the Large Burmese python while Pio showed me how to hold and present the Blue thong lizard. So i got a hold of the lizard handling and now i just had to give it to Jess so she could tell about it. After the show we had a touch and hold session where the visitors can try to hold three different reptiles, a large python, a small crocodile and a blue thong skink which i was presenting :) but the crocodile was still in the cart and Jess were holding the skink so i had to hold the python so that Pio could take out the crocodile and swap with Jess. I got the lizard afterwards, it was such a rewarding thing to present the animals to the kids and some of them tried to hold them. What a great day in zoo :)

When i got home i had new roomies again a english couple and an english girl, the english couple went to bed early because they had to leave in the middle of the night to go to the casino and watch WM in Cricket (England - Wales) So i got waked up at around 2am and again at 4 or 5 am when they got home :/ long night.

I have booked a tour to go diving in the Great Barrier Reef on Tuesday and i have found out that the local Yacht club have a 10$(50kr) join for an evening sail every Wednesday so i will join them this Wednesday. Today (Monday) Kimberly has unfortunately got sick so we can't be picked up and we will have an extra day off, so i might go to the museum or aquarium today, but i ill see what i do.

Crocodile Eggs

Rangers helping Babies out of the shell

What a Cuteeeee <3

The crowd at reptile show