Rainforests, Spiders, Leeches, Mosquitos, Great Barrier Reef, Snorkelling, Oh My My

Things have been awfully exciting here in Cairns. On Monday we went on a Daintree Rainforest/Cape Tribulation tour and I thought my parents would never speak to me agian. Our tour started with a cruise down the Daintree river (nope, we didn't see any crocs - it was too warm) and my parents were still speaking to me then. It was more when we entered the Rainforest and our hilarious tourguide, Jay, started talking about the disease carrying mosquitos, the spiders, and the leeches, that really got my parents feeling happy. And it rained. That is why they call it a rainforest, after all! ;-) It was a bit too much nature for them, but they survived! They'll be talking about this one for years. My mother almost took out a very impressive and amazing spider web (home to a huge spider) and my mother had a leech on her shoe so we all heard about that. And then my dad fell down hard while he and I were walking back to camp (we were alone at this point.) We were walking along this slipperly area and I was ahead of him and all of a sudden I hear, "BOOM" - I was scared to turn around - I thought he might have fallen over the ledge! Thank god, no, he was still on the path, but he was flat out, literally. He landed on his hip and elbow, which was bleeding a bit, but we had water, a towel, and I had some band-aids, so we cleaned him up a bit. :-) He thinks he's going to have a scar, but I think in a week you won't see a thing. We hiked through the rainforest for about an hour and then just when we thought we'd pass out from the heat, we arrived at a beautiful waterfall and went swimming. It was aweseome.

Our tour guide was so freaking funny though - and very informative. After our great lunch, we headed back to our "Black Beast" army vehicle and couldn't get out of the rainforest as it was too muddy. People got out and helped find rocks and things to provide traction and about 40 minutes later, we were fine.

The German guy was riding shotgun up with our guide for a while but asked me to sit up front with Jay for a while. So I did and I stayed there the rest of the trip - it was fun being up front. You could see a hell of a lot more and I felt like I was royalty or something. Our guide, Jay, was a big talker, and as ex-co-workers have said, I can talk underwater, so we just chatted non-stop for the rest of the trip home. Apparently though, Jay sat on the intercom thingy at one point so the whole bus could hear our conversation. Ooops! How embarassing!

Dammit, I'm just getting into this blog, but I have to go now - will write more later about this trip and the one we took to the Great Barrier Reef yesterday - it was very very cool.....okay, I'm outtie! ;-)

Butterflies, Birds, Slot Machines, Oh My!

Welcome back to the 2nd installment of The Sheas Do Cairns...well, I made the pilgramage to the mothership yesterday, to the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary in Kuranda - it was just like old times. I walked in the gift shop and said, "Hey, that's the scarf I bought when I was last here." The woman working the coutner said, "When were you last here?" And I told her it was 5 years ago. She seemed appalled that they had the same souveniers from 5 years back. Hehe ;-)

My dad was less freaked out by the butterflies this time. When we went to the Butterfly Conservatory in in Deerfield Massachusettes, in July, he freaked out and high-tailed it out of there and waited outside. This time he stayed in longer - we're slowly but surely immunising him. After I made my Mecca, we went to Birdworld and saw, well, lots of birds, and we walked around the markets, had lunch etc. It was freaking hot, as we expected it to be - but it was wonderful. We took the scenic railway there and the skyrail (Cable cars) on the way back - my dad once again handled it better than we thought he would. I thought he was going to freak out when we told him we had a 40 minute cable car ride ahead of us, but he was okay, well, except for the times he kept gripping the automatic door so tightly I thought he was going to yank it open while we were floating above the rainforest - ooops.

An amazing thing has happened since coming to Cairns - my parents went a whole 48 hours without gambling. No really- it's true! 48 hours with no slot machines! I was impressed. So of course we had to go to the Casino today. Before we knew it, we had been there for nearly 3 hours. I was shivering and had to go wait outside, but in the end I was the 'big winner.' I made a little over $200 on my favourite machine, "The Amazon Queen" which I chose, of course, because it had butterflies on it - Ulysses Blue butterflies even - my favourite. ;-) So we did more walking, more markets, some walking along the esplanade - another hot but good day. Early this evening we came back and took a swim in one of our resort's pools. It was perfect - just like bath water, yet really refreshing. It's cool - it looks like a lagoon and there's a waterfall, and you're surrounded by palm trees - it was a funny change from the 'Funk Motel' in Perth. I'm used to staying in cheap really dodgy places, which suits me fine when I'm travelling alone, short on cash, and I don't intend on spending much time in the place except to sleep. I had no idea we'd be staying a ressort so big that you need a map so you don't get lost. I still haven't seen the 3rd pool. It's quite a luxurious change to what I'm used to - boy are my parents going to be heartbroken when they get back to Sydney to spend their last week in my tacky 1-star-motel apartment! ;-)

The funniest thing about the resort we're staying in is that it's got a full-on butterfly theme. Butterflies on the tour buses, on the resort buildings, on the napkins, the soaps, even the butter is in the shape of a butterfly. My mum even swiped some butterfly coasters from the dining room to help start me a butterfly coaster collection - hahaha. I asked her if she picked this place on purpose to get on my good side, but she swears she had no idea!

Tomorrow we're going to do a cruise on the Daintree River and then go up to Cape Tribulation. I'm very excited about that! On Tuesday, we're going to go up to the Outer Reef (Great Barrier Reef of course) to do some snorkelling. Should be super! Well, I'm running out of internet time, so more updates soon....cheers!