Our Final Post

Hi Everyone,

Our time here in Australia is winding down. Mom and Eddie's trip diving was amazing! They saw lots of tropical fish, sea cucumbers, beautiful coral, barracudas and even some whales!!! (See picture of whale's tail). That night, we went for dinner at a really cool local restaurant called Salsa. Our food was pricey but good. We had an eccentric French waiter who was quite fond of himself. After dinner, we went to see the infamous Cane Toad Races at the Iron Bar in Port Douglas. Eddie was selected to race a toad. If you are wondering how to race a toad, check out Utube and search toad racing. Eddie got to pick up his toad Ozzy, kiss it for good luck, and encourage the toad to jump off the table with a party blower, along side 4-5 other toads. It was hilarious!!! Too bad we left our camera at the hotel. IT was cool but Eddie got disqualified for scooping the toad with his hand. All in good fun.

Tuesday, we woke up pretty early to get a head start on our journey to Cape Tribulation. Our first stop was the Daintree river for a River Boat crocodile expedition. We saw some pretty awesome crocs in the wild- sooooooo cool. Our captain was a real outback type aussie and he let me (Kelly) drive the boat while smoked. He was sooooo great and could spot even hatchling crocs under trees in the mangroves. After our trip, we stopped along the path to get some photos in the rainforest under some giant leaves (take a look at the picture). We took the ferry over the river and drove on a crazy winding road up to Cape Tribulation. The drive was beautiful and the trip through the thick rainforest was well worth it. When we got to Cape Trib, we stopped at the beach and look out where the two world heritage sites collide (the great barrier reef and protected rainforest.) We stopped for lunch at a hidden restaurant in the back country called the cassowary cafe.

Tuesday night mom and I had a fantastic aboriginal inspired smoke ceremony spirit massage. It was incredible! Jesse and Eddie cooked our last dinner in Port Douglas.

On Wednesday morning, we got up pretty early to enjoy some of the day before heading to Cairns. Mom and Eddie did some shopping while Jesse and I had a great anniversary brekky at a local cafe (crazy fruits- it was good).

In the afternoon, we drove to Cairns and walked around a while. Jesse and I went to the lagoon for some sun while mom and Eddie shopped. We had a great anniversary dinner all four of us at an Italian restaurant on the Esplanade. We went to bed early, as our flight for Sydney left at 6am this morning.

Today, we were up really early and had a pretty good flight to Sydney. It's cold here, we're not used to it having been in the tropics for the last while. We are looking forward to coming home, but we will miss Australia lots. We've done so much and can't wait to share it all with you.

Hope you are all doing well and we will see you soon. This is our last post before our very long journey home tomorrow.

Lots of love,

From down under for the last time,

Kelly, Jesse, Rhonda and Eddie

The Last few days

Hey everyone

We've had a very busy/not so busy last few days. We'll start with a few days ago (the day after our last post). We took a trip to an aboriginal village called Kuranda. The way we got there... TRAIN. We took the Kuranda Scenic Railway (1000 years old) up the side of the mountain. The trip was quite breathtaking! Views seemed to go forever. The railway was built by hand up the side of the mountains. 15 tunnels (all dug by hand), and a number of bridges including a rather high one! We got to town and wandered around a bunch of little markets, and bought a few things, had some lunch, and then headed to the Skyrail (Gondola) to head down. This was a very cool way to head down the mountain. Hovering above the tree tops over the oldest rainforest in the world. What a view! We made a short stop on the way down where a ranger did a little tour and walk through a small part of the rainforest. We saw a tree that was over 1000 years old. It was easily 10 feet wide. He also showed us first hand how you can eat the green ants here! Well actually just their green butt... GROSS!!!

The next day we got up and checked out of our apartment and headed to down town Cairns and got a coffee, and wandered a cool market set up on the lagoon. Lots of things to see. Then we drove north about an hour to our last stop on this trip... Port Douglas. It's a beautiful town with lots of cool shops, and it's nice and hot here! We checked into our incredible accommodation for the night. A place called "Pool". There's a reason for the name. Basically the whole place is built around a giant pool. The rooms here go for 700 a night, but Kelly managed to find a deal that we only ended up paying about 20% of that. SWEET. We lounged in the sun for the rest of the day. During dinner that night we sat on the patio (over looking the golf course) and as the sun went down, out came the BATS!!! Millions of them. They started flying by and they just kept coming for about 20mins. Fruit bats apparently fly from the south every night to the Daintree River Rainforest to suck up the Eucalyptus oil from the trees. It was quite a sight. (Check the attached video below)

Next day, we got up, and layed in the sun again, and took off to our next hotel. On the way we got sidetracked with the hot sun and decided we needed a "Beach Day". We tossed on the sun screen and baked in the hot sun, and swam in the ocean for hours. then we checked into our next hotel "Hibiscus Gardens". We got settled, showered, and then got on the road to Tjapukai, a really cool aboriginal park. We went for a dinner show called Tjapukai at Night. Ed and I got our faces painted in traditional dot paint, and we all enjoyed dancing, singing, Digeridoos, and a buffet dinner. Then we headed home and hit the sack.

Today, Well this was a day where Kelly and I did something different then Rhonda and Ed. We ALL got up at 7 or so. ed and Rhonda walked down the the warf to board a boat to go diving and snorkeling (they'll have to post later to talk about it). Kelly and I got up and boarded a bus for Wonga Beach to go Horseback riding. It was a lot of fun. Kelly rode a horse named Julie, and I rode a horse named Bailey. We rode down some trails right out onto the beach where we got to trot through the ocean. We did a ride down and back on the beach and then did a trek through the rainforest. It was a really cool way of seeing the sights of the rainforest. We both had a blast. then we headed back to Port Douglas for a few showers and a lunch, which brings us to now. Ed and Rhonda will have to come down later and post something about their trip today a little later.

Hope you're all doing well. Only a few days left so we'll see you all real soon... WOW can't believe it's already been a month.

Cheers

Kelly, Jesse, Rhonda and Ed