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Published: April 12th 2008
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Ladies...
Sonja, Stephanie and I on one of our nights together after our journey to Cairns My friend Jack, from England, whom we have been travelling with since our last day in Cairns, has just started a travel journal. He has been travelling for a few months, and has been to SE Asia and throughout Australia, and he is on day 6 of his travels as he recaps them in his journal. This makes me feel better about my blogging abilities..I can't wait to update this so I can continue to add new information while it is still fresh in my mind...
So, back to the recap...
Cairns was lovely. We met many friends from our adventure through the outback and we were staying at a few different hostels, so when we got together we all had met new people and had some good nights. Northern Queensland, or the Daintree Cape Tribulation coast is the only place on earth where two World Heritage areas exist side by side, the great barrier reef and the tropical rainforest, so we spent our time in Cairns relaxing and heading off to check out other nearby adventures...
After a big night out and after meeting Ryan from Chemainus (yah V.!), we headed on a tour to Cape
Strangler Tree
Up in Cape Tribulation on a rainforest walk, we found many of these strangler trees...they grow on other trees after being planted there by the dung of birds who ingest their seeds, then they grow huge and essentially strangle the larger, base tree. Tribulation. Cape Trib can be hard to access at times due to the heavy flooding that plagues the area and the occasional cycloon. We initially thought about renting a car and heading up to check out the hikes, but then found a great overnight package deal complete with a trip to an animal sanctuary, a few rainforest walks, a boat tour of the Daintree River, and a sweet tour guide. We learned about the Cassowary, a massive 2 meter endangered wild and sometimes dangerous bird that is prevalent in the area and often taken out by reckless driving tourists, the rainforest, which is 120 million years old and the oldest continually growing rainforest in the world, the giant golden orb spider, of which we saw a few, walked through the mangroves which are coastal, saltwater clumps of trees with huge above water rots which contain bright red mud crabs, and saw a few of the crocodiles of the Daintree river - don't lean over the edge of the boat!!! Of course, this is just a tip of the iceberg - we also went on a night hike and saw many species of spiders, dragons, stinger trees whose leaves can immobolize
Boyd's Dragon
On our night walk, we found this little guy, a Boyd's Dragon...Australia has so many dinosaur like creatures...this guy is my favourite! you with pain for up to 6 months after being stuck, fireflies, bush turkeys, cockatoos, white lipped green tree frogs (SO CUTE), and massive crickets, and hung around the edge of a river looking for crocs in the dark with our guide who I thought was crazy, and which our driver told us on the way home was mad...we met a sweet French Canadian couple who shared our room, played some amazing pool (I like to think I'm improving), and swam in the only river in the cape that doesn't contain crocs...the coolest thing aobut the cape, besides the rainforest, was the constant awareness of being in something else's territory...something that can hurt you if you aren't careful...we were warned about crocodiles and stingers at every turn, and couldn't stand near the edge or rivers or the ocean or cross a small knee deep 3 meter long river to continue our beach walk to the point without seeing no entry signs and feeling nervous that a croc was going to shoot out and chase us...Saltwater crocodiles are the most dangerous animal over here...everything else will leave you alone if you leave it alone, but if you don't know any better
No swimming!
Scary - didn't see any crocodiles in the wild apart from on a tour, and I'm ok with that.. and are by the edge, you're a goner for no reason at all! Our daintree boat cruise guide said that if one of us fell in, we would be killed almost instantly...but in the same breath he has seen people let their kids swim at the ferry terminal, and seen people on jetskis and on floatation devices, and that it's just a matter of time before someone else is taken...we also saw a baby crocodile in the wild, which is incredible because they rarely survive - after being alive for a few days a mother croc will eat her baby if it is still hanging around, and they are prey to countless daintree river creatures...we also held onto one at the sanctuary - scary!
After our Cape Trip we were up again the next morning to head on a Diving tour to the great barrier reef - Kat and I decided to go all out and booked a tour which took us to the furthest diving points, fed us an incredible amount of seafood, and had the fastest boat to get us to the different points of the reef the quickest. The farthest areast of the reef are best
White lipped green tree frog
Here is another cute little green tree frog, most often seen at night because they sleep all day! They still don't move though, even for a picture with a flash! ones to see since they are the least viewed and contain the most sealife...it was an amazing day full of cute Kiwi dive instructors, parrot and clown fish, a massive cod fish which came up to us and let us touch it, gorgeous polyps and coral formations, and a zillion billion brightly coloured fish...the weather was a bit windy and we were on high powered boat, so it was a rocky, rocky day full of many people getting sick...I brought a bag to one poor lady just in time (I was so proud of myself)...The ship stopped at 3 points on the reef for a few hours each time. After our first Intro dive, we were offered another one at a reduced rate, so we gladly accepted and headed down at the next stop. We snorkeled at our 3rd stop, which was heaps of fun as well, I like it just as much as diving - definitely less to think about! The funniest part of the day were the stinger suits - the stingers (poisonous jellyfish) breed in shallow, warm water, and many are too small to see so it would be hard to get our of the way if
Stingers
Once again, no swimming!! Stingers in the area! one was coming at you. All you need to protect yourself from them is a woman's pantyhose, and one guide suggested we cover our body in them and hop in. The suits are kind of the same, bright blue nylon full body suits, complete with hoods and hand mitts...hillarious! They kept us a little warmer, so we didn't mind them too much!
The day wasn't sunny, but the reef was still incredible. We are going to get our underwater diving certificates in Thailand - it is cheaper there and there are less people. Diving seems like a dangerous activity when they are explaining all that can go wrong during training, but anyone over the age of 12 can get their PADI (underwater diving) certificate...a 4 day course allowing you to dive without a certified instructor...some women on board signed up for the intro dive but were so nervous they were shaking and crying and got into the water but then had to get right back out again. If a 12 year old can do it, so can you!! Kat and I tried to calm a few nerves as best we could but I guess it's not for everyone!
Giant Orb
We saw tons of these spiders, the Giant Orb spider, in the Cape and all down the coast...they aren't venomous but they're HUGE! We purchased a Greyhound pass which will take us from Cairns to Sydney for me and to Melbourne for Kat, to catch our flights to Asia at the end of April. This is a fantastic deal through Greyhound, and it's so easy to book...we head online at least 24 hours inadvance and punch in our destinations and we can stop at a zillion places, only going in one direction, all down the East coast. Australia is the easiest place to travel!!
After Cairns, we hopped aboard the bus for the first leg of our journey down the east coast...to Townsville and Magnetic Island.
Today I am in Brisbane, and Kat is in Surfers. We have decided to travel solo for a few weeks, as I am here to visit Sarah Turner from home, and Kat has no interest in Brisbane and she has less time to head down than I as she has farther to go to catch her flight to Thailand.
However, I have already run into some girls we have met in a few hostels along the coast - this country is huge, but it's still such a small world!
You are so lucky -
Goodbye Dinner
Here's us and new mates at our goodbye dinner leaving Cairns...it's funny when you think you'll never see someone again and then you see them a few days later in another town - random! this hostel has free internet...
More later, catch ya!
Erin
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Mom & Dad
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Missing You!!
Hi Erin.... as always we are so thrilled when we read your blog entries....this is definitely a trip of a lifetime and we are so happy that you are having such a good time. We are keeping busy and trying not to miss you as much as we do. We spent this week at the Beach Club and can't wait to share that with you. The time is passing quickly and you only have a few more weeks in Australia. Enjoy every minute....be safe...enjoy...love Mom, Dad and Andrew