So Saturday morning I woke up a 6:30, ate brekkie and began the adventure to find the CVA office. The walk ended up being about 30-45 minutes so it wasn't too far away. I was the first person there, and the door was locked and I didn't see anyone around so plopped down on the front bench. I must have looked like a loser. But then another girl came in a taxi and we sat on the front porch and talked while we waited for people to show up. We realized we had been in Cairns together. Her name was Liz.
Once everyone arrived, we packed up the van and headed off. Two and half hours later we pulled up in Inverloch at our first site. I thought that we would go to our place of accommodation before we started to work, so when we pulled up and a saw a tiny shack with two walls in the middle of a field I was not prepared.
The first place we went was called Thompson Estate. It was just a big field surrounded by bushland. The task was to remove an invasive species of tree. The tree above is an example. The tree we were cutting down is originally from Sydney and looks like another indigenous (native) tree. The tree below is a hybrid of the two. It shouldn't be an issue because most hybrids can live, but not reproduce. So we didn't bother removing it.
I HATED the first day and I was so disappointed. The reason I hated it was because we were not forewarned that we would be working in a wetland, and I only brought hiking shoes, so obviously my feet were soaked. But I survived. We took a break for tea..then another for lunch. Then we got back to work. When we were done we headed to where we were staying. We stayed on a house which was basically right on the beach. So first order of business was to claim beds, then go explore. Unfortunately it was freezing, so swimming wasn't and option. But it was beautiful!
...And I saw a rainbow!-->
So that night, we had to decide what we wanted for dinner, then breakfast, then lunch for the next day. This was chore. We had 12 dollars a person for all three. We decided on pasta for dinner, scrambled eggs for breakfast, and sandwiches for lunch. 6 People went into town. 3 went to the store and 3 went to the pub. I went to the store. This was the first solo trip for the lady from CVA, Wendy. So everything was more difficult than it needed to be. In addition to making everyone agree on every little decision, she was a pain to shop with. I feel bad for saying that because it was nice to see someone who so obviously cared for the feelings of animals and the effects we have on the environment, but JEEZ! She wouldn't let us get packaged mushrooms because there was excess packaging. And then she wouldn't buy anything that she thought wasn't ethically farmed. She wanted us to shop cheap, but then when caged eggs were cheaper, she "splurged" on free-range and made me feel like I personally was the one caging the chickens and taking advantage of them.
BUT I'm off topic. (Just a side note, one of the guys that went to the pub HAD to be an alcoholic. He was talking about how he hadn't had any in four months....then he came into town to go to the pub. lol.) Anyways, we got home, made and ate dinner and went to sleep right away. The next morning I woke up angry. Why you ask? Because Wendy thought opening curtains to wake people up was a good idea. It wasn't. This automatically pissed me off. But that's besides the fact. We had breakfast, cleaned up and headed to our next location.....Where we were greeted by terrifyingly large Grey Kangaroos! There are four in this picture.
The land was public land owned by Victoria Parks. We planted 760 Eucalyptus trees. There were three different Australian species. Our goal was 1,000, but I feel like we did pretty darn good with only 10 people! The first picture is a before shot with the kangaroos, and the next shot is after.
The Process:
1. Someone dug a hole.
2. Another person dropped a tree by it.
3. The next person came by and planted it.
4. The last person used bamboo sticks and a carton to cage the plant in.
The Purpose:
They used round up and killed all of the plants that were previously there, so the young trees had not protection from the wind. The carton also served the purpose of making it difficult for the kangaroos to eat them. I guess eucalyptus sapling is a yummy dish to a roo.
After planting, we headed to an old rifle range. Vic Parks bought it and $150,000 later it was restore from an empty field back to a bushland with two wetlands. The wetlands not only provide habitat, but they take storm water and route it to farms to water crops. Wetlands clean the water and make it drinkable as well.
We left Inverloch about 3 and returned to Melbourne. 45 minutes later I was at my home away from home. 47 minutes later I was in the shower. I was too afraid to take a shower where we were staying because I saw a dead spider. Up until this point I had myself convinced spiders couldn't survive in such cold temperatures. Apparently the can up to a point...so now I'm paranoid.
I decided that I like planting trees. I just put my headphones in a jammed while I planted. Alysha Farson, saving the bushland, one song at a time!! I think when I go back to Carbondale I might volunteer for some projects at Crab Orchard or Giant City. It felt good giving back to the environment, and the time flew by on the second day.
More later! Love you and miss you!
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