In case you hadn’t noticed, I am now back in America. Oregon, to be exact.

So let’s see… Tane took me to the Brisbane airport at 8.00 am on 26 December, 2007. My flight departed at 11.45, and after hopping quickly down to Sydney to catch my international flight to LAX, I arrived safely in California at 9.00 am, 26 December, 2007. Huzzah for the International Date Line! And no, Charlie, it’s not a telephone number that you can call to get hooked up with “Hott Asian Girrrrrlz.”

Anyway, I had a long layover in LAX while I waited for my flight to Portland, and after arriving in Portland (where my absolutely amazing dad and superbly wonderful sister Christine were waiting for me), I then drove the three hours home. In the snow. Talk about climate change. Anyway, so all up, it was just about 38 hours from Brisbane to home. I don’t plan to be doing that again any time soon, thank you.

So there. Being back stateside has made me realise just how much I missed my family and friends and has certainly put this whole “living internationally” thing into perspective. More on that later.

But for now, I would just like to let everyone in the States know that I am home and ready to catch up, and I’d like to let all of my new Aussie friends know that I miss you all very much and think about you daily. I’d also like to add that if I were to delete all of my “Friends” on MySpace and Facebook who never emailed me or bothered returning the emails that I sent them whilst in Australia, I would be left with my family and the following individuals: James, Charlie, Janna, Keenan, Lisa, Stephanie, Aileen, Craig, Sabrina, Whitney, Liz, Roger, Justin, and Rachel. In SIX MONTHS. That’s just over two people per month. So, thank you to the fourteen people who remembered me!

Soooo.  You might have watched the videos, and you might have seen the photos, but nevertheless, allow me to enlighten you with the gripping drama of the Moreton Death March.

It all started about a month ago when my mate Tane mentioned that some friends of his were organizing a bushwalking weekend on Moreton Island.  Ever eager to get some experience doing things off the mountain, I asked if I could come along and he said “But of course!”

Now, we both had it in our minds that we would go to the island for a nice, relaxing bushwalk with maybe some snorkeling and a barbie at the end.  What waited for us was nothing short of a nightmare.  Yes.  That’s right.  A nightmare.

To start off with, the people who planned the route decided that 48 kilometres would be the prefect length.  And, they didn’t bother learning how to read topographic maps before selecting the route.  And, they didn’t tell us what the route was so we could investigate on our own time.  And, they didn’t check to make sure that there was potable water at any of the campsites that we would be passing.  And, they didn’t take into account the age and medical condition of all of the members of the walking party.

So Day One of The Moreton Death March…

Got off the ferry on the western side of the island at 1000, started walking immediately.  Proceeded 19 kilometres through ankle-deep, soft sand while carrying a 20Kg pack and wearing Chacos.  Arrived at beach on eastern side by 1700, then proceeded north along beach (hooray compacted sand!) to designated camping site (Eagers Creek), 2 kilometres away.  By now we were out of water, and upon arriving at Eagers Creek found it to be dry.  As a bone.  Having no other option, we continued north along the beach for another 7 kilometres and arrived at the Blue Lagoon campsite by 1930, an hour after dark.  Exhausted, we made camp and quickly ate and fell asleep to the melodious sounds of blistered feet and aching backs.

Day Two, The Moreton Death March:

Woke up at 0500, broke camp, and got walking by 0615. Not a bad way to start the day, watching the sunrise over the ocean, but still aching, dehydrated, and moderately irritated at the planning of the trip. Seven kilometres north to the lighthouse on packed sand, and then 14 kilometres back to the ferry sloshing through deep, loose sand. Oh, and about 300 metres of that was off track through thick heath because of ANOTHER planning error. I tell you, these folks had absolutely no appreciation for maps! Anyway, trudging along through the sand, and a police truck comes up behind us bearing one of our walking party who had fallen behind. At this point, we still had about 8 kilometres to go, and we were all pretty sure that he would have been hospitalised had he continued in the condition he was in. Tane and I wisely removed water from our packs and tossed them into the back of the truck and happily limped on, 20Kg lighter each. Arrived back at the ferry by 1400, having completed 48 kilometres in 28 hours.

So let this be a lesson to you, fair reader. If you want to let somebody else plan YOUR holiday, make sure they’ve got some freakin’ credentials, and make sure that their motivations are similar to yours. Because otherwise, you’ll find yourself in the rain, pushing through dense, thorny bushes while wearing sandals and shorts. So be ye warned.

I have now been here for exactly four months. Two-thirds of the way through. I’ve been trying to keep up on how things have changed since I arrived, but I think that a more honest assessment of my own development as a person might be conducted once I get back to the US where people that knew me before I came over would be able to conduct said assessment. Personally, I feel as if I have a much clearer picture of what I would like to do for the rest of my life.

Of late I have been trying to balance this lifestyle decision that I have made (that is, a job that, on a fairly industry-wide scale, is not very high-paying) with the desire that I have to want to share it with somebody. Too bad Jane Goodall is a little too old and a little too dead for me, hey?

But seriously, living in relative isolation on the top of a mountain has certainly opened my eyes up to the fact that people can survive quite nicely and contentedly without all of the “necessities” that a city offers. In the last four months I have been off the mountain fewer than ten times. I have survived without a mobile phone. I have done just fine with limited internet access. The last time I bought clothes or shoes was right before I left the US. It’s really not that hard, you know? It’s just that it’s very easy to get wrapped up in all that when that’s what everyone around you is into. Of course, the same thing could be said for the rabid voraciousness with which I now consume book after book about the flora and fauna (specifically, birds) of Australia; it’s just another contagious human behaviour.

For example, when I was living in Roseburg, I found my identity in the music that I played and the “lifeguard lifestyle” that I lived. Then I moved to Bend and started finding my identity more in the outdoor activities in which I participated (and, subsequently, in the gear that was necessary for the completion of said activities). Now I’m here in Australia and I’ve realized that I have stopped caring what people associate me with. I love where I live and work and everyday is a brand new adventure that can either be as complicated as hiking somewhere I’ve never been before or as simple as identifying a new bird call. Anyway, that’s what I’ve been thinking lately. Oh, and happy birthday, Mum! Love you!

Hey there!  I’ve finally gotten around to posting some photos under the Pictures! page.  Navigate to them by clicking on the Pictures! link, yo.

Oh, and enjoy…

I’m comfortably established in my internship now and am settling in quite nicely.  In addition to guiding (which is my full-time gig) I also work one day a week as a concierge and pick up some short shifts behind the bar as well.  It makes for a rather interesting experience because guests will check in on the day that I’m working as a concierge and I’ll get to know them in that capacity.  Then, the next day, I’ll be their guide all day long as they do activities, and when night rolls around they head up to the bar and yours truly is serving them their margaritas.  This phenomenon lends itself to some interesting nicknames that have been bestowed upon me.  Nicknames like “Jack-of-all” and “Hop-along Jack” and “Mr. O’Reilly’s.”  I suppose that you’ve got to be notorious for something, right?

In other news, I won the O’Reilly’s Mission Statement Award at the quarterly staff party last week.  I didn’t even know that I was eligible to do so!  Hooray!

I think that I’ve made my mind up about staying in Australia.  I reckon I should go back to the US in January and finish up at Uni.  It’s time for me to be done with school.  So there.

Otherwise, life is fairly normal lately.  I get up in the morning, I walk around the third most biodiverse region in Australia, I tell some jokes, help people find different birds that they’re looking for, and then I write in my hours and go home.

And now, a quasi-comprehensive list of the different animals that I’ve seen whilst in Lamington National Park…

BIRDS:
Australian Brush-turkey
Brown Quail
Australian Wood Duck
Pied Cormorant
White-faced Heron
Little Egret
White-necked Heron
Glossy Ibis
Australian White Ibis
Straw-necked Ibis
Brown Goshawk
Grey Goshawk
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Brown Falcon
Peregrine Falcon
Grey Plover
Masked Lapwing
White-headed Pigeon
Brown Cuckoo-Dove
Crested Pigeon
Wonga Pigeon
Wompoo Fruit-Dove
Topknot Pigeon
Glossy Black-Cockatoo
Galah
Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo
Rainbow Lorikeet
Little Lorikeet
Australian King-Parrot
Crimson Rosella
Eastern Rosella
Pale-Headed Rosella
Fan-Tailed Cuckoo
Powerful Owl
Souhern Boobook
Sooty Owl
Barn Owl
Tawny Frogmouth
Australian Owlet-Nightjar
White-Throated Needletail
Laughing Kookaburra
Albert’s Lyrebird
White-Throated Treecreeper
Superb Fairy-Wren
Red-Backed Fairy-Wren
Spotted Pardalote
Striated Pardalote
Yellow-Throated Scrubwren
White-Browed Scrubwren
Large-Billed Scrubwren
Brown Gerygone
Brown Thornbill
Striated Thornbill
Bell Miner
Noisy Miner
Lewin’s Honeyeater
White-Throated Honeyeater
White-Naped Honeyeater
Eastern Spinebill
Rose Robin
Pale-Yellow Robin
Eastern Yellow Robin
Logrunner
Eastern Whipbird
Varied Sittella
Golden Whistler
Grey Shrike-Thrush
Little Shrike-Thrush
Spectacled Monarch
Rufous Fantail
Grey Fantail
Willie Wagtail
Varied Triller
Dusky Woodswallow
Welcome Swallow
Grey Butcherbird
Pied Butcherbird
Australian Magpie
Pied Currawong
Paradise Riflebird
Torresion Crow
Green Catbird
Regent Bowerbird
Satin Bowerbird
Red-Browed Finch
Mistletoebird
Bassian Thrush
Russet-Tailed Thrush
Common Myna

MAMMALS:
FAMILY ORNITHORHYNCHIDAE
-Short-Beaked Echidna
-Platypus
FAMILY DASYURIDAE
-Brush-Tailed Phascogale
-Brown Antechinus
-Common Planigale
FAMILY PERAMELIDAE
-Northern Brown Bandicoot
-Long-Nosed Bandicoot
FAMILY PHASCOLARCTIDAE
-Koala
FAMILY PETAURIDAE
-Common Ringtail Possum
-Greater Glider
-Sugar Glider
FAMILY PHALANGERIDAE
-Common Brushtail Possum
-Mountain Brushtail Possum
FAMILY BURRAMYIDAE
-Feathertail Glider
FAMILY MACROPODIDAE
-Red-Legged Pademelon
-Red-Necked Pademelon
-Whiptail Wallaby
-Red-Necked Wallaby
-Swamp Wallaby
FAMILY PTEROPODIDAE
-Black Flying Fox
FAMILY MURIDAE
-Water Rat
-Hastings River Mouse
-House Mouse
-Swamp Rat
FAMILY CANIDAE
-Dingo
-Fox (Vulpes vulpes, to be specific)
FAMILY FELIDAE
-Feral Cat (Felis catus)

AMPHIBIANS:
-Cane Toad

REPTILES:
FAMILY GEKKONIDAE
-Leaf-Tailed Gecko
-Asian tree Gecko
FAMILY PYGOPODIDAE
-Burton’s Legless Lizard
-Common Scaly Foot
FAMILY SCINCIDAE
-Rainbow Skink
-Lively Skink
-Eastern Striped Skink
-Major Skink
-Land Mullet
-Blue-Tongued Lizard
FAMILY AGAMIDAE (DRAGONS)
-Jacky Lizard
-Bearded Dragon
-Eastern Water Dragon
FAMILY VARANIDAE (GOANNAS)
-Lace Monitor
FAMILY BOIDAE
-Carpet Python
FAMILY ELAPIDAE
-Yellow-Faced Whip Snake
-Red-Naped Snake
-Stephen’s Banded Snake
-Tiger Snake
-Red-Bellied Black Snake
-Eastern Brown Snake
-Bandy Bandy

There are simply too many insects and arachnids for me to mention, but yes, I have seen the Funnel Web Spiders.  And the centipedes.  And the Trapdoor Spiders.  And the jumping ants.  And all the wonderfully dangerous critters that they keep down at Sea World.

Well, that’s about it for today.  I’ll check back in later on update this list as necessary.  Cheers!

Having not reached its annual average for rainfall for over 12 years, Lamington National Park is looking surprisingly good. Most everything is still green, and the waterfalls actually have water in them. Notwithstanding, we still desperately need more rain, considering the fact that Brisbane has a little bit more than one year’s worth of water left in its reserves.

Our wish came true not long ago when, in the space of 5 days, we got more rain than we did in January, February, March, and April combined. Monday we got 33mm, Tuesday 27mm, Wednesday 164mm, Thursday 17mm, and Friday 31mm.

Noosa up north got 840mm in 48 hours and promptly flooded.

Don’t get me wrong: we’re still a looooong way from meeting the 1607mm average for this year, but this is certainly a step in the right direction.

Now for the funny part! SO! Due to the enormous rainfall that we received, O’Reilly’s 4×4 bus tours suffered just a smidgeon. I know that you can sense a good story coming along, but bear with me, for, as everyone knows, all good stories must first be prefaced with a little background info.

O’Reilly’s has a contract with a Japanese tour agency called TPO under which we take their group (every day) up to a lookout called “Balancing Rock.” Essentially, since they mostly only speak Japanese, we are just renting them the use of a bus and driver to get them up there and back; they have their own tour guide who accompanies them.

Well, the day that it rained 164mm, TPO got taken up to Balancing Rock. Due to a variety of factors not the least of which was the monstrous amount of rainfall, the bus wound up halfway sliding off the road (which, incidentally, runs along a narrow ridgeline between two very steep cliffs) and leaning up against an acacia tree.

So envision, if you would, a giant green bus full of 26 Japanese tourists slowly sliding, sliding… sliiiiiding off the side of a cliff. Can you imagine the deafening roar of all the cameras? It wouldn’t be that difficult for me to believe that all of the tourists scrambling to the downhill side of the bus to get better shots of their impending doom somehow contributed to the bus’s sliding off the road as far as it did.

At any rate, we wound up sending another bus up to retrieve the driver and his shell-shocked tourists only to almost get THAT bus stuck! And all we could do after that was wait for the rain to let up and the ground to dry so that we could try to winch the bus off the side of the mountain.

It’s still up there, by the way.

And we’ve given the lookout a new name. It’s now called “Balancing Bus.”

Check out the photos.

So there’s a little preface to the following story. Some “preliminary exposition,” if you would?

O’Reilly’s has just hired a bunch of new people. I will spare you the “preliminary exposition” requisite for THAT. At any rate, given the fact that O’Reilly’s has been around since, oh, 1926, it is sufficient to say that some of the buildings are slightly, um, Paleolithic. Consequently, the old staff accommodations are currently being quarantined – I mean, er, demolished! – in order to make room for new ones. Something a little more Cenozoic, perhaps?

At any rate, this demoralization – I mean demolishment! – necessitated that several of the staff people (including me) be relocated to alternate accommodations. Essentially, all the gentlemen from my department (Activities) were asked to vacate their current residences and move into a barracks that is owned by the Queensland Sparks and Wildfire Circus – er, I mean, the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. These barracks are just across the road from the guesthouse and have been used occasionally throughout the eons as housing for things like Australopithecus afarensis and (more recently) forest rangers.

For Tané and Duncan, two of my colleagues, this was a major step forward, considering their previous lodging. My prior accommodation was certainly more modern than the barracks are and included such splendid amenities as a private washer and dryer, shower, kitchenette, queen-sized bed, and toilet. Along with said amenities, however, came things like noisy neighbours. And along with noisy neighbours came (a) a lack of wildlife and (b) a lack of sleep. So there I was, tired and COMPLETELY surrounded by no critters. Suffice to say, I made the change quite amenably.

So now that you know WHY I moved, allow me to recount to you the particulars of said move! Let’s just say that there hadn’t been anybody living in the barracks since Australia was still part of Gondwana. And there were many, many spiderwebs to be dealt with. In the process of cleaning my new room, I killed three of these and one of these.

But my new house is amazing! Since I no longer live on the second floor, I have two exterior doors, one of which opens up into a private, fenced garden that is home to at least six species of birds and two species of orchids, just to name a couple things. Oh, and the barracks have drawers and closets, too! (I’d been living out of my suitcase until now due to a lack of furniture in my apartment.) AND! Since the staff village is approximately 200 metres away, I no longer care whether or not the residents of that locale continue shrieking like strung-out banshees and playing loud music at all hours of the night. It’s great!

So, all that to say that I moved. And though my new house is slightly older, I really consider it to be a step up.

Now all I need to do is figure out how to operate those two sticks that they told me constituted the central heating…

0545- Get up.  Whoa, groggy.

0546- Shower. Ooooh, yeah!

0600- Put on work uniform, which consists of a Columbia Omni-Dry long-sleeved shirt and matching zip-off pants.  And boots.  And sometimes, gaiters.  Oh, and underwear…

0630- Get sultanas and nuts together for morning bird walk while guzzling a cuppa tea.

0645- Bird walk!

0800- Morning bird feeding (I feed the birds in a feeding area that abuts a picture window in the dining room, then I walk back inside and explain to the guests what they’re seeing.)

0830- Brekkie for me.

0900- Lead the morning guided rainforest walk.

1230- Return to Guesthouse for a quick lunch.

1300- Afternoon bird feeding (same as morning).

1330- Prepare for either a) afternoon walk or b) afternoon adventure activity (which would be either the Flying Fox zipline or the Giant Swing).

1400- Lead whatever it was that I prepared for.

1600- Return to the Goosehouse.  Er, I mean the Guesthouse.

1615- Assume control (I like that expression!) of the Discovery Centre.  In other words, I get chained to a desk until…

1730- Close the DC and get ready for dinner.  Unless, of course, I’m doing the Glow worm walk, which starts at

1745- Glowies!  Until around

1915- Return to the Ghosthouse.  I mean the Guesthouse!!!

Hey hey hey!  I’ve been here a month now.  How time flies.  Send letters.  =)

I led my first solo tour today down to Elabana falls and back.  It wasn’t too bad, considering that all the other guides around here have been joking around about having 98.4% survival rates on their tours. 

 Anyway, I have tomorrow off, so I’ll see if anybody is driving down the mountain tonight so I can get my hands on some high-speed wireless.  If not, I’ll just have to make do with dial-up.