Layne Egan of Valley City rides a huge turtle in Australia. He was the only one in his group of 30 who was able to do this successfully. He says it was one of the highlights of his trip. His peers jokingly called it “a turtle rodeo.” (Submitted photo) 

By Jean Schlegel
Valley City Times-Record

Some of the highlights of Layne Egan's trip to Australia this summer include riding a huge turtle, snorkeling at least two times a day and swimming with a manta ray.
Layne was one of five guys and 25 girls who took the trip through the University of North Dakota International Center. This particular trip was called "Australearn," and he earned three class credits for tropical marine ecology. This is the study of plant and animal life in Australia. Layne and a friend were the only two who went on the trip from UND. The others were from all over the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Layne said he knew about different classes to study abroad, but he didn't want to be gone for five or six months. When he heard about the trip to Australia, which is a five-week course, it sounded like something he wanted to do. He took the 15-hour trip to Australia, and was gone from May 18 through June 28.
A 2006 graduate of Valley City High School, Layne is a pre-med student at UND. His parents are Debbie and Mike Egan, who farm near Leal. Debbie is also a nurse in Valley City. He also has a brother, Trent, who is 16.
Although the tropical marine ecology classes aren't a part of his pre-med classes, it was an experience Layne said he didn't want to miss.
His parents felt the same way. Debbie Egan says she was so glad her son could make this trip to Australia so he could meet new people in a different part of the world. "It was more for him," she said.  "I think it will make him a better person."
He said when they held the koala bears in the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane, they were quite heavy (about 30 pounds), and warm. "They have huge claws, and if you move too much while holding them, they may claw you. They are slow moving and sleep about 20 hours a day. They eat mostly eucalyptus, which makes them sleepy." He said he wouldn't consider them unfriendly, but they just don't want to be bothered.
They had two teachers. One was a teacher at Long Island University in South Hampton, N.Y., and the other one is a marine biologist, who currently lives in Florida, but has spent most of his life in Australia. They both had a wealth of information about tropical marine ecology to share with the students, and it was wonderful to gain this knowledge hands-on, Egan said.
While out in the ocean in a boat, they spotted a 4-foot long turtle, and the instructor asked if anyone wanted to jump on the turtle for a ride. Layne volunteered. He was the only one who actually rode the turtle, except for one of the girls, but hers wasn't a successful ride as the turtle was really dragging her, Layne said.
When he first jumped on, he grabbed the female turtle by the back of its shell, and had to get the front flippers out of the water. He flipped it over to see if it was tagged, and he saw that it wasn't. Layne said, "It swam really fast. I have a video of it." He laughed and said, They called it "a turtle rodeo."
The students studied on three different islands, and visited each about five days. The temperatures ranged from 75 to 90 degrees. "The farther north you get, the warmer it gets," Layne said.
From 200 to 300 islands make up the country. He said there are kangaroos all over the place, and they have kangaroo signs out, just as there are deer signs at home. "We traveled from Brisbane to Cairns, which seemed like a long way in one month," Layne said.
The group also visited the third largest city in Australia, which is Brisbane, where the group became tourists for a short time. Layne said after snorkeling a couple times every day in the ocean, when they did visit a tourist site, "it wasn't near as cool as in the ocean."
They scuba dived in a huge tank at a tourist site where they swam with 15- to 16-foot sharks.
Layne was especially impressed by the manta ray, a huge black ray with white spots, 7 to 8 feet long, out in the ocean. "It won't hurt you," he said. While swimming along with the manta ray, little transparent jelly fish would sting them. "It didn't hurt until we got in the boat," Layne said.

Layne Egan, a 2006 VCHS grad and pre-med student at the University of North Dakota, cuddles a koala (right) bear and fed kangaroos (left) during a recent trip to Australia. (Submitted photo)

For full story, see Tuesday's edition of the Valley City Times-Record.