Straddie

This past weekend we took a trip to North Stradbroke Island (the locals call it Staddie because Aussies shorten everything!!) to learn about sand island ecology. The island is only two hours out of the city, we took a vehicle ferry to get there. Straddie is a sand island, meaning that it was formed by sand dunes building up over many years. We learned that the sand body extends 50 meters below sea level. On sand islands when it rains a film of fresh water laying over the sea level which actually creates fresh water lakes on the island. Basically if you dig in the sand enough in the middle of the island you will always reach fresh water that is super clean.

On our first day on Straddie we went to walk through a Mangrove forest. Mangroves live on the beach in the muddy sand where the tide comes in every day. They have roots that grow down from the trunk and into the ground. The craziest thing about the Mangroves was that every time you take a step your foot sinks about a foot into the mud, it was quite difficult to walk through. Once we got through the forest it opened up into a beach of quick sand. We got sooo stuck, but the funny thing was that we got stuck on purpose… Nat told us to stomp our feet into the ground so that when you lean back your legs are so cemented in the sand that you don’t fall over, did that make any sense? Well it was a lot of fun but we had quite a hard time getting ourselves out of the quick sand. I got my feet out ok but for about 20 minuets my shoes were stuck three feet underground.

The beaches on the island are truly amazing and the water is like bath water. The sand is actually white and because its so fine, when you walk on it, the sand squeaks. We spent our second day there exploring the island with our local teacher Shane as our guide. We went on a hike of the cliffs along the beach that was breathtaking. I always think that this trip couldn’t get any cooler and then we see something that just blows me away more than the last thing. I thought that our beach hike was cool but later that night it got even cooler. A few of us decided to take a walk on the beach after dark. We walked for a while and chased some crabs, which was heaps of fun, but after a guy from the hostel showed us that when you stomp in the sand at night there are bioluminescent organisms (I think???) that light up. We then proceeded to spend a good 30 minuets stomping around in the sand, watching it light up around our feet on every stomp. Pretty cool, right???

In a few weeks we will be going to Heron Island, which is an even more tropical than Staddie and is further north where we will be snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. I am sure I will be blown away by what I see there as well, but for now we have some time in Brisbane with our homestays and lots of homework!

Speaking of homework… Today we had a free day and decided to go on an adventure in Brisbane because we felt that we don’t really know the city at all. We basically got ourselves lost in the city. Brisbane is located on a river and the river is used for transportation. They have catamarans called City Cats that are used like busses for public transport but on the river. Today we decided to get on one and see where it takes us, it was quite fun. Another strange thing about Brisbane is that if you want to get on a bus at a bus stop, the only way that it will stop for you is if you hail it… you know like hailing a cab. I always feel strange waving my hand about and hoping that the bus will stop. We also have noticed that there is very little evidence of the flooding. They must have cleaned the city up incredibly fast because you can’t tell at all that it was under water a couple months ago.