May 1, 2001 - Tuesday - Cairns
I got to the ferry terminal early today and met up with Sharon, an Aussie who is also volunteering today. We met up with Brandon, the ranger before departure, got on the cat ferry and headed to our destination. The weather looked a bit iffy but it cleared up by the time we landed, 50 minutes later.
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| Fitzroy Ranger Station - Fitzroy Island - Queensland, Australia |
Brandon seemed like a nice enough guy. We hopped into his 4x4 and headed to the ranger station on this mountainous track with two narrow concrete strips for the 4x4 to drive on. We got to the ranger station, which is 2.2km from the resort where we landed. It's next to the light house and fairly remote. The station has a ranger housing and volunteer housing, both of which are laid out in a similar way. Large green water tanks hold the rainwater for the station to use. A wind catcher and a solar panel generate the electricity needed by the station.
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| Large horned beetle on a giant elephant ear plant - Fitzroy Island - Queensland, Australia |
We went back down and started weeding at a revegetation area. We took a lunch break at 12 and went to the resort to eat our packed lunch amidst these tourists and then back to weeding. It took us about 4 hours and we finally had enough and called it quits by 2:30. Sharon and I agreed that weeding sucks.
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| Welcome Bay - Fitzroy Island - Queensland, Australia |
I decided that I liked the place and will come back tomorrow for the rest of the week to do volunteer work on the island. I walked around the crushed coral beach but there wasn't anything of interest to be found. I did see a lot of fish hanging around the dock and a turtle bopping nearby. We headed back to Cairns after that and I parted company with Sharon.
May 2, 2001 - Wednesday - Fitzroy Island
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| Volunteer's barrack and water tanks used to catch rain water - Fitzroy Island - Queensland, Australia |
I ended up buying a mask and snorkel and checked out soon afterward to head to the ferry. The ride over was uneventful and after settling in at the volunteer housing, we went down to the revegetation area and started burning the pulled weeds with Brandon's new toy - a flame torch designed to burn vegetations.
He went off to talk to a guy named Bruce for a while and I rested a little bit before heading over to a place behind the resort to fold up these huge plastic sacks, which looked like they've been sitting there for months. It was covered with some grime and collected rainwater and insects.
Brandon continued to burn and I folded until half 3 and called it quits. Brandon left the island after that for his daughter's birthday. I was too tired by the time I came back to the volunteer housing and pretty much just vegged out for the rest of the night. One thing disturbing was that I thought I heard footsteps and a pup yelping while I was in the housing, which spooked me a bit.
When I heard the footsteps, I expected a tourist being lost or something but then I remembered that I locked up the front gate already and the whole place was surrounded by barbed wires. I looked out of the window and didn't see anything. I got really spooked after that and left most of the lights on when I went to sleep.
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