#also i could do this with wallabies but idk! idk it feels weird. they feel more special. is that strange to say..

[alexanderpearce]

my dad when i bring home another roadkill rabbit

[aliciaspassport]

koalas & cape tribulation

today was our first day not being on tour.. it didn’t feel too different though because about half of the tour was still in Carins. Hari got his own hotel (with a Jacuzzi - he never let us forget) and so did Emily & Jack. Other wise Georgia, Maria, Andy, and Sara all stayed in the hostel a few more days. We had to switch room though, D & I ended up going to the room that was across from our previous one. It sucked because we had to check out and bring our luggage downstairs and then recheck in later, only to have moved it across the hall. At least, we had it all to ourselves. However, we did wonder if any randoms would join us. Unfortunately, it stunk so bad from whatever mysterious stains roamed the carpets. While the others had moved down the hall. 

Kat said her favourite place was Cape Tribulation, and since we were near we obviously took advantage. Because they drive on the other side of the road, D and I booked a day tour. So up in the early morning we did once again, luckily we were used to it. the bus picked us up in front of our hostel and off we went to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Forest.

we started our tour with a new tour guide (not Kat).. i don’t remember his name but he made a lot of weird animal noises and was knowledgable about them as well. he did nature photography. the tour guide talked a lot but i think D and I just tuned him out for most of it.. oops. our morning started off on a coastal drive along the great barrier reef via the Captain Cook highway. we had the entire back row so, BONUS. the guide pointed out some crocs on the way, and we even turned the bus around to get a better look. This ones name was scarface or something, all the local crocs had names. he also pointed out the island which Steve Irwin died near - also only two people in the world have been killed by a stingray.. our first official stop of the day was literally just to break up the drive. It was a quick one hour stop at the Port Douglas Wildlife Habitat. It was a nice little walk around, the animals just kind of roamed freely but the best part was that we got to HUG A KOALA. OUR WHOLE TRIP HAD COME DOWN TO THIS MOMENT AND WE ALMOST MISSED IT.

Basically, the tour guide said that we could do it between 9:00 & 9:15 so we showed up at 9:15 because we didn’t want to listen to a nature talk, anyway so we show up and they were like are you with X tour and we were like uhhh.. were with this tour?? and they were like oh I think your time has already passed THE WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY WAS CLOSING, but we LIED and said we were with that tour. So, we happily paid out $22 and waited in line with not our tour. The koala’s name was Kodi, and he was adorable. I got to hold him for a whole 30 seconds, my time was extended by a little bit because he grabbed onto my hair. I just wanted to take him home!! Anyway the pictures were taken and the moment passed, but let me tell you IT WAS WORTH IT. D and I were high on life after that animal encounter. After 3x tries, WE HAD FINALLY MADE IT. BUCKET LIST SUCCESS. Anyway, after that we fed some kangaroos and wallabies.. they had already been fed by others so they weren’t very hungry.. even though it was the morning. 

we kept driving until we got to this cable ferry thing.. idk they were talking about it like it was a big deal but it didn’t seem that spectacular. it just crossed the daintree river. we saw some wild Cassowary birds which only live in the Daintree forrest, we saw like 4-5 total, one of which was a dad and two kids. Apparently thats pretty rare so that was neat-o. we had lunch at Beach House, a hostel type place. it was mediocre at best.. not very good at all. I would’ve loved to stay at the hostel though. If only there was more time. After lunch, we walked along the Cape Tribulation boardwalk to the actual Cape (i suppose). We weren’t 100% sure where we were going, the guy just said to go straight and we’d know where we were going..but the walk was lovely. Along the way there tons of little sandballs which were made my little crabs. It was kind of overcast, so it wasn’t pristine weather, but it was still B E A U T I F U L. As I just said I would’ve loved more time to explore where the reef meets the rainforest. 

we then met up with homeboy tour guide and went for a rainforest walk. we learned about trees n stuff. the foliage changed like mid walk, showing the diversity of the tropical rainforest, again pretty neat. we also saw some lizard at the very last second before leaving the forest.  Tour guide was once again stoked as they only live in that area of the world. After a quick google search, it was a boyd’s forest dragon. so far lots of animal encounters today.

It was now time to head back the other way, on the way we stopped at the Alexandra lookout point, which was supposed to overlook Cape Tribulation but it was pretty overcast so it wasn’t the best view.  We also made a pitstop at the Daintree Ice Cream Co. they made like weird fruit flavours, using what they had in their orchard or something. D and I shared a sample cup that had their four daily favours which included coconut, passionfruit, black sapote and waddle seed. t’was a neat little experience. the Tour guide said that his wasn’t something he always did because there wasn’t always time but i defs read it somewhere on the website that icecream was involved. 

after our icecream stop we were en route to see some wild crocs. so we went on this crocodile boat tour down the daintree forrest and since we were on a boat again, you guessed it, IT RAINED. not as bad as the other times and we were covered but STILL! 3/3. it kinda sucked because we saw 0 crocs as the river had risen and it was the end of the day. The guy tried to find a snake, but couldn’t find one of them either. Although he kept manuvering the boat into the bushes to get a closer look, in which i would end up in the trees. overall the crocodile tour was a dud and a waste of time. We only saw a bird, a rare bird but yet a bird. i don’t even think i took a picture of it. 

afterwards, we (finally) embarked on the long journey home. the tour was boring and kind of sucked but there were some highlights that made it worth it. Cape tribulation is definitely somewhere I’d want to explore more when I return to Australia. when we got back, we switched rooms and reunited with our (ex) tour mates. we hung out in the hostel for a bit as everyone got ready and said our final goodbyes to Kat. it was sad for sure, I still miss her a lot. I got her peanut butter as a little goodbye gift (along with a card & tip) because we had many conversations about our love for peanut butter. Also, some point between getting back and saying bye to Kat, I ran into a door which was hilarious - we were so hyper haha. Kat opened the door and was generally concerned for my wellbeing - what a sweetheart. 

After our goodbyes, we headed out to the Night Market for some eats. we also met up with Emily & Jack. We decided on some chinese food. We got a pretty sweet deal, a pretty huge plate for $10. Andy on the other hand continued his bad luck with food and went to a different place where he paid $12 for a much smaller portion. We was our charity case that night as we offered him food. after chatting for awhile and laughing at Andy’s tiny plate, D & I said our final goodbyes to Emily & Jack. Then the rest of us walked back to our hostels. We sat downstairs for a few minutes to use the wifi before saying goodbye to the rest of the group. Damn. now the tour was over and it was just D and I.