The title of this post may give it away, but it is very HOT in Cairns. The problem is more humidity than temperature. Cairns is located in the tropics area of Australia, the Northeast. The humidity is usually around 80-90 percent every day, and the temperature is probably around 85-90 degrees F every day. We are sweating a lot. I think of it as good practice for Perth, but try not to complain. Perth is hotter, but less humid. We arrived here on Wednesday, and got in around dinner time. There is a free meal every night for those in our hostel, which is cool. However, they mostly have the same thing, and don’t give you enough to only eat that. For example, I have had spaghetti every night that I have eaten the meal. We ate that and went up to our room, which is very nice compared to our room in Sydney. This is a 4-person room with an attached bathroom. It is also nice and clean, and a huge place. The hostel (Gilligan’s) is somewhat of a nightclub with a hostel attached, which is okay. We aren’t really into the partying stuff, so we usually just read and watch movies at night. That night we went to sleep because we were exhausted. First, though, we went to the mall here which has a grocery store attached; there we bought snacks to eat.
Thursday was another day with nothing planned, so we explored quite a bit more. The mall closes around 5 every day, so we went back there to check it out and to eat. The food court was very nice with lots of options. We then went back to the grocery store and got a couple more things. Amanda and I made guacamole for the first time since we have been here, and it was good. We also watched the movie “Daddy Day Care,” which I highly recommend if you haven’t seen it.
Friday was the day we went scuba diving. It was AWESOME. I was a little nervous at first because I didn’t know what it would be like to be underwater for so long, but it was fine. It just took a little getting used to. We had hand signals and everything that we had to learn, which was cool. The packs were really heavy walking around on the boat, but not so much in the water. We got wetsuits to wear as well. Our first dive was very introductory; mostly, it was practicing being underwater, and we all linked arms the entire time. Luckily, Amanda and I had signed up for 3 dives, so we got to do a lot more. The second dive was more independent; we got to learn how to move around by ourselves and we saw a lot more. I saw a sea turtle! There was also a huge fish, probably 3 feet long, named Wally that was very friendly. He likes to hang around the dive sites and get attention. Our third dive was fun as well. It was great to be able to swim around independently, not having to link arms with everyone the entire time. I definitely want to be able to scuba dive again, if I get the chance.
Saturday (today) was spent on the Kuranda Skyrail/in Kuranda, the town. We drove to a more remote part of Cairns (we are in the city) and took a gondola up into the rainforest. We took a guided tour around the rainforest floor and were taught about the different types of plants. There are some strangling figs that strangle a host tree and get nutrients from it, eventually killing it. There were also these cool ferns that collect their own soil base up in the air and form a source of nutrients for themselves 50 feet above ground, forming what looks like a nest kind of. We then got to look over the Barron Falls, which was a natural waterfall formed by a gorge. It was running super strong, which was cool to see. We then went up to Kuranda, the town. In this town, Amanda and I went to three main attractions.
First, we went to Kuranda Koala Garden. It was a mini zoo type area with koalas being the focus, obviously. We each paid $16.00 to hold a koala and get pictures. They are super cute, and heavier than I thought. The koala we got to hold was very used to being passed around, and didn’t really care. She was sweet. There was also an open kangaroo enclosure, and we got to feed the kangaroos. That was a lot of fun. The second place we went was Bird World. It was essentially a big aviary with 50 different kinds of birds in it. There were some huge parrots, and also ducks and parakeets, etc. They had an exhibit in the back with cassowaries, which are amazing. They look like emus kind of, but they are a weird blue color, and have a dinosaur-like protrusion off the top of their head. Sadly, they are super endangered, and the cyclone didn’t help. Although it didn’t directly affect the rainforest, the winds did shake lots of the fruit off the trees. This is the cassowary’s main food source, and it will thus rot before they can eat it all. They might have to drop food for them to survive in the wild (there are only about 1500 wild cassowaries left). The third place we went was the Australian Venom Zoo. It was a bunch of venomous snakes and spiders. It was cool as well. As we went to leave, the rainforest decided it needed some more moisture; it dumped rain on us for about 20 minutes. It was the hardest rainfall I had ever seen; it soaked Amanda and I in about 15 seconds. We got really wet, but it was fine; we were super hot anyway. Then we took the Skyrail back down and went back to the hostel. For dinner, Amanda and I made quesadillas and guacamole, which we love eating. And now we are going to sleep, since it is 23:21.
Tomorrow: Crocodile Zoo and Cairns Zoo, Monday: Travel Day to School!
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