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Sorry this is out of order. Internet access is suprisingly hard to come by in Melbourne.

Thursday (Jan 18) we set out for Kuranda, a small tourist trap of a town atop a rainforest just outside Cairnes. The most interesting thing about Kuanda is the way you get to the town. While there is a winding road that will get you there, we chose to take the more scenic and adventurous route.

Skyrail is a 45 minute ride above the canopy of the rainforest. It was completed in the mid-90’s and was built using hand tools and helicopters to minimize the impact to the environment. Along the way there were several opportunities for us to disembark our cable cars and walk the raised deck platforms to see the rainforest from the ground level. The most impressive sight of the day was Barron Falls.

Following our Skyrail venture and Barron Falls we arrived in Kuranda. There is vender after vender selling Aboriginal art, boomerangs, t-shirts, ice cream, and opals. After some shopping and a quick lunch at one of the many cafes we met up for our departure down the gorge.

The train ride from Kuranda back to Cairns is spectacular. The cars that visitors ride in are 80-100+ years old. This cranky old technology screeches and moans as it descends down the steep tracks at about 20 mph. Along the way we heard stories about how the rail line was constructed using hand tools, dynamite, and some horse drawn implements. We also had some outstanding picture taking opportunities.

Wednesday (Jan 19) was a travel day. All students, busses, and flights were on time and we arrived safely in Melbourne about 5pm local time. Students used the evening to explore the city a bit and grab some dinner.

Eric and I had the opportunity to meet up with a friend who used to work with us at Elon and now lives a wonderfully nomadic life wondering Australia and New Zealand. She just happened to be in Melbourne this week and we had a wonderful dinner in Little Italy.

When you step off the plane in Carins (pronounced “Cannes”) you know you are in the tropics. This place is very green and very humid. We gathered our bags quickly and headed to our coach. Our coach driver provided us with some insight about the local area. The basic message was “there are crocs everywhere”. We all took note of this as we headed to the hotel.

Our group spent yesterday afternoon at Reef Teach. This company exists to do land based education about the reef. We learned a great deal about the plant and animal life we would see today on our snorkeling excursion. To say there was a lot to learn is an understatement.

Following Reef Teach we decided to have a group dinner at a place called Outback Jacks. This location was chosen because of its proximity to a very large population of fruit bats. For those unfamiliar, these are bats about the size of a small Cessna. Around 6:30 every evening they decide to leave their resting places in the trees and fly in circles. This daily activity is like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Our bats did not disappoint.

We set out this morning at 7am for a day long adventure that would take us to two different snorkeling locations. It was two hours to our first destination. This gave everyone adequate sunscreen application time. Sunscreen isn’t a suggestion here; it is a way of life. I’d guess between the 31 of us that comprise our travel group, we probably used about two gallons of sunscreen today. Step two was to collect a “stinger suit”. Stinger suits are necessary due to the number and potency of the jelly fish that inhabit the reef this time of year. The suits aren’t the most flattering fashion statements but for the most part everyone was happy to protect themselves from potential stings as well as the intense sun.

Upon arrival on the reef everyone quickly disembarked. Some were trying to find Nemo, others were looking for sharks. Perhaps the biggest quest today was for a glimpse of some friendly sea turtles. We had plenty of Nemo sightings and even a few shark sightings at site one.

After an hour or so in the water everyone started to become quite hungry. So back aboard we climbed just in time for a very good meal served up by our fun and capable crew.

Then it was on to sight two. Following yet more sunscreen application time and rehydration we arrived at a small island that provided yet more opportunities for fun fish finds. The biggest “get” of the day was a very large sea turtle spotted at the end of our time at sight two.

I am happy to report that despite intense sun no one in our group got more than a mild burn and no one was stung by a jelly fish.

This evening everyone is off exploring Cairns and/or completing assignments for our course. Tomorrow is a day to explore Fitzroy Island just off the coast. We will spend the day snorkeling, sea kayaking, and hiking.

After five days in the mountains, we have finally left O’Reilly’s. It was a tough process because we needed to cross through Brisbane, which is under turmoil right now due to the floods, but we are all safe and well.

Close to a week of grey skies and rain let Mother Nature give us an 80 degree sunny day when we traveled to the University of the Sunshine Coast. A superb up and coming university, this school had one of the most relaxing atmospheres I have seen for a foreign school.

We had our first assessment when we got to the hotel and most people thought it went well (for the most part). We were all able to have an excellent night out for our last few hours in the Sunshine Coast and the group keeps getting closer.

Rising early has now become normal for every single student as we rapidly were prepared to get to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef.

Its extremely hot in here right now (Yes, just like the hit rap song by recording artist Nelly).

We’re about to have a big class dinner right now and we are too anxious to see the Great Barrier Reef after our intro course today.

Til Later,
Cheers,
Raj (member of student led “Public Relations” leadership team)

(Oh, and also we saw Kangaroos………Epic Win).

The drive up to O’Reilly’s begins at the airport and winds through suburban highways traveling at a comfortable 100km an hour. You pass car dealerships, giant furniture stores, and even the occasional water park. And then you enter what we back home would call “the country”. This is where the lanes narrow from four to three, three to two, and before you know it all of the buildings fall away and you see a peaceful blur of green. This peaceful stretch lasts for a solid hour before you begin the accent to O’Reilly’s and Lamington National Park.

It is at this point in our entry that it is appropriate that we acknowledge our coach driver Mick. You see, the oneish lane “road” up to O’Reilly’s is narrow and the drops off the road are steep. There is often vegetation trying to reclaim what is rightfully its own. There are switchbacks; lots of switchbacks. Add in the rain and 29 noisy college students and you understand why Mick will always have a friend in me. It is also worth noting that unofficially about one in six men in Australia seem to be named Mick, something that didn’t get passed the writers of Crocodile Dundee.  You will find that Australian coach drivers are willing to share a wealth of valuable information. They know where everything (and I mean everything) is, they can name every kangaroo species, and they can explain crickett (as well as it can be explained). If you find yourself in Australia and need to know something, anything, find a coach driver. Mick drives a bus the way a top surgeon weilds a scalple. And he does so with the same general attitude of most Aussie’s. If Mick built a rocket that took a man to Mars he’d probably say “aw yeah. Nothing much to it really. Just found some ole liquid nitro laying around…”. You get the idea.

So up we went in search of a place originally land granted to the O’Reilly family in 1911. The drive from bottom to top takes about an hour in a coach. We cover about 20 miles during this time.

Finally we arrive at the top.  O’Reilly’s is like a lot of Australia; hard to describe. It’s both comfortable and rugged at the same time. The O’Reilly’s have been welcoming guests to this property since 1914. The trip from Brisbane used to take two days with good weather. You may wonder why anyone would want to take two days to come to a rainforest. Well the answer in my mind the answer is two-fold. The first reason is the obvious, to see the forest. The second reason is the hospitality. It was true then and it is certainly true today, this family run business knows how to treat its guests. Michael “Mick” O’Reilly still serves up the toast at breakfast, shares family stories on daily tours, and remembers each guests name (with the help of a trusty notepad he keeps in his shirt pocket) at 75 years young.

After settling into our rooms and filling up on delicious food we began to plan our activities. Some students headed out into the dark forest in search of the glow warms. Others managed to find the pool, hot tub, and sauna (I promise we are working them hard while they are here!) as the glow worm tour is limited to 20ish participants per evening to limit traffic on the trails and make for a more intimate experience.

The following morning began for many students with a 6:45am bird walk. Others chose to start the day after a hearty breakfast. Hikes and 4wd forest tours followed. Lunch was delicious and then it was off to the highlight of the day for many “The Flying Fox”. This activity involves strapping yourself into a ridiculous harness, launching yourself down a slippery wooden runway, and then dangling from said harness about 25 meters above the forest floor as you travel 180 meters down a cable at about 40 kph until you either drag your feet through the mud enough to slow yourself and disconnect OR smash into a large steel pole. First up was our fearless Andrew. Our trusty guide Matt gets him hooked up and then a large clap of thunder rumbles above us. Our guide informs us “this has never happened before” and after making a joke about “The Frying Fox” suggests we should wait a few minutes before we send Andrew down this lightening rod. Andrew and I agreed this was a good idea. After a reasonable amount of time Andrew was off and then the next and then the next. A good time was had by all and many fears were faced and conquered. Dinner and more glow worms followed.

It is important to mention that all of our activities from beginning of our time here to end involved rain. At times this was a light sprinkle and at times it was a driving, unforgiving downpour. Staying dry was not an option and mud has become a way of life. Our students have embraced this fully and with almost no complaints.

Dr. Hall will be writing soon about our eventful final two days at O’Reilly’s very soon and our students have written a very fun post as well. I do want to leave you with this thought. The people of Brisbane and much of the east coast of Australia have been devastated by flooding over the last several weeks. It is important to us that we thoughtfully acknowledge this as a group and contribute where we can.  More on this later.

(Pictures will be inserted when we get somewhere that doesn’t have a prehistoric internet connection).

Leaving Sydney, we went from bus to plane to bus again in the span of four hours and arrived at O’Reilly’s, two hours outside of Brisbane. Our bus wound up the mountain on a path that left everyone happy to reach the top. O‘Reilly’s is the best of both worlds in that it is an extremely nice resort that happens to exist on top of a mountain in the middle of a dense rainforest. It’s nice to cap off a day navigating your way through the jungle by soaking in the hot tub or swimming in the infinity pool. The accommodations, staff, and especially the food are all excellent.

Even though we arrived under rainy and gray skies, several of us set off on a wet night hike through the rainforest to view glowworms along the riverbank. The next day, our class split into several groups to explore all that O’Reilly’s has to offer. Students fed birds (King parrots and Red parrots, to name a few), took a four-wheel drive bus tour that included a bonfire and tea, or hiked through the rainforest on trails to Python Rock, Morans Falls Lookout, and the Wishing Tree. Later in the afternoon, all 29 of us flew through the treetops on the Flying Fox zip-line. All of this took place in the rain, but spirits were still high.

Yesterday we met with Douglas, an Aboriginal guide, who spoke about his experiences and Aboriginal heritage. He and three of his family members performed traditional Aboriginal dances and invited students to participate and learn the moves. He showed us bush food, Aboriginal weapons and medicine, and demonstrated various traditional activities such as basket weaving and fire making. The rare medicine he invited us to try wasn’t very pleasing to the palette, but everyone can now say they have had aboriginal medicine. After returning to O’Reilly’s with Douglas, he played the didgeridoo for us and we said an emotional goodbye to our new friend.

The excitement of being here has been beyond overwhelming, so we decided to stay here for two extra days (this decision had nothing to do with major flooding at lower elevations).

Overall, O’Reilly’s has been a refreshing experience. We’re away from cities, have limited communication with the outside world (the internet runs like dial-up), and no TV in the rooms. We’ve had time to bond as a group through all the activities and quiet time. O’Reilly’s truly embraces its ecotourism mission, and its easy to get into that mindset when you’re smack in the middle of a rainforest up on a mountain.

The key part of this course is the bonds that have been occurring between all of the members of the class. Being isolated from the rest of society has helped all of us become close friends as the days go along. We are all primarily concerned with learning the culture and eco nature of the land we are on, but we know we must work as a team to do this. As the days are going on, we are all learning to grow from our surroundings and most of all, holding each other accountable for everything.

It is not even halfway through the journey yet and each one of us cannot believe we have to go back to school; we really want to spend more time than a month here.

The University of The Sunshine Coast is next on our agenda then a flight over to Cairns.

Until Then,
Cheers
-Oliver, Carolyn, Nick & Raj.

P.S. – We hope you’re enjoying all of your snow, because we’re very happy with our Sun!

Just a quick note to let everyone know we are doing well. You may be aware that major flooding is expected in Brisbane over the next 24-48 hours. We’ve made the discision to stay at O’Reilly’s for at least another day or two. The course will continue as planned with the exception of our visit to Brisbane.

Students are enjoying their time here very much. Despite very wet conditions we’ve been hiking, riding the Flying Fox (zipline), and exploring the rainforest.

We will keep you posted.

Our day began with a 6am departure from Sydney. We headed into the Blue Mountains, a trip that took about two hours. We were met by our friendly and capable canyoning guides from High N Wild. After a quick briefing on the day’s activities and wetsuit fitting it was back on the coach for a 40 minute ride to our starting destination. After the obligatory paperwork and lunch planning our three groups of ten headed down some fire roads which serve as trailheads for various activities; thus began our decent into the canyon. The trail was wide and the weather was mild. The sun began to peak out. “Piece of cake” we were all thinking.

And then we stopped in front of a sign that warned us of impending doom. Our guide referenced the sign and with a quick “alright then, off we go” we started down a narrow trail that seemed to get steeper with each step. Occasionally we would arrive at a clearing that was actually the top of a sheer cliff. We were reminded to stay at least two body lengths from the edge. “Not a problem” most of us thought. Our decent continued losing twelve inches of elevation with each step (which was more of a controlled fall at some points; teamwork is a good thing). Finally after hearing moving water for several minutes we arrived at a series of boulders that would be our “jumping off point” (literally) for our stroll through the canyon. We slipped into our wetsuits, harnesses, and helmets. Everyone took the 20ft plunge into the “refreshing” (re: cold) water. And off we went.

It is hard to describe this part of the experience. I imagine it’s very much what an ant experiences on a daily basis. We were surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs that often stretched hundreds of feet into the sky. We scurried over boulders the size of Mack trucks. We floated on our backs in slow moving pools for hundreds of yards. We marveled at how the lush green vegetation growing on the canyon walls contrasted with the clear blue sky and the occasional drifting cloud. We picnicked with water dragons that made it very clear who this real estate belonged to. The journeys into the side canyons were amazing. These were very narrow and dark sections of canyon with water temperatures much colder than the main canyon due to the lack of sunlight. Pictures can’t do this experience justice.

After several kilometers of canyoning it was time to make our assent out. As our guides told us “what goes down, must come up”. While the end of the canyon seemed to come rather quickly, it was a welcomed opportunity to thaw out for many (did I mention this water was “refreshing”?).

One of the side canyons

We removed our wetsuits and packed everything away in our trusty yellow backpacks and contemplated our assent out of the canyon. I say contemplated because it wasn’t always obvious there was a trail out of this place. It is safe to say that we are all now amateur rock climbers after the first 400 yards of this assent. Finally, things began to level out a bit. The trail became a bit more obvious and we all settled into a nice steady pace as we hiked out.

And then “they” found us. “They” were leaches. Our peaceful cool-down of a hike out was interrupted by hundreds of blood sucking leaches. While these things are harmless, it can be a bit unnerving to have them find their way into your shoes. Some students took time to stop and remove their leaches as they were accumulated only to find this simply provided a great opportunity for more leach friends to join the party. Others took this as an opportunity to quicken their pace out of the forest. Needless to say the sight of our coach was welcomed by many.

I think it is safe to say our students had a physically challenging and memorable learning experience yesterday. Aside from the outdoor experience we had an occasional math lesson that involved converting Fahrenheit into Celsius, meters into yards, kilometers into miles, etc. We also had the opportunity to learn yet more Australian culture from our guides. Gummy worms are lollis (as in lollipops). Our guides like to add “O” and “ie or y” to the end of words. Dave the guide was Daveo and sunglasses became sunnies. Other than some sore muscles (maybe that’s just Eric and me), a few bumps and bruises, and some chilly students everyone returned to Sydney safely.

Today is a free day for students to explore Sydney. Tomorrow is a travel day. We are keeping an eye on the rains and flooding up north. As of now we don’t expect any difficulties. We will have limited or no internet connectivity while we are at O’Reilly’s (http://www.oreillys.com.au/) for several days so the next blog post may be a bit delayed.

(if you click the smaller pictures you should get a larger view; some of them simply didn’t want to load in the larger size)

Greetings From Sydney, Australia! It may have been a non-stop 15 hour flight, but the 29 Elon University students finally arrived on 7:42AM on January 6th (which involved completely missing out on January 25th ). The students were exhausted by being 14-hours ahead of their regular time but it did not stop them from exploring the Land Down Under. The Harbor Bridge, the opera house and downtown culture was what the students mostly tried to embrace on their free day. With cameras around their necks and the sun at a beautiful 90 degrees farenheit, it was the ideal day to take in. Staying in the area of Potts Point, students were able to socialize, explore and relax themselves for the incredible experience in which they were about to experience in the morning.

January 7th may be a Friday, but people were up earlier than the usual 8am Departure time (mostly due to the jet-lag) for the start of the course with an exhilirating trip to Kur-N-Gai National Park. The tour guide for the day, Leslie, took the students through an incredible tour of Aboriginal culture through stone floor stone carvings. Even with rain showers and excessive heat, we were enganged by all of the carvings and what they represented. Leslie began and ended the tour with making sure we all paid respects to his ancestors and everyone that goes back to the start of Australia’s history.

The most entertaining part of the day for us was byfar playing games of the aboriginal culture. One game involved throwing tennis balls at a centerpiece and the other involved using boomarangs and arrows. I felt that the class truly bonded today and all of us realized at Manly Beach during the conclusion of the day that this is “just the beginning”.

Stay Tuned for our next update from Canyoning in the Blue Mountains.

G’Day Mates.

-Raj Rawal – Class of 2012

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we all have arrived in Sydney. After a quick course update this morning everyone is out and about taking in all that is Sydney. We are all looking forward to showers and real beds tonight! More (and pictures) to follow soon.