1 Trip Down

I just got back from my Arcadia mini-Reef/Rainforest trip today. I had so much fun! It would take forever to go into detail about every little thing that we did, so I will just talk about a few of them in this post. Snorkeling was amazing..even more so than the first time that I went because this time we went to 2 different reefs. It was a little scary at first again because the boat was anchored further away from the reef...so I had to swim in the open ocean a little ways before reaching the shallow waters by the reef. Also, I was a little nervous because the staff didn't advise us to wear stinger suits this time...but since it is getting closer to the end of marine stinger season and there aren't that many dangerous jellyfish near the reef anyways I wasn't too concerned about it. It was a really sunny day when we snorkeled this time so the reef looked even prettier..there were many colors of coral; purple, green, blue, pink....and so many brightly colored fish and other critters. I saw at least 10 clown fish which were so adorable darting in and out of their anenomes. We spent a few hours at the first reef and then we left for the second reef, which was a little smaller but there were sea turtles and white-tipped reef sharks. I got a photo taken with one of the sea turtles...it was so cool getting to swim next to such a graceful creature!
The next day we had breakfast with dozens of different species of birds...and I think that the rainbow lorikeets ate more of my food than I did! They're quite cheeky little birds and I enjoyed having them fly down and sit on my shoulder as I ate. We saw many other Australian animals at the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary...including kangaroos, tree kangaroos, wallabies, freshwater/saltwater crocodiles, snakes, lizards, cassowaries, emus, cranes, and of course koalas. I was excited to see a cassowary because they are relatively rare nowadays because dogs have killed most of them and they also get hit by cars. Cassowaries are huge and stand as tall as a grown person..and they can be dangerous as well because when they feel threatened they will kick and they have huge claws on their feet. So we couldn't get close to the cassowary, but we were able to pet and feed the wallabies and kangaroos. I really liked getting to pet the roos..but the whole time I kept thinking about how the lodge serves kangaroo sausages every Sunday at the BBQ :(. In Australia, kangaroos and wallabies are kind of like deer in the states...people eat them, they are hunted, and often are hit by cars.
We also went on an Aboriginal guided hike near Mossman Gorge that I found to be very interesting. The tour was informative about the Kuku Yalanji tribe of tropical North Queensland and we learned about how they live off of the land. We walked right past a variety of stinging trees and plants which was a bit intimidating because if you lean against or brush past them you can have intense pain for up to a year until you shed through the affected layers of skin and any time you get wet you will have excruciating pain. If you touch the other stinging tree you can go mad because you will keep over-heating and itching. Needless to say, I don't touch ANY plant or animal when I'm hiking. The Aborigines found uses for a variety of the toxic and stinging plants though....including forms of punishment and also to poison fish. Roy, our guide, showed us a variety of his tribes' tools and items such as shields, shelters, music sticks, and spears. He knew so much about so many different plants and their possible medicinal or food value. The sap from some trees can be used as bandages while leaves from another can be used to make soap.
We went on the crocodile river tour again on the Daintree River but this time we saw a huge male crocodile named Scarface. The guide told us that the largest crocodile ever recorded was 8 meters long and weighed over 2,000 lbs and was 120 years old. We also got to see some tree snakes this time so that was something new...and there was a white-lipped tree frog in the boat.
Cape Tribulation was beautiful and we stayed smack-dab in the middle of the rainforest right next to the beach. There weren't any stores or anything and the road was a bit dodgey..but that's the type of place where I like to be so I loved it. I posted 5 new albums worth of photos on my photo site today...so feel free to look through those!