Search for the Shy Albatross Day 23 : 08-09-2015

By Callan and Sebastian

To get a head start on the day John piled us into the 4WD and took us to the highest point in the island at South Hummock. It has an amazing view and a VHF radio tower on top. John left us with our packs on and we journeyed downhill to find Eleanor's Bay. On the way we had a mini mission to find a Blue Velvet Worm in the decaying forest litter, especially under logs and branches. After an hour we came up empty handed but did find centipedes, millipedes, spiders, beetle larvae, flat worms and more. We continued down the track with more stinging nettle popping up as we went. It's a green plant with nasty barbs. If you brush past, even with trousers on, it leaves a nasty sting. By the time we reached Eleanor's Bay many were in pain! 

Lunch was tuna, sardines, cheese, tomato and dry biscuits. Alastair was keen to collect sand hoppers from different parts of the beach and we had plenty of success. Sometimes you can see their little holes but mostly you just scrape the sand around and they appear by hopping around. We left the bay to boulder hop around the coast. The team had to help each other in several really tricky bits and after an hour we'd only made 500 metres so decided to head inland to find the track. We edged carefully around a shearwater rookery (and a bit more stinging nettle) to reach the faster way back to the Homestead. It was a long haul back with regular rest stops. We have to wait whenever the track splits to make sure everyone is going the right way. It's a tired but happy group tonight. Tomorrow it's off to the giant sand dune and Albatross Island on Thursday.

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With only a couple more days left of the expedition... there's only a couple more t-shirts up for grabs. To be in the running make sure your posting under the daily Discuss or on going Connect.

T-shirt winner:

Mako