Just keep swimming...(~Dory)

("While its fresh"- June 17)

I'm currently sitting in the front car of a train on our way up to the Blue Mountains. Looking out I see a sunny blue sky and incredible green landscape, the sun warming me through the window. I'm listening to a little girl playing make believe with her "Maca's" (McD's) kids meal toy and her dad. The rocking of the train lulling me into relaxation, ready for an escape from city life for a couple of days.
So much has happened since we left the farm. It was definitely hard to say goodbye. I know I'll see them again soon but for Ben it was bigger than see-you-later. He's leaving in just a few days now...it's been an amazing trip.
Most recently we traveled to north Australia, Queensland. The Queen wasn't there.
I have to say the city of Cairns (pronounced Cans(?)) itself was disappointing for me. I do remember a couple people mentioning it wasn't Cairns that was great but the location in general and the above and around which are so incredible (this held true.) Cairns is basically a big tourist town where everyone wants to go out on the reef or sunbathe in the park alongside the "beach," which looks more like a swamp, sadly. There are tons of shops, restaurants and people!! It was fairly easy to spot the locals and the small hole-in-the-wall cafes were my favorite.

The weather was gorgeous, as it is "the tropics," though I didn't use my swimming "cozzie (costume)" while staying in Cairns. There is an incredible public pool right on the beach front that slides in from the sides like a lake or ocean shore would. (Ben called it an infinity pool (?)) One of the days we chose not to go on another tour we just wandered around Cairns and of course, that was the day everything was closed for the Queen's birthday! We enjoyed the botanical gardens that day and a very yummy lunch. We also had some yummy Indian food in Cairns and we finally found some bubble tea!!

We stayed at a pretty good hostel and we had some awesome ping-pong tournaments there! The staff were super helpful in guiding us to find good tours for adventuring! One of those tours was Captain Matty's Barefoot adventurers! My favorite part was the natural waterside!! and the best road trip playlist ever :) There is a great publicity video of everything we did on the tour on Facebook (the link is on my page.) The other tour was out to the reef, of course! We opted against the sky rail and train up to Katoomba above the rainforest. Jungle surfing (zip lines) was booked up and so was the night walk through the rainforest. So we kept it simple which was fine with me.

The Great Barrier Reef is certainly magical. I think the view from the plane was more breathtaking than up close (good thing because I needed all the air I could get swimming in the waves just above it.) Ben had been snorkeling once before in Hawaii which he said was incredible but this was my first experience. The boat ride out was my favorite part. I love being out on the ocean and I think it would be so fun to work on a boat. (The Lonely Island song played in my head for a good portion of the trip, haha.)

We saw some beautiful fish and it was incredible to swim amongst them. We saw 4 sea turtles and swam with one for about 10 minutes. The coral was amazing, it's such an incredible and intricate world down there. I knew there were lots of fish hiding from us under the coral but I wasn't as brave as Ben who ducked deeper and swam closer to it all. It really felt surreal like I was swimming in an aquarium, so bizarre.

We rented a car for a couple days before our Reef tour and drove along the gorgeous coast up to Port Douglas and more of the rainforest. Pretty incredible to be walking on the sand with the waves washing up on your feet and ten minutes later be deep in the trees. We camped right behind the beach front one night and in the morning had a lovely walk in the warm sunshine along the coast. I had Ben climbing trees trying to get us a fresh coconut! We (he) came SO close several times and it was so exciting! In the end the fresh ones weren't ripe enough to fall off the tree and the ones on the ground had all gone rotten. Such a disappointment! He tried so hard! We did find a fun rope hammock swing underneath a palm tree though!

We wandered the rainforest on our own and saw the Mossman Gorge- big tourist attraction apparently. While we were there we went on our own hike that not many other people did and it was amazing. There were so many incredible plants and creatures. We were both mystified by the magic of the rainforest. We were nearly giddy. It was quite fun.

During another hike that day we ended up walking along with this tour guide and family of four. At one point the guide offered them a green ant to eat and none of them were interested, understandably! But I went over and after investigation and slight hesitation, I ate it! It was so sour!! Of course, then I had to find one for Ben to eat, he was much less eager but he did it :)
We also visited a butterfly house and stopped to play footy on the beach on the way home.

Oh! At one of the beaches I went out and waded in the water because there was another family out there with their dog and they seemed to be having so much fun. The water was so warm and so was the sun! The water level seemed really shallow so I kept going out further and further.. Ben said if he hadn't been sleeping and saw me out that far he would have been freaking out- but the waves were so calm and I was standing the whole time, plus I'm a really good swimmer. (Yes, I know about the rip tides but I'm sure in that context, it wasn't a worry- "no drama.")

Anyway, at one point the water was probably up to my belly and all of a sudden I felt a stinging on my leg and it took a second to register that it was probably a jelly fish!! I shook it off and quickly ran back up to shore. I was telling Ben about it- it didn't hurt too too bad but it was definitely stinging and uncomfortable. I pointed out to him where I was standing in the water and we saw a fin slip up above the waves right where I had been! Ben was pretty sure it was a shark and I was positive it was a sting ray. We watched come to the surface several more times and it seemed huge (whatever it was) as far as we could tell. I would've been so scared if I had still been out there and that thing was next to me!

Turns out it was a harmless manta ray and that beach (Pretty Beach) is known for it's amazing wildlife. The stinging from the jelly went away after a few days but I do still have a mark on my leg from where it wrapped around above my ankle. Apparently it has microscopic stinger things that are probably still in my leg and my body is trying to fight off the unidentified aliens!

We really did have a lot of fun up north and so enjoyed the beautiful weather! It was hard to come back to cold, rainy Sydney. I'm looking forward to all the other types of weather I'll experience in my travels.