February 5, 1999 Calvin College Chimes

Bikes, shots and rocks Down Under By Thea Woodnorth Guest Writer About 40 Calvin students spent three and a half weeks in Australia taking the interim course, "An Adventure in Documentary Photography and Meteorology." This course was taught by Ron Blankenspoor and Robin Jensen, and gave students the option of concentrating in photography or meteorology, but all the students learned material in both subjects. We escaped the snowy blizzard in Grand Rapids on January 5 and went about as far away from it as we could get. It was summer in Australia and we enjoyed temperatures in the high 70s and 80s most of the trip. After a very long flight we arrived in Melbourne and stayed at a Reformed Seminary in Geelong, a nearby town, so we could adjust to the time change. We took a bus trip to downtown Melbourne and explored the city, saw some tiny fairy penguins on Phillipís Island, and went to a petting zoo. One of the highlights of the trip for me was the opportunity to see so many different animals that I had never seen before -- kangaroos, wombats, koalas, dingoes, emus, wallabies, and cockatoos. We were able to pet quite a few of these animals at zoos, and even hold a koala. Once we were adjusted to Australia time we started the main part of our adventure, biking from Melbourne to Adelaide. It took us about two weeks; we had a few days off in various towns, but rode almost every day. Accompanied by about 10 Australian leaders, we biked about 750 miles along the southeastern coast of Australia in Victoria and South Australia. As a photography student, I had to choose a theme for the photos I took, to organize them into an artistís book to be presented and graded during spring semester. There were so many things to take pictures of during our biking adventure along the Great Ocean Road. Beautiful scenery, animals, plants, unique road signs and buildings were some of the photography studentsí themes. ìPhotography was a really good way to capture my experiences in Australia,î said Jen Nienhuis. ìUsing a theme, we learned about photography and at the same time we were learning about Australia.î The meteorology students also took pictures, but their main focus was on the weather. They had a class every other night and read a book on meteorology. ìItís summer in Australia since it is in the southern hemisphere. Thatís what makes January such a good time to go biking there. The weather is completely opposite from here,î said Leah Jager. During the first few days of our ride we went right along the coast of the Pacific Ocean, where we rode up some pretty challenging hills. The views from the top were great rewards, however, and we learned that for almost every uphill there is a downhill that makes our hard work pay off. Later into the trip we passed more farms and were further inland. I had to get used to riding my bike on the left side of the road and seeing cars drive by with steering wheels on the right side of the car. In most of our days, we covered an average of 50-60 miles. A big factor in how much time it took us to cover this distance was the direction of the wind. Every morning we awoke hoping for tailwinds, which we were quite fortunate to have most of the days, but a few days we were challenged with crosswinds and headwinds. We had beautiful sunny days for biking and most of us faithfully lathered on the sunscreen every day. We spent the nights in school gyms, sports clubs, and campgrounds, with the shower facilities being greatly appreciated after a day of biking. Our final day of biking was January 25 and it was also our warmest day in Australia with temperatures in the 90s. We climbed a lot of hills that day and did a lot of sweating, but the last few miles into Adelaide were downhill. We rode in line of about 50 bikers with our yellow interim T-shirts on. We then spent a few days in Adelaide, exploring the city and spending time at the beach. To wrap up the trip we flew to Sydney in the state of New South Wales, and saw the sights of the great city. Some of us toured the cityís famous Opera House, ate in a revolving restaurant, took a cruise of the harbor, and found good deals at the market. We returned on January 30 to the season of winter in Grand Rapids with some interesting tan lines, souvenirs, and classes awaiting us.