Doing things differently and learning new "stuff"

Ever noticed how going to a new place with new people can be great fun and filled with learning? I spent last week down on the KZN north coast with a fun filled group of colleagues, 3rd year students and Amy (a colleague's 4 year old daughter). A diverse mosaic of personalities and experience, almost as diverse as the landscape patches we were exploring: dune forests, grassland patches, sandy beaches and rocky shores. Even the weather was diverse: from a rainy beginning to hazy mornings and sunshiny afternoons. The almost gale force winds were the only constant, with only one calm day in the whole week.

What did I do differently? Well apart from engaging with a group of colleagues outside of my normal sphere of influence, I co-supervised a project on the rocky shores. I thought I knew very little about them to start with and I did compared with Jenny's astounding knowledge of marine species. But I learnt I'm a quick learner and by the end was more comfortable helping the students identify organisms. That's some of the new 'stuff' I learnt. Like that Ascidians are chordates because their larvae have notochords - pretty cool stuff to know. Thanks Jen.



You know it's a good days work when you can birding and hear / see at least 5 new species you've never identified before, have breakfast and get 'work' done on the rocky shore by 14:00 on a Friday. I'm really disappointed that I didn't get out with the small critter collector people too. Darn slippery rocks and unsteady feet. Next time Mark for sure!

Teaching a small group of enthusiastic students - in spite of having to have a late lunch and working in a howling gale - in such a novel manner is something that I did differently and got to learn a bunch of stuff about. Graham mentioned that as staff we open our personal lives to scrutiny by students on these types of field trips. Graham: thanks for being the model of professionalism while still engaging on a human level with the students.




Quick itinerary summary:

Day 1: Depart Wits Sunday 6:30. Breakfast at Wimpy in Ermelo 9:30 (yes I lead everyone on the windy-windy route - sorry!). Quick comfort and snack stop in Pongola. Interesting bumpy journey - how did you sleep through that Steve? - to Sodwana. Arrive and settle in at Sodwana Bay around 16:00.

Day 2: Breakfast and recce exploration of landscape patches. Never done about 3km hike in 45 mins! Rewarding lunch followed by project design sessions dinner and a lecture. Expedition to the rocky shores at night - fun times!

Day 3: Earlish start, breakfast and get the gear together. Start project just before low tide. Back in time for lunch and an afternoon on an adventure with Amy followed by convivial dinner.

Day 4: Game of 'keep the ball in the air' after breakfast, and head to the beach. Only calm day so project data collection was fun. So was the sand fight with Rob and slipping on the rocks and landing face first on a wet rock! Afternoon spent consoling my ego and playing with Amy, coaching her towards the "most awesome-ist sandcastle builder in the world" award. Oh and Paddle-Pops ROCK!

Day 5: As the tide got later and later so did our beach departure time, but breakfast remained at 7am. The Cheese and Wine group were concerned about missing lunch and so were motivated to do a proper job in good time to get back for lunch. Dinner was followed by drinks at the guys cottage and some entertaining commentary on rhythmic gymnastics from Beijing. The early mornings got the better of most of the staff and we all could barely keep ourselves awake enough to see SA's Odette Richards.

Day 6: Last day of data collection, latest day to hit the beach. Probably the windiest day too. More sand castle building after lunch, good dinner and a short lecture on what was expected on the last day in the field.

Day 7: Be there when Amy woke up - by personal request - with an extended story time. Breakfast and gear pack up. Got our group working with their data, watched some rugby, panic station assistance for group before their presentation. Presentations and good dinner, bit of socialising, followed by packing and fading.

Day 8: Depart Sodwana 6:50 - 10 mins early! Good cheerful drive back including some name trashing disco moves. Back at Wits just after 15:30.

Splendid trip. Cheers! to doing things different and learning new stuff.