Yea, my roommate, Debbie, pointed out the depressing name and was just like "but you're so pretty! don't be so sad and troubled!" I thought it was funny.
Anyways, so to continue on my spring break adventures...
We checked out of Bucko's Dream Hostel early Sunday morning to take our bus tour up the coast to Cape Tribulation. Our tour guide, Cindi, was probably the best tour guide I'd had for anything. First of all, she nicknamed be kel right away and frequently referred to me as beautiful. That never hurt anyone, haha.
We drove all the way to Cape Tribulation on the coast. It was gorgeous. Long stretches of beach with miles of water to the right and steep hills of tropical green trees to the left. Huge rocks on some of the shore and campgrounds along the way. We stopped on the way up for a walk through the bush. A magnificent 150 million year old forest surrounded me. The huge bright green umbrella tree leaves gave me shelter while the butress roots gave me trouble walking, but they were so cool. Hundreds of mangroves all over the place, and so many ants all over the place. Ha, our guide said that if you licked one, they secreted a sour, tangy liquid. Naturally, we all scamper over to a tree where a nest of the green ants were to each grab one of the poor little guys. Yes, it was sour. kinda like a sour patch kid? That was an experience.
We only drove a little further to reach our destination after that. The Cape Trib Beach House came into view, and I was so excited when we saw our 4 person room in the middle of the rainforest. Just a two minute walk down the way and the trees opened up to the beach. Soft sand wriggled into the spaces between my toes, and the ocean was the perfect temperature (no swimming too far out though...crocs!) Debbie, Jess, and I took a walk down the beach that took up the afternoon. Dinner at the outdoor kitchen was had with a visit by a wild boar. Sweet. We stayed up laughing at the dinner table then watched the Holiday on my computer (LOVE that movie haha). Time for bed, diving in the morning!
I got up for the sunrise the next morning at 5. Sunrises over the ocean are magical. Give me a sunrise at the beach and a sunset over the mountains. ahh, life is beautiful. So I'm taking these pictures of the sun, the clouds, the little sailboat going out early, the waves crashing into me...I was a happy camper. Until on my way back to the room, I turn my camera on to review my pictures and on the screen flashes up three words. "Memory card error." Three worst words put together I could've heard this trip. I had already taken 200 pictures. I had 4 more days to go. This does not put me on the right foot to start off the day...I tried not to worry about it, and left it in the room for the day. i grab my towel, mask, dive card, dive log, and some anti fog goo for the day. oh, and of course sunscreen, but that's kinda a given down here. I was so excited about going out to see the reef. so we get on the boat, and all the certified divers have to fill out med forms. then one of the guys glances at my form, looks at my dive card, whispers to another crewmen, then says "i'm sorry, love, but you're not going to be able to dive." i think my heart dropped to my feet. basically the one thing i had been looking forward to the entire trip was scuba diving the great barrier reef. i can't do it? why? asthema. but i've dived in queensland before? i'm sorry, i can't let you.
okay, no more dwelling on that. i couldn't dive, but it ended up being great. the divers said the winter water was still cold, there were too many divers to be comfortable, and the snorkeling was better. and i can't say i was disappointed with the snorkeling. it was low tide, meaning that all the reef was at the surface and eye level. 8 different species of parrotfish (my favorite! you can hear them crunching at the coral), bright blue star fish everywhere, gigantic sea cucumbers, hundreds of types and colors of coral, blue spotted sting rays, sea turtles, rainbow colored wrasses. i was more than happy with the diversity of the reef. so after a rocky start, the day ended wonderfully with a sunset as we came back over the rainforest mountains. our last night was spent around the table outside the kitchen at the hostel talking and laughing followed by an early bed time.
the next day we spent the morning on the beach after checking out. 1 o'clock came around and we hopped back on the tour bus with cindi who gave us each a pat on the back as we climbed on. we stopped at mossman gorge for a swim and port douglas for shopping on the way back. we only stayed 30 minutes at each place and i wish we could've stayed longer because they were both so uniquely beautiful. i was so sad to leave the rainforest. i could have easily spent the entire trip up there. i also could have stayed a night or two in port douglas. it was a cute little community that was so different than everything i've found here. so we got back to cairns for one last night in the stinky beach house hostel (do you feel the love?), and were ready to move out the next morning to gilligans.
part three. coming to kelly's blog later this week. don't miss it!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment