Day 2

After a long night’s sleep, we were up and ready to go by 7:00 am. Today we were traveling to Mission Beach, with a few stops along the way. While we were driving, we passed many sugar cane fields, which are being harvested right now. We also passed many banana (which Australians pronounce with the long a sound) fields, which were interesting to see. The tree that produces bananas can only produce one bunch of fruit a year, which will be harvested soon. There were bags around each bunch of bananas on the trees, which serves two purposes. The bags keep insects and animals away from the fruit, but they also create a mini climate inside the bag, which allows all of the bananas to grow and ripen evenly. While driving, we also went through the mountains, which was pretty scary at times, being in a bus.


Our first stop was Millaa Millaa Falls, which was a beautiful sight to see. The name Millaa Millaa comes from Aborigines who lived there thousands of years ago. When an Aboriginal name has a double word in it, that means plentiful or many. So the meaning of the name Millaa Millaa falls means many falls. After the falls, we made our way to Lake Barrine, where we were able to walk the trail in a rainforest. In the rainforest, there were these huge trees that have been growing for thousands of years. The trees were probably 10 feet in diameter, so they were pretty huge trees.
Our next stop was Lake Eacham National Park, where we were able to see Lake Eacham. This lake was formed by volcanoes many years ago, and this area was also used as an army base during the World Wars. It was a beautiful lake, and the water was so clear! Definitely much different from a Michigan lake. From Lake Eacham, we stopped to see a giant fig tree. However, this tree was not a normal fig tree, and turned into a curtain fig tree. This process happens over hundreds of years where a seed is deposited in a limb of the original tree, and begins growing. The root of this new plant finds its way to the ground, and eventually the other roots take over the original tree. Since the original tree is strangled, it topples over onto a surrounding tree and the roots take over that tree as well. After several years, the original tree is rotted away from the roots, which ends up being the curtain fig tree. Pretty interesting sight to see!


After we left the fig tree, our next stop was a crocodile farm. I thought that this was going to be boring because I can see a crocodile or alligator in the US, however, it was one of the coolest things that we have done so far. We watched several crocodiles being fed, which was amazing. While we were walking to one of the crocodile pens, I looked to my right and found a kangaroo hopping right beside me! It was one of several who came right up to us, and seemed very happy to see us. It was amazing because they were just like dogs! We were able to feed them and pet them, and surprisingly, they were very friendly. I have definitely fulfilled one of the things on my Australian bucket list by feeding and being so close to these kangaroos. We also were able to see and play with a dingo, which was very similar to a dog. However, if you see a dingo in the wild, it is best to get away quickly because they are very vicious and dangerous animals. They are somewhat of a problem in Queensland and New South Wales because they often kill family dogs or livestock. If you live in Queensland or New South Wales, you are able to get a license to hunt dingoes and can only hunt them during a certain time of the year, so kind of similar to deer in Michigan.


Once we left the crocodile farm, we were taken to our hostel for the night, and were able to hang out for a while before dinner. I found that there is a restaurant that is associated with the hostel that we stay at, so we get pretty good dinner deals. However, this dinner was especially exciting because the restaurant had kangaroo on their backpacker menu, so of course, I had to try it! I was a little skeptical at first, but I figured that I had to because I am in Australia. Surprisingly, it was really good! I found it very comparable to steak, since it had the same texture and was cooked very similar. It is kind of ironic that I fed kangaroo and then ate kangaroo in the same day, but overall I would have to say that it was the best meal that I have had so far in Australia!


Words of the day:
Bush – Forest or wooded area
Heaps – A lot of or many

Day 1

I arrived at the Cairns airport after a very long two days of traveling. The plane ride from LA to Brisbane was very long and irritating, but I made it! I’m really glad that I have 6 more weeks before I have to get back on that plane, but I’m sure by that time I will be pretty excited to be coming home. After we all got our luggage, we met up with our tour guide, Roger. He seems to be a pretty amazing tour guide so far and I think we’re going to have a lot of fun with him. We piled all of our luggage into the trailer and headed for our accommodation. Since there are so many of us going on this trip, we have a bus that fits exactly 24 people, so it was a tight ride getting from the airport to the hostel that we were staying at. Once we got to the hostel, we were able to explore for a little while before we all met for dinner later in the evening.


Carnes is a large town that makes most of its profits from tourism. There were many interesting shops and restaurants that were along the main strip. After walking around town for a while, we found some street performers that we watched for a few minutes. I came to the conclusion that all street performers do the same acts, (such as fire juggling, swallowing various objects and swords) no matter where you are in the world. After we made it back to our room, we headed out to dinner, which was free! After dinner, and a long day of traveling, it became and early night for me.


Words of the day:
Accommodation – hotel or hostel
Give way - yield

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog of my adventures in Australia! I will be using this blog to write about my day by day experiences that I have while I am in Australia, so everyone can be kept up to date on what I’m doing on my amazing study abroad trip! Total, my trip is about 6 weeks long, where I will be traveling along the eastern coastline of Australia, starting in Cairns and ending in Sydney. The first three weeks of my trip is just a vacation, touring Australia and seeing many things of the Australian culture and landscape. Sydney is where I will be taking classes, living with my host family, and teaching. I found that I will be teaching in a Kindergarten classroom, which I am really excited about. I will try to update everyday, but I know that sometimes the internet will not be as reliable as in other places. Feel free to comment and I hope you enjoy reading about my Australian adventure! :)

I am posting my pictures on Facebook for right now, but I will get an online gallery going soon!