Blogs from Horn Island, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

A breezy and sunny day. Breakfast at 7 and then we left the motel to catch the ferry to Horn Island. The posse gets were a mix of tourists, locals and some nursing staff who were to conduct a vaccination clinic. We had seen one in Thursday Island in an old church. We were met by Vanessa of Torres Strait Island tours for a tour of the island. Vanessa as a teacher decided to raise money to retrieve the WWII sites and try to gain recognition for the troops who served here. 5000 were stationed here. Allies knew that if they held Horn Island they could hold off the Japanese. It was bombed on 14 March 1942. Both RAAF and USAAF aircraft used the airfield as a stopover for fighters flying to Port Moresby, and as ... read more

Saturday October 6th, This morning I woke up bright and early at 5:30 to go for a morning snorkel by the jetty and the ship wreck. As we jumped in the coolness of the water raced all over my body. Although we are in the topics the water is still fairly chilly. As we made our way out to the wreck we took some photos of each other with our underwater camera (it is actually harder than you think). While out there we saw a ton of fish all some amazing colors, a crown of thorn star fish, and a turtle that zoomed by. After lecture that morning my group went back out into the water to work on our goby project, we spent the next hour observing gobies do their thing in the sandy waters ... read more