Supa Shakes

Last weekend...err, let me correct that - last Monday through Friday I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a required field trip down south. The trip was for Natural Resource Management, a small class of 12 students and one lecturer. Monday morning at 7:30am (an hour before class normally starts) we all squeezed into a van and got on the road. Our first stop was to look at the Wellington Reservoir and Dam and talk with people from the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC). As we would all soon find out, DEC would be a common theme on this trip. I'll spare you all the academic stuff we learned, unless you are curious, as I have to write a field trip report for it by next week and would rather tell you about all the neat stuff we did (that of course had some academics built it). What I will tell you about this being a field trip for natural resource management was that it was neat to actually get out in the field and apply what we have learned about in the classroom to real life scenarios.
The first night we spend the night at the Perup Nature guest house, in the middle of the woods, and it's run on solar power mostly. It was really neat, and I loved being right in nature. We made lots of steak and potatoes for dinner, sat by the campfire, and learned about bandicoots - or rather how we're not supposed to call them bandicoots, but rather, oh shoot - I don't remember the proper name (clearly it was late at night and we were still learning). Bandicoot is the Indonesian word, not an aboriginal one like most people think. It's funny to see that I still don't know the animals of the area, as when a picture went up for us to identify, the three Americans on the trip all looked at each other blank faced. Then if was off to bed in our actually chilly rooms - even by Colorado standards I'd say for autumn. I'd put the temp in the low 40s.
We woke up bright and early the next morning to be on the road again...we saw a neat MASSIVE tree nursery and then proceeded to learn from DEC about prescribed burns in the forest. Burns and water - the theme of the class ;) We stopped for lunch in Manjimup and I got introduced to the best thing since sliced bread. K - maybe not, but they were still delish. SUPA SHAKES! It's milk that you shake until you hear no more liquid, and then you gulp it down (slowly in my case). The Aussies sure do love their milk cartons like we have in elementary school for lunch, as they are everywhere. I'll put a link at the end to my photos...
Later in the day we did what I was waiting for - climbing the bicentennial tree! It's this massive tree - 70m high, that all you use is pegs hammered into the tree to climb. No 'stairs,' no railings. And only nets on the side. Yikes! But it was so fun and the view from way up there looking out on the rest of the forest was gorgeous! We ended the night in a backpackers lodge in Walpole with stew on the stove. Mmmm. We got the evening to ourselves - no lecture tonight! We enjoyed pool, TV, and a girls night in our dorm room.
Wednesday morning was another early one, with a boat ride to start the day off. We meandered our way in the inlet to this little dock and got off and walked around. We were of course, learning, but we also got to see THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. I ran straight for it - ask the people in my class. They thought I was crazy. If I had had a swimsuit, I mean my bathers, I would have dove straight in, but alas I refrained myself and only went up to my knees. I have now been in all the oceans except the Arctic...I will get there one day. But for that moment, only water stood between me and Antarctica. HOW COOL IS THAT! Sooo close...
Our next stop was a farm to visit some Angus cows and pick apples off trees. Mmmm. And also push our van to get it to start...good times had by all.
What I was most excited for on this trip, and what I have been wanting to do since I first came to Western Australia nearly 4 years ago is the tree top walk. This was our next stop - in the Tingle tree forest - and it was stunning. I don't know about you guys, but when I think of Australia I think of red dirt and the outback (I still think of that even though I've been here 4 months and haven't seen that yet). I don't think of green forests like the one the tree top walk is in. On the tree top walk you get to walk at the same level as the crowns of the trees - 40m high - on a narrow bridge. It's much safer than the tree we climbed the previous day...at the end of the walk you can walk on the ground and even go through some trees (you'll have to check out my pictures...) It was totally worth it! After visiting a sandalwood factory it was time to hit the road for our 5 hour drive home. And of course, a Supa Shake was in order at our first gas stop!
Well, those were the highlights of my trip. I got back, thought it was Sunday night, but sadly it was Wednesday, which meant I had 8 hours of work ahead of me the next day.
Wish I had more time to update y'all more, but my assignments and class are calling, as there are only TWO WEEKS of class left before finals. YIKES!

Enjoying my Milo (which is not hot chocolate but still good),
Megan