Goodbye beautiful Dreamtime hostel in the middle of a city....HELLO beautiful beach house hostel in the middle of the RAINFOREST!!
Just a bit of history for ya...captain Cook (not to be confused with captain Hook) named this island after all the trouble he went through therefore calling it trouble ahead island or Cape Tribulation. The island does not have electricity or water...and I am in LOVE! As you will notice I fall in love with most things that are new and exciting to me...Well I love the simple life of living in the rainforest! Waterfalls, rockslides, endless trails and in Australia the Great Barrier Reef meets the forest! Breath taking!
I got into my room and two American girls were just arriving as well. They are nursing students from Philadelphia studying in Brisbane for the semester. We immediately click and go out for a walk in the rainforest together talking about America and all the funny things we miss about it. We were walking and were sandwiched between the rainforest and the ocean.....I was speechless! I thought for sure this has to be the coolest moment in my life......
I booked a kayak tour and my new friends booked jungle surfing so we went our separate ways in search of adventure. As I was waiting for the person in charge of my kayak tour I was really wishing I had booked a jungle surfing tour instead (my friend later told me that jungle surfing wasn't as cool as she thought it would be).....then Daniel arrived. He was my kayak tour guide and he was a wicked cool guy. Turns out I was the only one to sign up to kayak that day so we set out to get my wet suit, life jacket and kayak. Right before I set foot in the ocean, a 2 foot shark splashed near me about 5 feet away....I almost peed my pants! I was about to go kayaking in SHARK INFESTED WATER!!! Okay so the shark wasn't the size of jaws or anything but I was still scared but I had to be a badass since it was just the two of us....it was too late to chicken out plus Daniel didn't seem bothered. Daniel is one of 50 people who live in Cape Tribulation and my new best friend. He taught me how to surf in a kayak ( imagine that...two things I love together), took me over part of the Great Barrier Reef, found huge sea turtles, and let me kayak wherever I wanted! We surfed for a while since I was freaking excited to learn to do such a thing and surprisingly I only got knocked out of my kayak once! I kayaked right beside a sea turtle that was as big as a car tire....I thought I was going to die of excitement. Just when I thought things couldn't get more perfect, it began to pour down rain! It was the most beautiful sight in the entire world to sit on my kayak in the middle of the ocean and see lush rainforest wildlife surrounding you.....I wish I could describe it perfectly giving it justice....it was so beautiful! (sorry for the lack of pictures...I hate not having a waterproof camera!!)
The rain let up a bit and Daniel asked if I was hungry....of course I am...we have been kayaking for 2 hours at this point...so he got out organic juice and Banana bread made from only organic and natural products....if you wanna know how to win me over surprise me with a healthy little picnic in the middle of the ocean...or really anywhere haha...straight to my heart! It was perfect! We then made our way back towards the beach house as the sun was setting....I was floating on cloud nine! Soooo good!
After I returned to my room, took a warm shower (with recycled rainforest water) and got cleaned up I walked down a dark windy path through the rainforest to find the bar/restaurant for dinner. I was scared silly by a little animal that ran in front of me as I was minding my own business and I started screaming bloody murder.....maybe I wouldn't love living in the rainforest so much but visiting has been complete bliss!
I have really found the Northern part of Queensland so fun, quirky and interesting. It's filled with mostly backpackers and travelers. It's weird to consider myself as one of them but I don't remember a time that I have felt this happy, stress free and alive. I have this growing confidence inside me bursting out. I feel like I can do anything! Haha I know it seems like I am just vacationing but I am really learning so much from my journey. Things don't always go according to the plan I make up for myself...and I am learning that LIFE GOES ON...that's a pretty important lesson to learn.
I woke up at 7am to go for a nice beach run....but apparently I don't know anything about the ocean. The morning is high tide so the beach is covered in ocean..so plan B is to run on the paved "road" down to the end of the beach and back (estimated about 5 miles). I ran down the path up and down hills until I reached the lookout spot where the beach was. It was really pretty but the tide was still too high to run on the beach so I went back up the path and ran in the rainforest again...2 hours later I am still running/dying and haven't found the beach house. The rainforest all looks the same after a while. I pretty much ran 5miles all up hill until I saw some construction workers who pointed me in the right direction. I had run past the beach house street about 5 miles ago.....
My legs feel like jelly! My Nike plus said I ran 13 miles....I am just happy I am not going to die in the rainforest! So lesson of the day: Not all who wonder are lost...unless you are in the middle of the rainforest.
On our way home we stopped to go on a crocodile cruise..it was SCARY!! We saw three different BIG crocs and a couple of little babies. Even the Babies are pretty scary!!!!Its weird that they can survive in the ocean...I would not want to swim with them ever!!! It was really cool getting to see them and understand their habitat a bit more. This has been a really AMAZING trip!! Just what I needed!!!!!! Now back to DreamTime for some sleep!!
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