Location: Darwin, Australia
This morning, we started out with a breakfast of crepes, followed by OCB and Annie H’s how-to presentation. Afterward, we had free time for the day – some of the group took the bus out to East Point to explore, swim in the lake, and visit the military museum, where they learned about the bombing attack on Darwin during WWII. Others of us stuck back to go for walks around Darwin, catch up on sleep and school work, and watch some planet Earth. At about 4 o’clock, we saw storm clouds rolling in, soon followed by buckets of rain. Because we have spent the last week sweating, the cool rain was a refreshing shower for us. Zev, Alison, James, and I even shampooed our hair while it rained. Our next stop was the Indo-Pacific Marine, a marine education center just down the road from the wharf. John, the creator and owner of Indo-Pacific Marine, gave us a tour of the facility, which is unique because they don’t ever change the water in the tanks they have all of the corals, fish, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and even bacteria in the water that they need in order to have a fully-functioning ecosystem. After exploring the exhibits, John cooked us all a Barramundi sandwich dinner; I had a veggie burger, but I heard the fish was delicious. After filling our stomachs, we ventured back into the aquarium, but this time in the black of night. He gave us all ultra-violet lights so we could see the unexplainable colors the coral gave off. Once we all finished exploring the night sea life, we walked back in the Australian drizzle to watch a movie in the saloon and eat some fresh-popped popcorn.