Josette McLean

Arriving in Cairns was such an adventure! I lost my bag but was happy to finally meet everyone in person. We had lunch at the airport, and then we made the long drive to Daintree. I was pleasantly surprised by the Daintree car ferry that protected us from the crocodiles.

Later we arrived at Crocodylus resort at Daintree and were immediately greeted with an explosion of various flora and fauna and. The foliage was lush and the rain was loud and thundering. We had a wonderful dinner and settled into our rooms for the night. I was so tired I went right to bed.

The next day we had breakfast and then headed to a farmers market. There, I saw a variety of things including paintings, food, fruits and other artisan items for sale.

After this.we went to the Mossman Gorge cultural center where we went for a wonderful short hike and enjoyed the beautiful creek and the rushing water. After this we had lunch together and then we went on a tour with an indigenous tour guide. I learned a lot about the history and cultures of one of the Aboriginal Australian tribes.

Later on that day, we went to Port Douglas and walked around and saw many of the local stores, before picking up Hannah-Marie (and my luggage (yayy!!)); and heading back to Crocodylus.We had another wonderful dinner and headed to bed. I spent more time hanging out with members of my cohort this evening as I was less tired.

The next morning we got up early for a 5 hour hike through the oldest rainforest in the world. We learned a lot, but I was very exhausted and it was hard keeping up with the tour guide as he was walking really fast. Unfortunately, it was very slippery and I was about to fall, so I grabbed the nearest tree branch and it was most unfortunately a wait a while branch, and several thorns stuck in my hand.

A very exciting moment happened when I spotted a southern cassowary at Crocodylus. The whole group was looking forward to seeing it, but only myself and Ben were able to see it, as everyone else had gone back to the beach.

The next day we left Crocodylus and took a small plane over to lizard island. The pilots were very friendly and the flight was incredible, especially because of the views.The pilots thought we would not have known who Steve Irwin was, because we were American, and because we were young. But we told them that we grew up watching Steve and we really enjoyed his show.

We were picked up from the airport by Arthur, and we headed to lizard island. We helped unpack all of the luggage, and food ingredients and then we had an orientation to Lizard Island from Lyle and Ann. Then Lyle trained us on boat safety, and then we retired to our house where Katrina and Meg prepared dinner for everyone. We ate dinner and had fun, cheerful conversation.