Hacking Through the Rainforest

Out of the outback and into the rainforest. We landed in Carins, slept, and awoke to day day 21. Carins is a beach town but is really touristy, so the day wasn't insanely exciting. I went for a run with Sarah during which the floodgates of heaven opened, so that was wet. But we got to explore be city! About half the group went skydiving that day so they were tied up all day. But those of us without the funds went to the beach! It was called palm cove and it was beautiful. We splish-splashed and made silly hairstyles and it was delightful. Geyer took us all out to a "half-way done" meal [though it's more like 2/3] at a fancy restaurant, which was nice because the tropical weather allows all he registrants to spill out onto the sidewalks. We enjoyed the night and he got us wine and all that good stuff. I tried crocodile! It's delicious. Then we went to a slightly shady night market with really awesome stuff  like tiny glass elephants, hand painted boomerangs, all sorts of things. And that was Carins! The next morning we made a beeline for Daintree- a rainforest across a river right on the coast. The area we stayed was across a ferry over the river, up an insanely curvy road to Cape Tribulation beach house, nestled nicely in the jungle. It's no-kidding Tarzan status in there. Soon after arriving we hopped in a big van with jail-car type seating, where we all face each other in the back. The guy, Lawrence Mason took us to the edge of the dense rainforest and led us on a 4 hour tour through the steamy mess. He had a machete to hack through vines and everything, it was insane. We saw plants that can give you 24 hour stinging agony, huge spiders, vines that rip your skin apart, and the biggest trees ever. This was stuff I couldn't believe I was seeing.

Lawrence, machete, stinging plant.

Rainforest

Big tree!

The forest is the Daintree Rainforest, the oldest rainforest in the world. We walked and sweated and got caught on vines and tripped over roots and rocks. It was wet and slippery, everything you can imagine. We stopped at a creek and had a small rest from the labor of stumbling all over the place.

Then we emerged into daylight! We spent the rest of the evening relaxing at our hostel/resort, which was only different from the forest in that there was a paved path. It was a series of little cabins strung along a winding path from reception to restaurant. There was a path leading to the beach of Cape Trib, which was beautiful because the sand is always wet and hard, so you can walk right across it. At times, the water, sand, and sky were all the same steel gray color and it was like you were in a room with no ceiling or floor. It was such a relaxing place. For entertainment that evening we found a huge cicada in the boys bathroom and Nathan caught it. We then found an enormous spider in her web on the side of the path and threw the little sucker into the web. We had to tickle it with a stick to get Olga [the spider] interested but then she struck! She stabbed it with her fangs and slowly killed it while the cicada tried to box her. Then she wrapped him up a little with her long legs. Then she ripped its head off!! And we watched [and filmed] the whole thing! It was night time so we lit the scene with our head lamps, it was the most enchanting thing I've ever seen. All the people walking by on the path thought it was so funny to see 7 Americans clustered around like we were watching a discovery channel show. Wow Olga. What an artist. Was that really sick and weird of us to do? Probably. But we just came out of he bush so we were fine with it. Now we have driven all day to Whitsundays, a beautiful beach town. We'll board a sailboat tomorrow morning and won't get off until the next evening! While at sea, I'm going to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, the largest living organism on the planet! Wish me luck!