Sunday 31/07/05

Hi everyone,

How was your weekend?  Have you been working on your questions since I left?

I have been having an amazing time with lots of different things happening. When I got to Adelaide I stayed in a very posh hotel. My room had a lounge, kitchen and bathroom downstairs and a bedroom upstairs. There were two televisions and a spa bath but unfortunately I wasn’t there long enough to use them all. At the hotel I met the other teachers on the program. They are Susie from Exmouth, Amy from Port Hedland, Phil from Broome, Lee from Tom Price, Michael from Jigalong and Simon from Yandeyarra. You will need to look on a good map of WA to find all these places.

On Monday we went out radio tracking with receivers and antennae to look for echidnas.  We found Big Mama who is about 40 years old and weighs over 4kg.  She wasn't very happy about being picked up and weighed but she didn't seem scared.  Then we spent a long time watching her after we had let her go but she just dug down into the ground and waited for us to go away.

 We went for a walk to Lunnet Bay, which is very beautiful, in the morning.  We also has a talk about sustainability so I will have lots of interesting things to share with you when I get back.  In the afternoon we went on echidna hunts on our own.  We didn't find an echidna but we did find fresh echidna digs.  Then we used our compasses to get home when we were geographically challenged.

Today we watched Dr. Peggy dissect 3 echidnas that had been run over.  It was horrible to think that so many get run over every year when they only breed once every 2-5 years.  It was pretty gross seeing all the insides but Dr. Peggy gathers information that helps her learn more about these amazing animals.  As it is raining today I am glad that I am on the computer and not outside.