She was a real beaut, offering accommodation for up to ten people. Big roomy cabin with air conditioning and an upstairs sitting area for meals - which were cooked up by someone other than us. The time and energy savings of not having to set up and tear down a campsite everyday and cook our own meals were huge, allowing us more work and discussion time. We sampled a variety of plants and animals from four locations on the floodplain, gathering pretty much everything we could get our hands on, from algae and mangrove leaves to crabs and spiders to catfish and sharks. It was all fair game.
We'll bring these tissue samples back to the lab where they'll be dried, ground, and run through a special piece of equipment that will spit out numbers that tell us something about who is eating who out there. Interestingly, there were lots of marine fish species that had come up into freshwater to feed and reproduce. But otherwise, the floodplain was far less productive than we expected, with fewer plants, insects, and birds compared to other tropical floodplains in northern Australia and South America. All told, I'm happy to have a successful trip under my belt.
It was really neat to be in a place where few others dare to venture. For the first four days we did not encounter a single other person on the river, and later in the trip the only people we saw were the renegade barramundi fishermen that I mentioned in my last post. Overall it is quite beautiful up there, as the pictures attest.
Perhaps the best thing about working up there was the chance to spend time "on country" with our friends Anzac and Raven from the community of Kowanyama. They have traditional ownership over the country where we were working, so they eagerly accepted our invitation to join us for the week. I think they had a good time with us, we certainly enjoyed their company. Anzac (pictured on a lovely grassland on his country below) and I had some down time while waiting for the others one day, and I learned that he is a fan of Rugby League, and roots for the Broncos. So there we were, two men from worlds away, talking sports. Anzac will also be travelling to Alaska in April to attend a conference on Indigenous perspectives on climate change. I've teased him plenty about the cold weather he'll get there, considering he has spent his entire life in Kowanyama and was shivering from the air conditioning on board the charter boat.
Oh and we saw a few crocodiles, including a 4 metre monster that came charging into the river one morning near our mother ship mooring site. He was big enough to create a wake in front of him and the slide he left behind in the mud, later inspected by the guys, was about the width of a car tire diameter. Not one to be trifled with. No snake sightings though.
Meanwhile back at the homebase, Laura and Edie were staking out territory on the battleground. Edie's willpower continues to impress. She regularly resists sleep during the day and pretty much has us working around her schedule.
Of course, she is a source of great joy in our lives, and she is sleeping better through the night. Also, I am not due back in the field until late May, so Edie will have her father around for awhile, and Laura will get a much needed break every so often, when I'm not busy watching cricket and footy.
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