Jan 19 2010
Heron Island Field trip=700 pics!!
This is just a short report of my field trip to Heron Island in October with uni.
I drove up to Gladstone by myself with the intention of trying to catch a Barra in lake Awoonga while I was there. I’ll write up a seperate report for that in the kayak fishing section!!
After a 12 hour drive up to Gladstone, and a days rest, I jumped on the boat with the rest of the crew and we headed off on the 2.5 hour journey to Heron Island. The Island sits about 75km offshore to the NE of Gladstone. The boat ride was long and choppy and many got sick. I suffer from seasickness easily so i had taken some “kwells” and so wasn’t sick at all!! We arrived at the Island got unpacked, had an orientation to the Heron Island Research Centre and then had our first lectures. We were going to be doing a lot of study, lectures, pracs, assignments and exams during our 8 day stay so we were all keen to get in a bit of diving any chance we could get and we were quick to grab the snorkeling gear as soon as we were done for the day and any other free time we had. We got up for a snorkel at 5am most mornings to fit it in before breakfast. With all the activity and early mornings and late nights I was getting more and more tired by the end of the week!!
Throughout the week we had a lot of learning to be done but it was enjoyable learning as the course was very interesting and I’m sure we all came out knowing a lot more about coral reefs than when we came.
I had my camera on me pretty much all the time while on the island (except when i was sleeping, or showering etc cause that would be weird!!). This meant that i had a myriad of Photo’s to go through and edit/cull during the trip. While on the trip I decided it might be an idea to have a video made from all the photos to show at the end of the trip. So during one of the free time sections at the end of the week i put together a video. We showed it on the last night after everything was done and it was a good wrap up to the week. Here’s the vid below. It contains a lot of photos in a short time and has some ‘IN’ jokes you may not get but enjoy. If you want a closer look at the pics, there’s some posted below too!
I did a lot of underwater photography stuff while on the island and really enjoyed trying to get close to critters to get the pics. I really couldn’t get enough of the diving and we did it pretty much everyday at least!! I also got some terrestrial pics that I was happy with as well. I was using my ‘olympus 8000 tough’ camera. It’s 10m waterproof (which i tested), 2m shockproof, 12 megapix, and I reckon it takes pretty good pics for a point and shoot type camera. It’s very handy as you can just carry it around and not worry about dropping it or getting it wet and you don’t have to worry about an underwater case. You can go straight from shooting pics on land and then dive in the water!! I wouldn’t use it for scuba diving though as it’s only 10m waterproof!!
Anyway back to the trip. There was a gastro outbreak while we were on the island which made things a bit more interesting (it’s not the time you want to be sick!!) but i didn’t get it.
We also went on a couple of boat snorkels on the outside of the reef as well as did a few surveys out on the reef flat. There was something new and interesting everyday and I was never really bored (which is pretty good, considering we were doing uni!!).
After 8 days it was finally time to go home and we jumped on the boat and the trip was far quicker and smoother with less sickness. We arrived back in Gladstone and everyone began to go their separate ways, except me!!! My car, which had been parked in secure parking at the wharf, had a flat battery and wouldn’t even clutch start!! Luckily, with the help of some other guys from the trip, I was able to jump start the car and i was off home………..Well at least for 30 mins. I decided to camp at the Boyne river on my way, to get some rest for the big drive the next day, and so spent the night in a fairly wet swag but still got a good nights sleep. It took another 12 hours home in one day and i was back to Sawtell. Home at last (which my pregnant wife was quite happy about!!!).
Some more pics below.
Smile for the camera!!
and it's not even Christmas!!
I can seeeeee youuuuuu!
