One of the advantages of teaching at a small liberal arts institution is the freedom to design and offer courses that are close to one's heart.
In January 2011, I taught Tropical Ecology and, for one of the class activities, I took a group of students on a 10 day trip to Puerto Rico. (Click here to read about the trip to Puerto Rico).
This January (2013), I am teaching Ecology of Australia and, naturally, it entails a field trip to Australia! What follows is a travelogue of our adventures together, the sights we have seen, the things we are doing, and the lessons we are learning while exploring a land far removed from home.
(You can the previous posts in this thread here).
An early morning wake-up call was followed by an interesting breakfast, featuring products one normally does not see in the US. The honey? Maybe. The vegemite? Not so much! All I can say for the latter is that it is quite salty and is supposed to be an acquired taste (and I did not acquire it in spite of trying it for 3 days).
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| (Trey Cusick III 2013) |
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| (Trey Cusick III 2013) |
On tap for the morning was a visit to Darling Harbor. But before that we had a few minutes to kill, so a few of us went on a walk to the Sydney Harbor Bridge and, along the way, saw lots of interesting little nuggety things.
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| (Trey Cusick III, Katherine Lederer, and C.S. Manish) |
(Note: In order to conserve space on the blog and make it easier to scroll through, I am condensing how much of the post is displayed. To read the rest of it, simply click on the "Click here for the rest of my jaywalk" link below).
After the entire group gathered, we walked across the hill and took a circuitous route towards
Darling Harbour, pausing along the way to look at the
Sydney Harbour Bridge and the northern suburbs of Sydney from a different angle.
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| (Trey Cusick III 2013) |
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| (Emily Kinder 2013) |
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| (C.S. Manish 2013) |
There are plenty of things to see and visit in the Darling Harbor area itself, including the Australian National Maritime Museum, the Chinese Gardens of Friendship, the Sydney IMAX (if you are so inclined), and Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum.
On the way, Leann ran into a fellow American...sort of. She seems pleased as punch, Leo not so much.
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| (C.S. Manish 2013) |
But our sights were set on something different....
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| (C.S. Manish 2013) |
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| (C.S. Manish 2013) |
Collectively, all the animal holding tanks and aquariums (aquaria?) at The
Sea Life Sydney Aquarium make it one of the largest aquariums (aquaria?) in the world. There are two distinct themes - fresh water and sea water area - as one would expect and a wide diversity of organisms are featured in the tanks. Encompassing a fairly large area, the exhibits are organized such that you zig-zag back and forth between them and can observe all the organisms from close quarters.
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| (Victoria Vollmer, Trey Cusick III, and C.S. Manish 2013) |
After the tour of the Aquarium we had the obligatory lunch at a sea-side restaurant before walking through the central business district to the subway station. Amazingly, a majority of the students had never been on a subway before so choosing that mode of transportation to head back to the YHA was quite serendipitous.
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| (C.S. Manish 2013) |
After a quick pit stop at the YHA, we hurried over to the Circular Quay ferry terminal to catch a ferry ride to Manly Beach.
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| (Victoria Vollmer 2013) |
Along the way, we were treated to some extremely close-up views of the
Sydney Opera House...
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| (C.S. Manish 2013) |
And the Sydney Harbour Bridge...
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| (C.S. Manish 2013) |
And this is just to show you how close they are to each other, if captured from the right distance and the right angle, of course...
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| (C.S. Manish 2013) |
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| (Trey Cusick III 2013) |
Manly Beach is a very popular destination, about 17 miles north-west of Sydney and it was easily the most crowded beach I have ever seen. The water was quite choppy and while the beach seemed to extend for a almost a mile, only about a 100 yard section of it was "open" for swimmers, making it even more crowded.
(This photograph was taken at about the least crowded point on the beach!)
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| (Trey Cusick III 2013) |
One of the main reasons for the closing of most of the beach area was the presence of jellyfish in the water. The most dangerous of them - the box jellyfish carries enough toxin in its nematocysts to cause severe trauma and, in some cases, even death when it stings! I don't think (hope?) this specimen that washed up was one of them, though.
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| (Victoria Vollmer 2013) |
However, that did not stop the intrepid tourists from wading into the waters and having a refreshing time. (The only open section of the beach can be seen behind us, with a one of the lifeguards patrolling on a jet ski, shepherding the swimmers into the "safe" zone).
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| (C.S. Manish 2013) |
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| (Jessica Sztaimberg 2013) |
After that it was time to take the ferry ride back. Riding (Sailing? Boating? What is the correct term of taking a boat ride?) back into the sunset was a blinding experience. Fred had the right idea, much to Leann's amusement!
After a quick pit stop, we walked over to the Australia Heritage Hotel, located in The Rocks area, where we were treated to some exotic pizzas. We tried every kind there was! My favorite (naturally) was the Tandoori Chicken pizza.
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| (Victoria Vollmer 2013) |
And then, it was time for one last view of the harbor area before we went to sleep, ready for the next day's activities!
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| (Katherine Lederer 2013) |
Coming up: Day 3 - Last full day in Sydney - Taronga Zoo and Sydney scavenger hunt!
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