Orpheus Island

I spent this last weekend playing around in what almost anyone would consider to be paradise. I know, my life is rough. ;)

Orpheus Island Research Station is located on National Park land in the Great Barrier Reef. Only the small station and a resort where guests fork over $2000/night are on the island. And at this point in time, the resort is closed for renovation... leaving my academic group the island to ourselves.

After never falling asleep Thursday night, I started getting ready at 3am. I then ate a quick Nutella sandwich, met up with some other girls from Uni Hall, and made the trek over to the bus stop. The bus arrived late, making our professor nervous, but we were on the road by 4:45. On the bus to Taylor's Beach (north east of Townsville), I wistfully stared out the window, while almost everyone slept. I watched a sunrise hidden behind a blanket of clouds begin while we rolled into the parking lot. I ran flat out to the bathroom to put my contacts in. Then, tragedy struck. My right contact was TORN. My mind raced with, "This is the 2nd time in my life I will have seen coral, and I won't actually SEE it!" But, I reminded myself that there are "no worries" and went on with my day. I walked with some others over to the servo and bought some chips and a Monster energy drink, which I skulled in order to make it onto the boat on time. The boat ride over to Orpheus was AMAZING. It was, without a doubt, one of the most intense experiences of my life. The boat was small and fast, and it catapulted itself over the wave crests. If it hadn't been for the death grip I was exerting on my seat, I would have flown in the air and landed again on the bottom of the boat with a thump.

As we pulled up to the island, the only thing that could have made the experience more perfect was the Jurassic Park theme song playing in the background. The lush, green forested hills fell seamlessly into the calm, teal waters below. The only dent in the background was the low-lying dive house and the sign that said, "Orpheus Island Research Station, James Cook University." We all hopped off the boat, grabbed our stuff, and went and made ourselves at home in our new rooms.... followed by breakfast number 3.

By the time the final boat arrived, it was 10am. We had a quick meeting, and then went on a hike around our corner of the island - Pioneer Bay. At one point, we went and climbed a very large boulder that looked out onto the endless ocean, and I had one of those life moments where you feel really insignificant in just the right way. The picture I've included in no way does that view justice.


After the hike, but before dinner, I got to go snorkeling. I had just stuck my mask in the water when, BAM!, a massive stingray swam right underneath me. And I do mean, massive. The rest of the snorkel was cool, despite the poor visibility. I saw little electric blue fish and aqua colored corals. Even though I only had one eye!

We came back and had a dinner of burgers, hot dogs, steak, and ice cream. After which, most people went straight to bed. I tried, but to no avail. I had only 3 hours of sleep that night.

Most of Saturday we spent profiling the Bay. I saw black-tipped reef sharks, crabs, a spider conch, and lots of microatolls. I also got roasted... again. At least it was only the very tops of my shoulders this time! After we got done with our work, we went for another snorkel. This time, our professor took us over the clam beds, which I didn't know at the time. But as soon as I started snorkeling, I swam over top of clams that must have been hundreds and hundreds of pounds, and 1-2 meters across. And some of them had up to 10 clams in each bed. It was amazing to swim down and run my fingers along the insides of their "lips", which were fluorescing green, purple, and blue from their zooxanthellae. They felt soft, yet firm. It was absolutely incredible.

That night, after a dinner of Coconut curry made with fresh coconuts from the island, we got to work on our paper. We were there for school, after all. My small group was perfectly constructed with 2 city planners who knew everything about dumpy leveling, and 2 biologists (the other girl marine) who could handle the biological data. At the end of Saturday night, we were leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else.

Sunday morning started beautifully. The sun was shining... everything was hopeful. We took the small aluminum boats over to Iris Point on the side of the island. We went on another hike through the forest to check out some rocks. Our professor thought it was HILARIOUS that we were walked through the hot forest, evading the stinging plants, got super sweaty, only to come upon rock. My professor, after egging me on all weekend about how lame Missouri must be, asked me, "Do they have rocks in Missouri?" My only response was, "Why yes, we do happen to have rocks." Believe me, it was hilarious.

The next part involves me rock hopping for a half hour to get to our transect point, where it started to rain and became ridiculously dangerous for us to be doing the work we were doing. I honestly can't believe no one broke their ankle on the slippery-as-ice boulders. There were lots of awesome biological moments to make up for the hard work, though. We saw a thousands and thousands of sea cucumbers everywhere in the shallow tidal pools. There was a huge conch, about a foot long, that was slugging itself along the algae that plagued the intertidal area. Crabs scurried everywhere. The coral that lived on the microatolls was highlighter colors. Blue, green, fushia, pink, purple. Clams fountained water everywhere. Polychaete worms were slithering around in the sediment. We found an electric blue sea star at the main reef's edge. I'm absolutely positive my eyes lit up like a child's at everything. There is no doubt in my mind now that I'm going to move to a tropical environment once I have the option.

After braving the freezing rain in nothing but my swim suit top, and rock hopping back to the beach, we got to go for one last snorkel. I swam in and out of the towering corals after the bright green and blue parrotfish. It was absolutely amazing.

That night, I feasted on lasagna. It was one of the best meals I've had since I've been in Australia. The joy of the dinner was short-lived, however, since I had to then go and write an essay to turn in before the next morning.

*Insert section where I talk about writing an essay until 2:30 in the morning*

We woke up at 5 on Sunday, and cleaned until just right after the 1st boat left at 7. Naps on the beach and a marathon of Cougar Town followed until our boat left at 9:30.

Before I knew it, I was back to reality in Townsville. Of course, nothing finished off a great weekend like sleeping for 10 hours Monday night. I have a refreshed love of Australia, that's for sure!

Enjoy the second video showing off my living arrangements! It's a bonus!