Day 1:On Thursday (Katlin's Birthday)we left on a greyhound to Cairns.It was a pretty smooth ride, except for the last 15 miles when we drove on a dirt road and the driver started speeding.haha.At one point he almost drove off the road and into a river.Omg thank goodness I didn't die that day.lol.
When we got to Cairns at about 5PM, I felt like I was in Waikiki or I guess I was just excited to be in a big city and I became more aware of the small city status of Townsville where everything closes at 4PM and there's not a lot of ethnic diversity and thus very little food variety.When we got to our hostel I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed...let me tell you brochure pictures can be so deceiving!I was worried I would catch mono or something else...I had bed bugs on my bed that kept coming out from a nest I couldn't find...our only window was literally a foot wide by a foot long...I walked into my room noticing hairballs on my bed(eeek!!!)..and lots of other things that seriously made me worry about catching something.Luckily I didn't.After we unpacked a little, we went out for dinner.Our hostel (Global Hostel..right next to Rattle and Hum on the Esplanade) provided us free dinner.But when we got to PJ Obrien's(an Irish pub) where we were to redeem our dinner tickets, we were given smaller than normal plates with a volume of food that could fit 1/3 of a cup).Lol.I guess we were expecting too much for a hostel we only paid 16 bucks for.That night I didn't even floss for fear catching something and I kept waking up in the middle of the night to attack more bed bugs.After that I swore I would NEVER EVER check in at a hostel ever after this trip.
Day 2:After having breakfast at Mackers (that's what they call McDonald's here), we waited for our tour bus to take us on our Cape Tribulation tour.I'm really grateful that we booked it through Tropicsexplorer because we had a really great guide.We went on a river cruise to look for crocodiles/other river animals in the Daintree River,walked through the Maarja boardwalk and got to look at some really old plants (even plants that have been around since the Dinosaurs roamed the earth),and finally we got dropped of at our next accommodation (The Beachhouse) which was an upgrade from Global Hostel I might say.It started raining a couple of hours after we got there so there wasn't much to do.While Katlin and Liz went swimming I stayed indoors to work on an essay that I had to turn in the first day back at school.
That night we were to go on a Rainforest night walk that almost didn't happen because of a mistake with our reservation.Instead of putting us down for 3 people someone put us down for 1.Instead of apologizing and letting all three of us go because we booked our trip a week ago unlike others who booked the night before, we were told that only one of us could go bc there weren't enough spaces in the bus.But we agreed to go along just in case someone decided not to come.It was raining after all.We figured someone was bound to want to stay back.Right before the last two people were to be picked up, our guide dropped us off at another hostel and told us to wait for 2 hours before being dropped back off to our hostel.
I was really disappointed at first and I felt so wronged because I didn't think it was fair.The company messed up.I felt like instead of ruining our plans (we had paid >500 bucks to come out here for three days) she should have done more.For one thing she could have dropped us back off at our hostel because when she dropped us off the other hostel, the only thing open was their nightclub.But we had no cash on us, no ID, and nothing to do except sit around for 2 hours.Alternatively she could have called a coworker to pick up the last two people to be picked up.Or she could have made 2 trips.But after being at the club for 20 minutes being really angry and trying to plan out how we would file a customer complaint, she came back and we got to go:]
I feel like the Rainforest walk was one of the highlights of my trip because it was so peaceful and so Avatar-like.We came across a glowing log that upon showing us, our guide made an analogy to Avatar (the glowing plants that when touched closed up).The log was glowing because of a reaction between the moss growing on it and the environment.It was so beautiful to look at amidst the darkness of the forest.We also saw a tangle of fig stranglers that had once circled a really tall tree (about 30 feet tall) and trees that have been around since even before the dinosaurs were born.I couldn't take pictures of all of these amazing things though partly because it was raining so hard we got soaking wet and I didn't want to damage my camera.Also partly because my camera couldn't capture all the glowing organisms.
That night I stayed up to work on my essay.I was working outside of the cabin so there wasn't much light.I felt so scared as I worked bc who knows what could have jumped on me or hurt me.We were in the rainforest...and also in a not so safe hostel (no security like they promised, very limited lighting, the bathroom was located 4 cabins down).It got me thinking about Jesus and the wilderness so I had a little bit of reflecting time too.I felt a little closer to Jesus because if I read his messages correctly, he spoke out to me about something I have been a little concerned about.
Day 3:This day we woke up early to watch the sunrise and then we went on our Jungle surfing trip!!!!I had so much fun
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