Last Stop

Australia has been the place I’ve been wanting to go the whole trip.  And thanks to my persistent pestering and puppy-dog eyes, it happened! And it only took 6 months!  Australia first welcomed us with incredibly strong winds and very frosty air, which is not something we’ve grown used to.  Who knew Sydney would be so cold?!  The plane to Brisbane felt tropical after our short experience with Sydney winter.  After a layover in Brisbane, we flew to Cairns and started our adventure after two relaxed days.  We took a diving trip to the Great Barrier Reef which was an hour and a half boat ride away.  Because of the bumpy ride, I ended up donating my breakfast to a barf bag.  The coral was amazing and took my breath away.  After three dives, we saw three turtles, one gigantic 7 foot leopard shark, one huge barracuda (as big as a small tree trunk!), and I finally went as deep as my restrictions would allow!  

Two days later, we took a tour that my parents took 14 years ago, it was the only thing they wanted to copy exactly.  The tour bus was very artsy with a cartoon rainforest portrait on the side and ‘Gus the Bus’ written on the side.  Apparently it’s short for Angus T. Bus.  Our guide, Sid, started us off with a funny song that was called Dangerous Animals.  I remember some of the lyrics were “Come to Australia!  Where you might accidentally get killed” (see YouTube clip below for the full song). There is no lack of things that could kill you in Australia.  Our tour company required a swim suit, good singing voice, and major immaturity.  We drove out of Cairns to our first swimming stop, of the four we were visiting, and a short rainforest walk.  Sid showed us a Giant Stinging Tree about halfway through our walk.  It’s leaves grew nearly invisible tubes of glass with a poison inside.  People who have touched it said it feels like pouring boiling oil over an open wound.  The tree has large leaves with holes showing where a Green Beetle’s last meal was.  Sid told us one story about a soldier who had to go to the bathroom and used the Stinging Tree leaf as toilet paper.  He ended up shooting himself in the face.  Sid then said “Touching it would be fun… to watch”.  The swimming spot later on our hike was a large pond with a couple boulders opposite of where we were entering.  On our way to the natural tree branch ladder, we saw signs saying ‘do not swim’ and ‘do not dive’, which were the two things we were planning on doing.  The water was ice cold, it reminded me of the Nile.  My mom just recently decided to tell us that the most important tip for going to Egypt is to not swim in the Nile because of Bilharzia.  I guess I shouldn’t be swimming in the boulder lake either… I learned soon after I entered the water that swimming fast actually made you feel warm and made it to the boulders much calmer than the rest of the bus.  Most people just jumped of the boulders with splayed limbs or cannon balled, but we did have one person doing a back flip.  I was one of the limb-splayers.  Our second swimming spot had the river going over a smooth rock and a small, stream like waterfall in the background.  We did an arduous climb up the slippery slope to a flatter place of the rock that was a little rougher and easier to walk on.  Then we went to the main part of the river that was located on the most slippery spot on the rocks.  We sat on the rocks and slid down like we would a water slide occasionally going down a small bump.  It was so much more fun than it looked!  Even the part where the water threw you under water at the end.  Liam made sure we knew what would happen if we walked on one of the slippery sloped places, he slipped and on his way down he bowled over our guide (who was taking pictures of us), Go-Pro and all!  Our third swimming spot was meant to be the coldest.  After two ice-cold water experiences, getting in the coldest pool yet sounded pretty unrealistic.  There was a breathtaking waterfall in the background sent out a mist that was so cold it sent shivers down my spine.  Maybe the mist was sent to help us decide if we really wanted to swim there.  At lunch, which we had not too long before, he told us that we would be taking hair-flick pictures.  We put our hair in the water and flung it back making a trail of water droplets in it’s wake.  My mom and I did it together and it looked kinda like a heart.  If people really wanted to submerge,  then the other activity was to swim around the waterfall and to the back then swim through it on your way out.  I did that and could hardly see because of the mist stinging my eyes.  I got out of there just after mom took her picture.  

After 2 nights spent in a place called On the Wallaby we found our way to the Australia Zoo.  I wanted to do another volunteer thing with animals after my amazing experiences at Ngamba Island with the chimps and Chiang Mai with the elephants.  Other Australian travelers told us that finding wild koalas would be almost impossible so I found a place I could volunteer to help koalas for a day.  Sadly, it was too expensive and had to settle on Australia Zoo’s zookeeper program.  Liam got sick just before we had to go to the zookeeper program so I went alone.  The first thing we did was feed a Bearcat, or more commonly known as a Binturong.  It was a cute animal related to a Meerkat and lived in Malaysia.  It’s tail was as thick as a small tree branch and used for hanging on trees.  Then we went to the famous Crocodile show sometimes performed by the Irwins.  Because it was school holidays for Australians, the Irwins showed up.  Bindi’s band, the Jungle Girls, gave us a short performance before they brought out a dangerous crocodile that wound up at the Australia Zoo for eating a dog that got too close to the water.  The crocodile, Mossman, came out of the water with Terri Irwin’s help.  Then he showed us how he attacked thanks to Bindi and jumped vertically out of the water for Robert.  After a meet and greet with a possum and a rhino, my family and I visited the zoo together to see what we missed.  That was when we saw the adorable baby koala no bigger than a grapefruit.  We were just walking in when we saw one of the koalas adjusting and a little baby turned it’s head towards us.  As we walked around the small enclosure, we saw almost all of the adult koalas had their babies showing.  After we filled mom’s camera with unnecessary, but cute, photos, we left to see the crocodile show where I could pretty much narrate the whole thing.  Luckily, the Irwins showed up that day as well.  Then, because we couldn’t see any on our Himalayan trek, we looked for the red pandas.  Our trek was very frustrating when we couldn’t find any red pandas.  We were all scanning the trees and bamboo stalks for any sign of a red panda but could only find a footprint and there were always dogs following us and they love chasing and hunting red pandas.  As long as they were near us, we couldn’t find any red pandas.  Also, by the time we got to the place where it was time to start looking, so many trekkers have come through that the red pandas would’ve been scared away.  The pandas at the Australia Zoo were so cute and fluffy that we were mad at ourselves for not hiking 3 miles into the forest to find one.  

We would have been more excited to see the Australia Zoo koala if we hadn’t seen a wild one only one day before.  We were driving to a place mom knew there were a considerable amount of koala sightings to have a look ourselves.  After about an hour and half of looking for one, we sat down and looked at the beach.  Dad, as always, went to look for any koalas in the trees.  He started waving us over and mom practically dragged me and Liam there even though we were walking pretty fast.  Apparently Dad saw someone looking in the trees and eventually found it himself.  It was sleeping in the tree and enjoying the (dangerous) nature of the rainforest and calm waves on the beach.    

Now that the trip is coming to a close, I’m realizing what I’m going to miss.  I will miss not being able to look forward to what kind of cool animal I’ll be able to see in the next country and when the next beach is.  I also will miss all the different ways of travel.  I like being able to look out the window and listen to music for up to 5 hours, as weird as that sounds.  I prefer ground travel more than air travel because there’s more to look at.  I’m not taking any of it in, in fact, my brain is in a completely different place, it’s easy for me to be able to get lost in thought that way.  My eyes are just skipping around, seeing everything but registering nothing.  I’ll also miss the stories I’ve been collecting and the different places we stay at.  There’s too many good things about this!  But I’ll definitely be glad to be away from the quick paced travel and different languages.  Most people we’ve met know English, but sometimes it’s hard to understand.  I’ll like it when people can speak and I won’t have to think over their sentence.  I am also excited for some space away from my family and my own room to escape to.  The trail outside my house is another thing I’ll be glad to see.  I never knew how much I missed running on that thing!  But I hardly ever ran on it while I was home.  Maybe it was just the comfort of it being there and always being an option.  I’ve memorized a running route I’ll do when I get back just to refresh my mind of everything I may have forgotten.  I even missed school!  My parents are good teachers, but it’s hard to listen to them and take assignments seriously.  It’ll be good to have someone who specializes in what their teaching.  And, of course, I’ll be ecstatic to see all of my friends.  At least they don’t annoy me too much!  (I’m looking at you Liam)

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