On Tuesday, April 10th, we slept in. After breakfast, we did a little shopping, ate lunch, and went to the Lagoon down the street from our hostel. It's basically a big pool overlooking the ocean. Very pretty! We layed out in the sun for a while (I took care to put on a gallon of sunscreen and not let the sun shine on my poor, red back lol) then hopped in the pool for a refreshing swim. It was a pretty relaxed day:)
Wednesday Alex, Benny, Viivi and I arranged a guided tour of Cape Tribulation in the Daintree Rainforest Region. Cape Tribulation is where Captain Cook's boat sank in Northern Queensland, so all the landmarks have pretty depressing names, like Tribulation or Mount Sorrow lol. Our guide, George, picked us up bright and early in a big van. Our first stop was Mossman Gorge, where there was an opportunity to swim in the clear, cold water coming down from the mountain. I elected not to swim, but enjoyed taking pictures of the pretty scenery and walking around on the different suspension bridges.
Next we took a ferry across the Daintree River and drove up to the Alexandra Range Lookout. The view was amazing. None of the pictures I took can capture the beauty and majesty of the mountain and the surrounding area. Our next activity was the Marrdja Boardwalk, a winding walk through the rainforest. This was awesome and terrifying at the same time. There are so many things that can kill you in the rainforest: spiders, snakes, ants, crocodiles, etc. One girl almost walked straight into the web of a huge female Golden Orb spider the size of my hand. The guide told me that female Golden Orbs eat the males after mating...yuck! The trees were beautiful though, and the guide told us lots of interesting facts about the plants and animals.
After our walk we made our way to the Main Beach for lunch. We couldn't swim there because of the crocodiles and stingers, but the scenery was pretty:) We then went on a wildlife cruise down the Daintree River. I was pretty disappointed, because it started getting really rainy and windy at that point, which means that most of the crocodiles stayed underwater or hid behind the vegetation to stay warm. We saw an 8 ft. croc named Scooter, as well as a little baby, but that was it. I learned some pretty interesting facts about crocs though:) The last thing we did was drive through a small town called Port Douglas on our way back to Cairns.
Overall, it was a really cool trip! I'm having so much fun here. Today Alex and Benny are off whitewater rafting, and Viivi was supposed to go skydiving (but it's raining like you wouldn't believe, so she went to a museum instead), so I'm just chilling by myself at the hostel right now, enjoying a little alone time:) It's kind of hard to come by on trips like this, so I enjoy it when I get the opportunity. I like to get up earlier than the others in the morning and have some quiet reading and praying time as well. Tonight we are taking a bus down to Airlie Beach, where we will go sailing around some of the Whitsunday Islands:) I can't wait!
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