Tree House Challenge Day 17 : 23-08-2017

We meet Dr Tim Wardlaw in his office, and see how Dan went sleeping in a hammock.. in the rain 

Swinging out of the tree house so the rope could take my weight I finally spied where Dan had set up his own home in the branches. Whoa! There was a burrito shaped coccoon strung as if a spider had trapped it in a web on the opposite side of the trunk. Dan let out a muffled good morning and said something about having a raincoat on his face because the bivvy bag wouldn't zip right up. It had been a wet night and this experimental tree hammock had not fared well. Dan reported that he might have fallen asleep around 3.30am, had surprisingly squashed shoulders, was sodden through and was disappointed that there wasn't at least a sunrise. 

With nothing helpful to do for Dan I abseiled to the ground and got started on breakfast. Jimmy from BeardsOn came in to work with Steve on promoting a forest regeneration project in the Daintree rainforest of North Queensland. The rain kept coming down so it wasn't until late morning that there was any movement to re-enter the tree. Dan came down in the meantime and warmed up with a cuppa and food. Dr Tim Wardlaw from the University of Tasmania School of Biological Sciences also came down to visit base camp. 

Dr Tim worked as a scientist with Forestry Tasmania for over 35 years and now continues his research through the university. Dr Sue has forwarded some of your questions to him over the last few weeks because of his long and deep understanding of the forest over years of studying them. In the video today you'll hear Dr Tim talk about one of the ways old eucalypts die, which we've been talking about in the forum recently. 

Everyone up and left mid afternoon and I'm back up in the tree house for tonight. The rain has mostly stopped but it's very cold. I think I'll have to crack put the second sleeping bag in a minute tomorrow my plan is to head back to the ground and go for a long walk to see more of the forest floor and a few creatures that live down low. 

BTW- Yoav is going on the Channel 7 Morning Show at about 10.15am tomorrow to talk about he Tree House Challenge. You can't tune in because you'll be in class but I'll see if we can get a link to it tomorrow night. Go Yoav!

Today's t-shirt winner: #PANDAS FOR LIFE :)