Once the jet lag wore off, we made our way deep into the Daintree rainforest. I felt like I had been transported into the movie Avatar as we learned all about the plants that were beneficial for health, but also of those you would not want to be up against, such as the stinging plant. Perhaps the most epic part was a five hour hike into the world’s oldest rainforest where dinosaurs used to roam.

I gained a new perspective from this height. I thought of all the ways in which the reefs are connected to the land. It reminded me of the importance of interconnectedness in assessing challenges; no problem can be solved under a microscope and instead, it takes a team of dedicated, passionate people with different backgrounds to make change or tackle a challenge the way we did on this hike.

Later we arrived at Crocodylus resort at Daintree and were immediately greeted with an explosion of various flora and fauna and. The foliage was lush and the rain was loud and thundering. We had a wonderful dinner and settled into our rooms for the night. I was so tired I went right to bed.

There were some nice coral colonies and sea cucumbers with loads of fish as well. I got to hang out with one sea turtle for about 15 minutes, he was very content, letting me watch him eat. After collecting the samples after two hours, we headed back to the lab to get measurements for temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and alkalinity.

Words cannot describe how grateful I am for this experience. I came to Lizard Island with no in situ marine research experience and left with a plan for the sampling methods I want to use when I start my PhD. I became confident with snorkeling rather quickly since we were in the water every day and, in fact, realized I have a bit of a passion for free diving.

This was worse.

The bleached coral today still had tissue, but it was in various stages of sloughing, peeling, and stretching away. In bright fluorescent yellows and greens it felt like the reef was screaming.

I loved getting to conduct the fieldwork for our independent projects, and seeing as I’ll probably have a population demography chapter in my own PhD thesis, this was a great experience to get me thinking about some of the questions I can ask, as well as how to measure life histories.

I felt even more connected to the rainforest by sleeping in the rainforest and listening to all of the sounds it offers. Starting our rainforest tours with an indigenous perspective was a great introduction to the Daintree. I was fascinated by the stories told by our guide and was interested to learn more about the spiritual components to the rainforest.

Our last few days on Lizard were a flurry of data collection, coding in R, and soaking up our last drops of sun and fun — including a strenuous but rewarding hike to Cook’s Look. Overall, spending time at Lizard was a once in a lifetime experience, and I hope that my future path might someday see me return to the island.

During our stay at Crocodylus, we hiked through the rainforest twice in two days. Although we were seeing two parts of the same rainforest, the lenses through which we were taken were very different.