The day I didn't go on a rainforest tour

So this morning we all woke up nice and early, packed our bags, and eagerly waited for our shuttle to come and take us to our very first rainforest and waterfalls tour. Shuttles came and left and there the three of us were sitting on the curb waiting.

Ten minutes after we were told they would be there we hop onto our shuttle bus and take our seats. And then it dawns on me... everyone on the bus was much older than the group of girls I was traveling with. Much older. Like hearing aid older. But, I shrugged it off. There are a lot of field biologists and conservationists that do these types of things their entire lives. Perhaps we were with a group of those sorts of people?

But then I saw the bus driver put a head set on and he began narrating as we cruised around town. That's when I knew. Something wasn't quite right.

We set off towards the mountains. I heard the man mumble things about the old highway and the new highway and cattle and stuff.... I can't quite remember. We made it to a lookout point and that's when we sent Katie to ask the man what happened. He said that we got switched to his tour.

After the lookout we hopped back on the bus and headed towards Lake Barrine. Which by the way, is an extinct volcano! And the lake is completely formed by rain water! I think that's pretty neat. At the lake we sat down for morning tea of scones with jam and cream and coffee. After tea we set out for our lake cruise!!! It was pretty neat, I have to admit. The lake was practically crystal clear. We were able to see all of the rain forest that had fallen into the lake. You could see the roots of the lillies and the trunks of fallen trees. My favorite part was the animals that we saw. We saw a mating pair of Amethystine Pythons, which are in fact Australia's largest snake reaching lengths of 10-16 feet! That was pretty cool to see. And because we could see through the water I saw about a dozen soft shelled snapping turtles and a hand full of eels, along with a couple of fish. 

After the lake cruise we headed to a cattle farm. Why? I don't know. But we did manage to see a freshwater croc soaking up the sun on a river off the road. Apparently freshies, as they are called, aren't as aggressive as their salt water cousins and the girl who grew up on the cattle farm grew up swimming in the river that the freshies lived in. Crazy. Now I would never be able to do that in a million years. Never.

We had lunch at the cattle place. It was a pretty property and had a vine of flowers growing over a type of wood canopy. While we were walking through it though, I noticed a very large and fuzzy brown spider, about as big as my pinky. ;laihd f;agjkabkjabdv Just thinking about it makes me queezy!

After the cattle ranch we headed back to the bus and drove to a banana plantation! Of all places. And this one survived Cyclone Yasi. We saw banana trees and how bananas grow. We even got to eat a banana smoothie (the best I've ever had) and a free banana. Free bananas are a big deal in Australia right now because the cyclones wiped out so many of the plantations. It was my first banana since I have been here. 

And then we drove home. 

No real rainforest tour. Oh, and at some point we saw one water fall. Kind of a let down because it wasn't what we were expecting. But, it's nice to see the types of tours that old people sign up for :)

Turns out the company we scheduled the rainforest tour with dropped the tour and gave us to a AAA tour of the Queensland Tablelands. None of us are very happy about that, but we made the best out of it and had fun throughout the day. We even enjoyed some parts of the tour. But, I will call up Oz Experience and attempt to get my monies back.

THE REEF

Need I say more?

Ok, sure.

So this is a picture of my diving group and our instructor. From left to right there is Hayley, Me, Katie, Diver Man, and Eish (from England).  And yes, there is coral and fishes from the Great Barrier Reef.

This trip was AMAZING! So much so that when it came time to see if anyone wanted to dive again I suited up faster than you can say Nemo.

We didn't see anything epic like turtles or sharks (although I heard the snorkelers say they say a turtle) but I don't think you can say that the reef by itself isn't truly epic in it's beauty. Plus, there was a handful of fish that were very people friendly and curious and would swim right up to you. Everything was full of color and the water was such a pretty blue.

At one point during the dive I got up close and personal with Nemo and his little orange home. I also got to hold a prickly red sea cucumber like in the picture below.

It's not actually prickly but really soft and a little bit slimy, though not slimy at all if you understand what I mean. 

During the second dive we followed our instructor through a little coral tunnel. The fish that we saw were pretty spectacular, full of color and massive. I told everyone after the dive that there is no question about it, I'm getting my open water certification.

It was amazing to see the mountains of coral beneath the sea. I really wish I could've just sat on the ocean floor for a couple of minutes to take it all in. It's sort of a blur now, but I remember it being fantastic.

I will be back to the reefs. I'm convinced of it. And it will be a good day :)