Jesse and I ended up having a pretty low-key evening after I
wrote yesterday’s post. We grabbed some takeaway for dinner, chatted with our
roommates, and went to bed relatively early to try to catch up on some sleep. I
don’t think either of us succeeded at the last thing because we were both
dragging our asses all day today.
We did get to sleep in a little bit and got up shortly after
8am and grabbed a quick breakfast before heading downstairs to wait for our
shuttle. While we were waiting we met a girl who was going off to work for a
family she had never met before to help them take care of their horses and
children. This seemed super dodgy to me. I didn’t ask how she found the job but
I can only assume she found it on Gumtree (like Kijiji or Craig’s list) and had
never met the family but I watched her happily jump into the front seat of a
strangers car and drive away. I know I have put myself in some dodgy situations
while looking for jobs but this chick was crazy, or maybe just brave, but I
think I will stick with nuts! I don’t know how you could agree to go live in
someone’s home when you know nothing about them.
Shortly after the crazy/brave girl left with her kidnapper
our shuttle arrived and we were whisked away. We were on our way to the
rainforest for the day so of course it was raining cats and dogs. Our first
activity was a gondola ride known as the Skyrail and it was magnificent but the
view wasn’t as good as it could have been due to the rain and fog. This was
probably the longest and highest gondola ride I have ever been on, I think it
stretched for something like 15km and at points it hovered above some pretty
murky looking water but for the most part we were above a lush green forest and
we even got to see a waterfall.
Once we made our way to the top of the gondola we had a few
hours of free time to wander around a village that was really more of a hippie
commune. Our first stop was at a tiny little wildlife area and this was
probably the highlight of my day. While we were inside I got to cuddle a koala!
I have wanted to see a koala since I first got to Australia almost a year ago
and we saw one really high up in a tree while we were in Port Lincoln but I
don’t think that counts since I couldn’t see his face. I found out that there
were koala’s just before we got on the gondola and I knew it was something we
had to do and when I found out that if I paid I little extra I could hold one I
jumped at the chance.
When the time finally came to get up close and personal with
the killer bear I was feeling quite nervous but the handler was really good at
explaining things and was quite patient with me and I don’t think I even let
out a whimper once the ferocious beast was in my arms. He did how ever dig his
claws into my stomach a little bit which wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience
but I survived!
We finished up with the animals and started our search for
lunch. This was when we realized we were in a tree-huggers paradise. Everyone
had dreadlocks and the stalls sold hand made jewelry, hemp clothing, organic
foods, pipes, taught guitar lessons, and would even put dreads in your hair for
you. We wandered around a bit without really finding anything we would both eat
before making our way to the main street where we found a restaurant
overlooking the rainforest and grabbed a bite to eat there.
With food in our bellies we made our way to the train station, popping into a few souvenir shops along the way, and hopped on a train taking the scenic route back to Cairns. The journey was a lot longer than I had
expected but offered up some stunning views of the greenery and about a
thousand waterfalls. I ended up taking something like 400 pictures today. Good thing
I wasn’t using film! During the journey they also told us stories about how the
rail line was built but I was far too tired to absorb any of that information,
other than it was built before world war two.
The train pulled into Cairns just before 4pm and we hopped
on our shuttle back to the hostel. We arranged a transfer to the airport for
tomorrow and then made our way to the grocery store. Our plan was to save money
by making our own food and we spent less than $4 on groceries as everything we
bought was on sale. This would have been an awesome job at saving money if we
hadn’t spent $20 on frozen yogurt at the same time. Probably not the best move
as far as our budget was concerned but it was delicious!
Tomorrow we are flying to Sydney so we will probably just
spend tonight packing up our things and resting since we still haven’t caught
up on sleep from our first round of flights. We arrive in Sydney in the early
afternoon so hopefully we still have time to do something exciting to write
about.
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