Kuranda, Baron Falls & some Random Pics

We spent a day in Cairns and visited Kuranda. It was ok but kind of a tacky touristy town so we headed over to the National Park area and went to see Baron Falls.

I'm sad because the pictures we took really don't do it justice. It really was one of the most breathtaking waterfalls that I have ever seen. It was so huge we couldn't fit the whole thing in one picture. It had water falling in so many places into little pools that turned into new waterfalls. We were both in awe of it!

The hike to the waterfall was pretty amazing too. We walked on this elevated bridge above the rainforest. It was cool to see it all from a different view!

And now here are just a few random pics of Port Douglas...

They grow a lot of sugar in Queensland so we saw fields of it everywhere. Funny story we heard about it. Way back, a bunch of sugar cane harvesters were upset and decided that in retaliation they were going to burn down the sugar field. So they did, and to their surprise it only burned the tops off and not the whole thing. So it actually turned out to be a good thing, much to their dismay, because it made harvesting easier and for a long time that is how they harvested the sugar. They have train tracks running all along the fields so they can just put the harvested sugar right on the trains and send it away.
We were too cheap to eat out for breakfast every day so we ate cereal in our room out of the coffee cups :)

I apologize for so many ocean scenic shots. It was just so gorgeous and we just couldn't resist taking a million pictures of it!
We walked the beach early in the morning and watched as a completely cloud covered sky parted and turned into a beautiful day. I love walking on the beach first thing in the morning...it is the most perfect way to start a day. (Please don't let the oil ruin the beaches and ocean by where we will soon be living...I am so sad about this oil spill. It is beyond awful!)

Leaving for the airport at 3:30 am to head to Sydney. We were happy (and relieved) to return this car in one piece!

LOVED seeing these signs everywhere. You have to wonder if foreigners come to the U.S. and get excited about our 'deer' signs??? I looked everywhere for a Kangaroo in the wild but didn't see one until our drive to the airport so early in the morning. And actually, they were wallabies...Kangaroos aren't in North Queensland, as far as I know. I saw the wallabies hopping around in an open field on the side of the road and I was a happy girl!

Ahh, I am missing this place so much! I promise I am almost done posting about our trip...so sorry for the overload of pictures! All I have left is the Great Barrier Reef and then Sydney :)

The Rainforest Habitat, Port Douglas

We visited this Rainforest Habitat in Port Douglas where we got to see a bunch of native Australian animals up close. We were pretty excited when we walked in the door and saw this guy first thing

Our little Cassowary friend. This is a much better shot of what they look like without all the trees in front of him. Pretty cool, huh!

And I took a picture of this sign because I thought it was interesting how the male Cassowaries are the ones that sit on the eggs for 50 days to hatch them. And then they also are the ones to take care of the baby chicks for the first 9-18 months. I think they have the right idea :)

I loved this bird...I've never seen a black one like this before

Guy looks like he's just having a blast here, don't you think? Oh the things he does for me :) They had this huge area where you could walk in and feed the Kangaroos and Wallabies. I was pretty excited about this. I know the Columbus zoo has a similar thing but you can't feed them there. So we walked in and they were everywhere just hopping around. We tried to feed some Kangaroos but they were kind of freaky. Literally I think they could have beat us up because they were just so big. So I stuck to the little wallabies, who I had no idea were so small. They were so cute and would come up and eat right out of our hands. And it was even better when little babies started popping out of their pouches. Talk about adorable!

Isn't this the cutest thing you have ever seen! He kept popping his head out and his foot and tail. I think he was a little crammed in there! I really could not stop talking in baby voices to him...our videos from this are pretty funny!

There was this family there with a little girl about Tyler's age and she was so adorable chasing all the animals around. I missed my boys and wished they were there with us! They really would have loved this!

Ok, there were a few Emu's in there too and I think they had a death wish for us. They would just stare at us with their beady eyes and I'm pretty sure they were waiting for the perfect opportunity to peck us to death. Here is Guy and the Emu having a stare down. I literally could not get over to Guy because the Emu was blocking the way. I had to take a detour. I loved how there was absolutely no supervision in there with all these animals. Welcome to Australia. No worries Mate!

And this is the whole reason we went to this place...to hold a koala bear. Yay! It was a total tourist trap but it was so incredibly worth it! I felt like a 5 year old when they handed the little guy to me! I mean, its a koala bear...I don't think you can do this in the U.S. He was so soft and cuddly, even though we learned that Koala's are actually really mean in the wild. So I had to hold really still (pretend like your a eucalyptus tree, they said) and they had Guy stand next to me and just place his hand on him to be a part of the picture. So this is our little koala family picture it looks like. So funny! I think we really will hang this on our wall! :)

The Daintree Rainforest, Australia

The Daintree Rainforest was amazing. It was a little north of Port Douglas and we were glad we chose to rent a car so we could go wherever we wanted to in it. We went to a part called Mossman Gorge at first and then took a car ferry over to Cape Tribulation. It was all so green and fresh in there and we had fun exploring it! Crossing the bridge at Mossman Gorge. It was definitely a bouncy bridge!

A gorgeous scenic view looking over the rainforest to the ocean...way better in person though!

We read great reviews on trip advisor how yummy this ice cream place was on the way to Cape Tribulation. LIES. Our opinion: It was gross! But we ate it all because we paid for it. It was funny cause we would both keep stopping and saying, "Oh you can eat the rest. I'm done" and then the other one would say, "Oh no, you can have the rest." haha, that usually does not happen with us when the ice cream is really good! :)

Guy doing his thing and driving on the other side. He rocked it!

They had signs all over the road to watch out for Cassowary birds. I wanted to see one so bad so we were on the lookout the whole time! They are native only to northern Australia and they are endangered so we didn't think we had a very good chance to see one

This sign was funny. The top one is supposed to be a speed bump sign but someone turned it into a dead Cassowary sign. And one of our highlights of the trip...we actually saw a wild Cassowary in the rainforest. Another car was stopped so we stopped behind them and got out to see what they were looking at. Sure enough, it was a Cassowary back in the trees. This was the best shot we could get of him because he kept moving further back but I was seriously so happy. They are really rare to see! They are weird looking birds....kind of the size of an ostrich, red and blue head, and they have this huge crest on the top of their heads.

It was good we were there in the winter so we didn't have to worry about the jellyfish

The beach by Cape Tribulation. This was a really cool beach because it was the rainforest on one side and then the Great Barrier Reef on the other. These were some weird looking trees with their roots above the sand. We found SO many cool seashells that had gotten stuck in there. One of our favorite things to do on this trip was find seashells for our boys. I also decided to start a sand collection from the places we've been so I brought home a little Great Barrier Reef sand.

I loved all the twisty vines and trees that grow in the rainforest. It was just amazing to walk through and explore.

This was by far the coolest tree I have ever seen

Guy next to our favorite tree

We spent quite awhile exploring these rocks finding lots of shells and creatures. Our days seemed to always start out sunny and end up really cloudy. But luckily, we never had any really stormy days...just lots of clouds!

It's hard to see but there's a little crab up next to the left rock just hanging out

I did not see this water snake, or eel, or whatever it was. Thank goodness! I can remember asking Guy what he was taking a picture of and he said nothing. He knows me too well because I would have for sure freaked out. I was already panicking because of the huge jumping spider that was jumping from rock to rock towards me. I love nature but not always all of nature's creatures! On the beach you would see all these little rolled up balls of sand that Guy told me was turtle poop. haha. But really there are these little crabs that live under the sand and they roll up balls of sand and push them through their holes on the surface to make their tunnels below. It's pretty amazing actually because there would be full beaches with these sand balls all over them. I can only imagine how many tiny crabs lived below! Guy's money shot! We could hear tons of birds in the rainforest but it was hard to see them. Guy spotted these two and was able to snap a picture real quick before they flew off. They were gorgeous!

And we saw two crocodiles in the wild which was kind of freaky but luckily they were on the other side and far away. You can't swim in any of the rivers there because crocs are everywhere!

The rainforest was one of my favorite things we did in Australia. It's hard to pick a favorite but it is top of the list for sure!