Weekend Trip To Paluma

I saw a lot of trees, a lot of water, and a lot of birds. That pretty much sums up my weekend. No but really, overall it was an enjoyable time. If we didn't have to be there for school it would have been a different story. Paluma is such a beautiful place to go to be immersed in nature. There are so many different trails you can go on and all you hear are tropical birds breaking up the silence of the forest.

Friday when we first got there, we went on a 2 hour hike with our lecturer and he basically talked the whole time about rainforest taxa and no one was really into it. We made our own fun and we basically just looked at things we were interested and let the scientific names go in one ear and out the other. Plants are too complex and numerous for me, confusion galore. After the hike we were able to head back to our main base for dinner. The place we stayed was called Gumburu, which is a Catholic Environmental Center for different groups of people that visit Paluma. It was a very nice facility with dorms and a great cook! We got home cooked meals every day and they were spectacular. The weather was also perfect, but was a little on the chilly side in the evenings and early morning. We ate outside and got to see some birds of paradise while we enjoyed our food. I got to see the male rifle bird, which is one of the birds in Planet Earth!! I was so excited to see it in the wild. The down time we had was mostly used for socializing and sleeping since hiking all day tired us out.


Both Saturday and Sunday were mostly devoted to getting our research accomplished. We set two transects and looked at the relationship between tree bark type and the distribution of vines in specific wet and dry parts of the forest. We collected some good data, yay for us! During those two days we also got to tour other parts of Paluma. Different groups headed to Cloudy Creek and Crystal Creek which are both areas with waterfalls. It was a great place to cool off and take in the scenery. There were a couple look outs on the way up the mountain as well. There were plenty of things to see along each trail and I couldn't get over how cool all the gigantic trees are! Of course since I'm a nerd, I love learning about the evolution of certain rainforests and what we would have to live with if they were all wiped away. Sad day.

We returned to uni Sunday night and I was wiped out! Today I have been planning my lecture recess trip to New Zealand: April 18-26. We have everything planned out and man, are we going to be busy! I am so excited to see another country. This weekend I leave for my 4 day liveaboard dive trip and that is also getting me pumped up! Can't wait to tell you about all of it. Take care and talk to you soon. Check out my pictures on Flickr! They will probably be up tomorrow.