Orpheus Island, or, "This is why I'm cynical."

4am, up well before the sun, throwing stuff in bags and scarfing down some breakfast, doing just enough to make it to the bus where we can all fall asleep for another two glorious hours. This was my Friday morning as I and my classmates prepared for a weekend at James Cook University's field station on Orpheus Island. The field trip was for the Marine Chemistry and Chemical Ecology class I am taking in Australia and consisted of long hours in the lab, snorkeling trips and hikes around the island among various other events and incidents. 

After a rough start to Friday (because really how else can a 4am start be described?), we piled on a boat in the pouring rain only to arrive on the island drenched, cold and exhausted. But the rain soon let up and we went snorkeling for a bit before beginging an 8, yes 8, hour lab that had us in the outdoor wet lab until 10pm that night. After a good night's sleep we awoke the next morning to finally enjoy the island. Although we had another lab that afternoon, the bugs had been worked out and it was only to take 3 hours that afternoon. With this, our morning was free and we were able to hike up the mountain and around the bay. The trails had been torn apart by Yasi the year before but with a little bushwaking and sure footing, we made our way up to the top of the mountain and back without incident. That afternoon's lab did, in fact, only take 3 hours and we were free to enjoy our evening which consisted of playing cricket and card games during which I and the other Americans became the butt of most of the jokes, but all in good fun. The next day we went for one last snorkel in a nearby bay that had some of the largest giant clams I have ever seen before packing up and heading home.

The station at Orpheus was by far the most up-scale station I have been to. Researchers and JCU classes alike frequent the island, doing lab work and research on the corals and fish and inverts that live in the waters surrounding the island. With a tv, really fast wi-fi, warm showers and constant electricity, we were far from roughing it and it made for an overall great weekend.