Sunday June 27, 2010

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I guess Daniele wasn’t kidding when he said that it would get cold. I was FREEZING this morning when I woke up. My 15˚ sleeping bag didn’t really do much, gonna have to bundle up more from now on. The new house we are in is pretty basic, walls and windows - nothing fancy. The other houses we have stayed in have all had head and real thing stone walls, not this time. Anyways the girls threw their stuff in the truck, we all bundled up and we started driving. We headed to the Fitzroy River today and it was about an hours drive to the boat ramp. On the way there we could barely see the road in front of us it was so foggy. Daniele was worried because he said the fog would be just as thick on the river and he was right! While he back the truck and trailer down I set the boat up and he told me where to motor around while I waited for him. It was a bit scary because I could barely see five feet from the bow. He jumped in the boat a bit later and we headed out. Good thing he has been studying this river for a few years because If this was our first time down it we would have had to turn around due to the fog. It was nice and pretty though, that much I can say. Every now and again we would hit patches of blue sky and no fog, but then it would just cover us over again. By the time we hit the bottom of the river most of the fog had burnt off and we were left with a gorgeous view of an almost glass flat river. We saw snubin dolphins; three different pods of dolphins and got 1 great sample. I got to drive today, and luckily the snubins let you get a lot closer than the humpback, so I think I did pretty well. The girls flew out at 1 so we had to leave the dolphins pretty early which was a bummer, but I guess the weather is supposed to be nice for a while. We dropped the girls off at the airport, said our goodbyes then headed home. I asked Daniele how he got into the field, and we talked research for a bit. It’s crazy the different projects people do, some of them are so cool! At home I set up the work station, both of our desks and computers right in front of the front window so we have a nice view of some palm trees, the boat and the street out front. I finished sprting all of the Whitsundays pictures, so now I have a full catalog of up close pictures of the fins of the 60 some odd dolphins we saw. I also organized all the pictures we took today. Turns out we had some really active animals as there were tons of pictures of them socializing (rolling on their bellies, pectoral fins in the air, jumping on each other etc.). The lady next door feeds the lorikeets, so they are always all over the place. I saw a red tailed black cockatoo and another black cockatoo yesterday, I really want try and get some shots of them, its really neat! I also saw a sign yesterday that said “Beware, Adolescent Osprey’s Learning To Fly”. We are going out from the Marina again tomorrow, hopefully the sea swell is much reduced. Also - I just thought of this. The area we now live is almost commercial and there is a mechanics shop down the street a bit that has a mini! It’s the cutest thing you ever did see 😊 He chopped the roof so it’s a convertible, but it’s a nice baby blue color and he has the car painted on the side of his barn too. That and I saw a BMW 318ti last week in Airlie Beach - I miss my cars!

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