For the past 5 days I have been on mid-semester break on Magnetic Island, a small island about 6 hours south of Cairns.  it was amazing, we were busy doing things most of the time but it was still nice and relaxing.  I went on a lot of hikes with other students who came with me and a lot of swimming on the beaches.  The last day there we went on the Forts Hike, so named for the defensive forts at the top of the climb.  Along the way we got to see 5 koalas.  They were so cute. They looked like stuffed animals.  The first 2 we saw were a mother and baby in a tree just off the trail right at eye height.  It was so cool.  We were actually able to touch her.  After the hike, we hiked about 3k to get to a beach.  There was almost no-one else there.  It was like the 5 of us had our own private beach.  That was our last day on break but it was a good one.  The next morning we had to pack up and clean the house where we had been staying to catch a bus, then a ferry and then another bus back to Cairns to be picked up by the staff to go back to the center.

 Today was the start of DR’s, directed research projects.  I will be working with turtles for the rest of the semester, snappers and saw-shells.  We had turtle collection today, caught 12 of them which was exciting.  Tomorrow will be more of the same and then voluneering at the Yungabarra Folk Festival tomorrow night.