Today was another day where we did a whole lot of walking (are you starting to see a pattern here?!).

After breakfast (which was the usual Weetbix and toast, along with the left-over dessert from last night – rice pudding (yum!)) we had a little bit of spare time while some of the teachers worked at answering questions on the Teach Live website, so I got a chance to read a book that Mike gave me to read: it’s called Ishmael and it’s about a super-smart gorilla. I enjoyed the chance to sit and read in front of the hot wood-stove.

After a while, Peggy got us together to teach us about working out the body temperatures of goannas – she taught us how scientists collect the information and then how they put it onto graphs to look at it.

In the hour-and-a-half before lunch, Mike took us out for a walk to a beach called Lunette Beach which was beautiful. Along the way, Mike kept stopping us to point out the various plants and features of the landscape, not to mention many, many possum, kangaroo, wallaby, echidna and goanna tracks; I reckon he must be as good as any of the best trackers up Yandeyarra way – he certainly knows his stuff!

After lunch (a yummy pie that used the left-over sausages from last night) Peggy showed us a TV show about the goannas here at Pelican Lagoon – it had Peggy on it being interviewed and showing the TV presenter how to track a goanna. They get lots of people coming here to interview them about the work they do and the animals they study here.

Maybe the best bit of today was the hour we were given to go off echidna-hunting on our own: just wandering around in the bush, looking for fresh signs of an echidna and all the while trying to keep quiet so as not to scare any off. Guess what? I didn’t find one. Bummer! I did find some fresh digs that meant that I was near one, but it could have been anywhere.

I also went back down the cave where we put a temperature sensor two days ago, to get it back out again. While I was down there, I climbed right down deep inside until I started to get scared that it might cave in on me and trap me down there.

Now, I’m just waiting for dinner: it looks like some Indian food. Good stuff!

(PS - after dinner, we went out for a night-walk at Brown Beach not far away, where we saw some fairy penguins both on the beach and in some caves in the cliffs)