Cattle Country

We started off the day by venturing to the Longreach School for Distance Education. 160 students from over 800K attend this school.   After a tour we went to a local bakery in Longreach. Longreach = the capital of the outback.

Another sunrise in the Outback

Qantas first Jet Plane 

Stockholder Show  

Tropic of Capricorn 

Cattle 

At Rosemary's cattle station

these windmills mark stations

The best part about the long trip home was seeing the milky way and southern cross standing in the middle of a road with no lights around.

Land Down Under

OUTBACK!

Started off the day by stopping at a gas station called Oasis. This was and Oasis that wasn’t and oasis. 

Saw some wild camels on the way to the Dinosaur Triangle.... yes that is a real thing. 

Continued driving through a whole lot of nothing all the way to Winton. Here we had an amazing drover stew dinner with bread and rice around a campfire. It also ended up being a karaoke night! 

ON and OFF the Bus ( July 5)

Banana trees in the tropics! 

Lake Echem - Clear volcanic lake

Nevana Tea Plantation 

Millaa Millaa Falls 

REST STOP FOR THE NIGHT: Had the best T-Bone Steak dinner here!!

Monarchy Range National Park 

Monarchy Range National Park

Pyramid Mountain

Independence Day

Fourth of July in Australia, not a big deal. (obviously).  However, the NoMads hostel threw us a little 4th of July bash after a morning at Tjapukai Aboriginal Culture Center. This culture center reminded me of a MA Sturbridge Village. This center brought awareness to past hunting and gathering ideas, historical dance, and I even got to throw a boomerang!! Shocker, they don't always come back.

Safe Floating Position

Today I participated in extreme white water rafting on the Tully River in one of the oldest Rainforests in the world. For 12k, I crazily sat in the front of the boat and roared down the river.

After waking up at 545am to be on the bus by 620, and drove 3 hours into the middle of the rainforest, I experienced something I will never forget.

I cliff jumped into the river (twice).
I floated down the 'drowning simulator'. Mind you the name is no  joke - i felt the simulation.
I didn't fall out of the boat! (That was surprising).
I did go head first down a waterfall. When our guide told us it was gonna happen we all thought he was joking.. he wasn't. (reminder, I didn't fall out the boat..)
Our boat went underneath a waterfall. (That was some cold water...)
We hit some bumps  i.e. giant boulders sticking out of the water.
Stopped halfway down the trip for some barbie lunch in the middle of the forest.
Got a little rope burn, some bruises on my legs but ya know it was all worth it.
A butterfly followed our boat the whole time, maybe that is why I didn't fall out.

Here are some pictures:

Level 4 rapids. (6 is the highest..)

I am under the water... 

But survived (clearly) 

The rocks are actually from a really old volcano that erupted a very long time ago.

This one is my personal favorite. 

Definitely got the 'extreme' part.

I don't think our guide (JULES) got wet at all....

WOOOO, HIGH FIVE. (We liked to celebrate not drowning). 

Jules

Lauren - Katie

Maleda - BethAnn - Monet - Abby

I FOUND NEMO

If I had a bucket list, this would have been at the top… I went scuba diving and snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef! It is really hard to explain how amazing this experience was. After a rocky (very rocky) private charter boat ride out into the coral sea (to the point of not being able to see land), we took anchor and prepared for a swim. 

The boat: 

Above the surface - the different colors is the coral under the water. It was so clear and about 75 degrees in temp. 

 I don't think I have ever been so happy.

I rented an underwater camera and took pictures as I was scuba diving. I was one with the fish.

My awesome scuba dive instructor on our second dive.

A BLUE STARFISH. IT WAS BIGGER THAN MY HEAD. 

My Fins

I am standing on a sand cave in the middle of the coral sea. It was just a sand island. Snorkeled a fair distance to get here. 

The day didn't end after a day out to see. When we got back to downtown Cairns, we went to this place called the Night Markets for dinner and some shopping. We ended up eating at an equivalent chipotle called Zambero and I enjoyed a frozen margarita with my meal. 

The Night Markets is a late night shopping center with many food places, different markets and a night seen. 

After dinner, Abby, Monet, and I navigated our way through downtown Cairns to a wine bar called Contemporary Wine Bar. A longtime mate of Colin was playing in a rock band called Hearding Katz. The venue was small, quiet and so nice. We all ordered a glass of wine and listened to the live music with Colin. It was definitely very memorable, and I remember just sitting there thinking 'wow look where I am right now: I'm with great friends, who I only met a month ago, drinking an excellent glass of wine and taking a second to chill out - as Colin would say. 

Town in the middle of the Rainforest

July 1

Well it is July! Time is really flying, and my time in Cairns is going to be go..go..go! Today, we all boarded the bus early in the morning and headed to the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway. After a little gift shop shopping, we soared over the rainforest in a 6 person gondola for 2.7km. We saw the tops of ginormous trees, blue butterflies, a waterfall in a gorge, and the coral sea in the distance. It was a clear day and you could see for miles 360 degrees. The first station was Red Peak Station, where we tagged along a tour guide, and traveled through canopy layers of trees in the Rainforest. The second station was Barron Falls, where we saw the waterfall up close from an awesome lookout. The third, and final station, was Kuranda terminal. Kuranda is a small town in the middle of the rainforest with little shops, amazing opal stone stores, small cafe’s, a pub, and shops. I had an awesome homemade doughnut and iced lemon tea. 

(COLIN!) 

From there we headed to Port Douglas, but stopped at this amazing pull off over look on the side of the road for this view....

From there, we boarded the bus again and headed to Port Douglas. Port Douglas is like Saratoga on steroids. It was amazing- gated golf courses, a river on one side the coral sea on the other, expensive shops.. it was everything. We were only there a short amount of time, but it was just enough to eat a chicken snitzel at a restaurant and layout under a palm tree overlooking the river.  

                                           

After getting back to the hostel - NoMads, showering, and eating a really disappointing $3 dinner… nothing exciting really happened, we just to bed because we needed to wake up at 5am for an amazing adventure the next day.