Cirque 2 Sea Day 12 : 12-08-2016

As well as bringing up the pack raft yesterday Alex brought a pool water testing kit. I'll use it to check the pH of the river water. You can see in the photo that the colour indicates that the pH of the water, where I sampled it in Lake King William, is around neutral, or 7 on the pH scale. The temperature was 4 degrees and the water was very low turbidity and little or no colour. Although I can't test for dangerous microbes (tiny bugs that can upset human tummies and send you to the toilet in a hurry) I reckon it's excellent quality and I'm drinking it without boiling.

The birds have been active today with a large flock of black currawongs (photo) keeping me company all morning. Using the Eucaflip I decided the gum tree I'm camped under is either a silver peppermint (Eucalyptus tenuiramis) or cabbage gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora). Other than that I just sat in the tent drinking cups of tea and listening to the passing rain showers. There is distant thunder and gusts of wind. A good day to be lazy.

My sources tell me that it was a great day at the ‘Festival of Bright Ideas’ (FOBI) in Hobart today. If your in Hobart tomorrow it’s well worth sticking your head in - it’s free and has with lots of great activities to do, people to meet and if you go to the Bookend Trust stand, not only will you see a picture of me from my 8in8in8 expedition back in 2009, but you can also meet Kara, Inja and their fellow water bugs. FOBI is part of National Science Week - are you doing anything special for National Science Week? Let us know on the discussion board.

As a weekend prize for students I have two Eucaflips to give away. To win you have to identify a tree in your school or near your house and tell us about it. The Eucaflip prizes are thanks to the UTAS School of Biological Sciences.

T-shirt winner: Genji O.P

(Check out Genji O.P's great graphs of how high and far I've been travelling on yesterday's Discussion Board) 

Royal Life Saving Society Winner: Cabsta

Cirque 2 Sea is a partnership project between the Bookend Trust, the Derwent Estuary Program and our supporters.