We should be out on a boat to the Reef today but my immune system decided to take a nosedive for the worse last night. Much dizziness and feeling sick so ended up crashing out and woke up to stomach cramps. Great. Feeling pretty crap because mum was really looking forward to it, even though we’ve been told that quite a lot of people spend the journey out hanging over the railings, reintroducing their breakfast to the world.
So. Poolside it is. Mum’s going in for a swim soon and I’m going to plough through another couple of chapters of Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey. Or maybe nap. Napping sounds good.
Yesterday we went on an awesome tour into the rainforest. It was a relatively small group, just 13 of us in total and a good mix of ages and nationalities (Americans, one of whom my mum is still referring to as Yentl due to her almost uncanny Barbra Streisand-esque appearance, a guy from England, several Australians, Maltese people who looked pretty bewildered by the entire experience, two girls from France but who spoke a German dialect I thought I could understand but actually couldn’t and us).
Highlights of the tour included:
- morning tea - important, given that I’d only eat half a cheese and chicken sandwich before leaving the hotel at 7:45am. The scones were probably the best I’ve ever tasted.
- cruise around Lake Barrine - got to see some local wildlife including an Eastern seadragon, freshwater eels, snapping turtles, ducks (which travelled on the boat with us at times) and… AND! An amethyst python. An actual python. Just lying there, sunning itself. Massive. And I was eight feet away from it. Eep.
- Curtain Fig Tree - there are types of fig trees here called strangler figs. The seeds from these land on the top branches of other trees then begin to feed off the host trees nutrients, eventually killing it as it grows down towards the ground. Probably not explaining that right at all, but the basic gist is there.
- Millaa Millaa falls (millaa is the aboriginal word for water). Beautiful setting. And so some brave nutters went in for a swim. Crazy yanks!
- Mungalli Falls - a picturesque setting for lunch outside by the Mungalli Rapids. Couldn’t see much of the falls unless you wanted to walk down to the bottom… fairly obvious that I didn’t.
- Rainforest canopy walk - this was a pretty cool walk though the height slightly fazed me a little when we got to the tower, a hundred wobbly steps of doom. If the steps had been filled in, it probably would have been fine. But given the see-through-ness of the steps, I managed about fifty steps then admitted defeat. I also cowered in the face of butterflies. I know my enemies :P The heavens opened just before we started the walk back to the bus so we all got completely soaked to the skin during the most humid point of the day.
Paronella Park - home to giant fruit bats, tiny little microbats and the biggest spider I’ve seen since coming to Australia, this place is pretty damn cool. There’s a really interesting story about dreams and whatever. Probably best if you just check out the website. This blog is far too long as it is! Click me.
So that was the tour. 11 hours, 300km, 4 waterfalls in total. Hopefully I got some awesome photos out of it.
Met up with Kelly and co at a pub for a very brief drink (many apologies for being so out of it last night) then back to the Hilton where we watched Catherine Zeta Jones playing Catherine Zeta Jones. Thankfully it didn’t star her immeasurably scary husband.
That’s it for now. Book is calling.
Au revoir,
Kirsty
Xx
PS. Do not order room service.
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