Last day in Port Douglas

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Today our shuttle was picking us up at 7:40 a.m.

It immediately started off great. Ben, our tour guide, is a really friendly scuba diver that was great to talk to. The shuttle itself sat nine passengers and Ben. Leather seats, wood floor, very nice. We were off to Mossman Gorge. Most of this entry can be explained with photos.

We went on another crocodile hunt, less successful croc wise, but extremely awesome. They have large fruit bats that you can see sleeping in the trees during the day. Unlike the common bats we have in Michigan, Fruit bats have excellent vision and have a fruit diet. While ours are in the field mice family, these are in the monkey family. I love bats. Even the little mousy ones in Michigan. I think they're cool - I mean, they eat
mosquitoes - how can you go wrong with that?

I, honestly, was kind of in a zone when our boat guide was explaining what the high pitched noise was we were hearing. Apparently, from what I did hear, the baby bats sometimes fall and wind up at the bottom of the trees by the water left to die. He pulled the boat over to grab two bats out to take them back with us and rescue them. The baby bat was shrieking, not happy, clawing at the guys face trying to stay gripped onto him while he drove the boat. He let me pull him off of him. The bats just want to be warm. I held the bat on display for everyone to get photos, then held it to my chest where he fell right to sleep now that it was warming up. The guide said that this kind of bat is very clean and though some have been known to carry rabies, it was rare in this area.

We stopped at an ice cream place. They take pre made vanilla ice cream and whatever fruit is in season and create their own flavors. We tried three different kinds...they were definitely different. For lunch we had steak, fish, pasta, bush bread, and salad. I ate steak for the first time in over three years. It definitely wasn't the best of steaks, but I did enjoy it.


Tonight? Laundry and Pack.
Tomorrow? Shuttle picks us up at 9:20 a.m. for the airport in Cairns...we'll be off to Melbourne!

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Comments

[wendy]

eeeewwwww!!! You cuddled with a bat?!?! Cudos for saving it!