Hey, I’ve been absent. You know the struggle of junior year! It’s been pretty hectic but I have found some time to write.

Our days in Sydney were over as we took a flight towards Cairns. From Cairns we would drive to our destination Port Douglas.

Port Douglas Day 4:

After we landed in Cairns we needed to take a rental car for our hour drive towards Port Douglas where our AirBnB for a few days resided. Hunger was growing in the car however, the 3 hour plane ride did exhaust people, so we stopped by a restaurant called Noodle House on the way. The noodles I got were super savory and sweet and impossible not to finish.

Before we got to the airbnb we made a few stops. The first one was to see the cliffs of the beach with amazing sights. The only downside was it’s not a usual tourist destination so therefore there aren’t any ways to get there safely instead of crossing the busy road. The road is not only busy but since it’s in the mountains a lot of cars can’t see people walking until last minute because of all the curvy roads on these mountains. After getting a taste of the ocean we got back into the car after narrowly being run over. We headed towards an aboriginal art making class where we would make our own boomerangs. Now our boomerangs look different compared to the traditional ones because our appointment was last minute or something happened but the people of the art workshop didn’t die our boomerangs black, which they were supposed too. Our instructor who was aboriginal told us that the dots signify rain. To draw the designs he only gave us a toothpick and that’s how we drew our dots.

It was super fun to create such artwork, afterwards it was finally time to actually go to where we would be staying. According to my friend, we booked a super fancy Balinese styled villa. The thing about this house was that it was split into two, you enter the villa and there are three bedrooms and a laundry room. Then at the end of the small hallway there’s a door that leads to an outside patio with another part of the house on the other side.

After that I took a really nice nap while some of my friends went to a grocery store to get supplies or explore the premises. We did all decide though that for lunch we would head to Lagoon House, which is a restaurant in this really nice hotel in Port Douglas. Yes today was more of a chill day but we just landed in Port Douglas and we wanted time to relax for our very busy day tomorrow. The hotel premises were super nice, there was one pathway that my friend and I found that led straight to the beach. It was such a cute secluded little pathway that looked so pretty I was taken aback by the sheer beauty Earth could offer. I would have stayed there forever, but my friend scared me by saying there might be crocodiles that come out at night.

Dinner was really good. The menu was Asian themed so they had Indian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc. I ended up ordering Korean Fried Chicken and some broccoli. It was a really nice dinner to end a day with.

Port Douglas Day 5:

We woke up early to head towards a wildlife center, today, I would be swimming with crocodiles. Of course there was a glass separating us, but when I was underwater with my snorkeling mask on the glass looked downright invisible. The snorkeling mask I used seemed to work as well but other than that it was a fun experience. When we were in the water, the zookeepers were feeding the crocodiles so they were snapping their mouths and everything. One of them gave me a death stare underwater. After being “eaten” to death, we had a private tour to see the rooms and animals the zoo had to offer. The tour guide told us that the animals in the zoo are only native to Australia. So there weren’t giraffes or anything.

Afterwards we were picked up by a tour guide named Juan for a different private tour. This tour he would show us all of the aboriginal ways of eating, hunting, etc. We first started our journey at the beach where we threw spears, I thought I would be pretty good at it, however I wasn’t expecting how light the spears were. This resulted in the wind taking it away easily. Our tour guide tried challenging us to hit a coconut that he put onto the beach, and when I tell you that was really hard I’m not joking. He led us onto the beach, it was such a surreal experience being part of the nature, we looked for crabs here before Juan led us to the Mangroves. This part was such a fun adventure, we clambered our ways past the roots of the trees into the squishy mud to search for a crab. A lot of my friends wore water shoes, but I wanted to be part of the nature and decided to go barefoot. It did come with its pros and cons, pro my feet felt like velvet after I took a shower that night, con I did get plenty of mosquito bites on my feet and legs. We scavenged the area looking for a crab, which we did find! We ate this for dinner and it was so good. After taking us to the beach, Juan, our tour guide, led us back to the shore and back into the van where we drove into the forest. This area was known for its rainforests and we were going to explore it. There were a lot of parts of the tour of the rainforest would we would have to take off our shoes and then wade through the river, the water was chill and the clouds above us looked as if it would start to cry. The end destination of where we were going was this rushing river. We sat for some time at the river side and Juan found some green ants on the forest floor and ate them. To our surprise they’re edible and taste like a citrusy fruit. I did not try them because eating something alive felt totally new to me, but looking back on this day I should have taken that opportunity. Later after that Juan picked up this sort of furry spiky thing that looked like a fruit, he took a rock to break it open revealing a nut inside. I did try this one and it tasted just like an almond. It was so cool to experience and understand the lives of those previous before us. Knowing this stuff can really open your eyes about people as a whole.

Port Douglas Day 6:

I started off my day with some breakfast, it was these two eggs absolutely smothered in tomato sauce, with sides of bread. It was a great meal to wake up with, I had protein, carbs and fruits in my system and I was bouncing off the walls to see what we would be doing today. We were going to go to some zoo in the Daintree rainforest. Unlike the other zoo we went too, this zoo was more in the wild compared to that of the last one we went too. This was an interesting experience, especially because I got to see the most poisonous frog in the world. They also had a prehistoric section of the rainforest, and that warmed my heart.

Afterwards we went to this sandwich shop that was known for serving all types of meat, like those of Kangaroo, emu, and crocodiles. I got myself a Crocodile sandwich, and you know what, those Crocodiles taste like chicken but more denser. It was an ok meat but a little disturbing to realize I was eating an animal that is well known for being scary and attacking people. My friend joked to me while I was eating it “Oh how the tables have turned.” Insinuating I hope that crocodiles are known to “eat” people. After eating our lunch we had a reservation for an exotic fruit tasting tour, which is something I wasn’t expecting. There were some fruits I knew about but never tasted like: Star fruit and Custard Apple and then there were some that seemed not human like the Pomelo or the Yellow sapote. So let me tell you which fruit is which. The red fruit that looks like a tangerine is actually called a pomelo. This was a very citrusy fruit and way too sour when I first tried it. The fruit above the red one is the cacao as in the fruit used to make chocolate cacao. This was a very intriguing taste as it was pretty sour compared to what its pulp is made for. The one above that is the Rasaboy (or I hope that’s how you spell it) and then star fruit which was pretty good. It had the same texture as a pear but it was more sour. The one at the bottom next to the Pomelo is the yellow mangosteen, now out of all the fruits this was the most sour. When we all first tried this fruit all of my friends and couldn’t keep a straight face. Above that is the custard apple which is this sweet fruit that honestly was my favorite. Then above that is the black sapote which was super sweet, it tasted like chocolate and it had a texture just like yam. Above that is a Longin which is just like lychee and then lastly the yellow sapote which was so much more sour compare to its familiar. While we were leaving the area, I saw the hugest spider ever and freaked out.

Super fun day, while we were leaving I managed to take a picture of our surroundings before leaving the house that held the exotic fruit tasting. While we were trying to get out we realized our car was stuck and not moving. This did cause some chaos with all of us as we tried to figure out what to do because we parked our car into a somewhat ditch. We did manage to get it out after a couple of minutes of slamming on the pedal and on our way to a quaint ice cream store in the rainforest. There were so many flavors to choose from: Dragon fruit, Passion fruit, Daintree forest, the classics, Coffee and more. I chose the dragon fruit one and I was expecting it to be tart but it was super sweet and creamy. Not like a sorbet at all.

Port Douglas Day 7:

Today was our last day here in Port Douglas before we hopped over to Hayman Islands. We wanted to make this day more memorable, so memorable in fact I was willing to go on this sort of drop swing in the middle of the rainforest to see that extra thrill.

We woke up fresh and early, it was currently pouring and we were heading over to the area in the middle of the rainforest that offers bungee jumping. Now I didn’t exactly bungee jump, I did this huge swing that dropped me and flung me through the trees. Also the thing is, I wasn’t going to do it at first and then changed my mind. Kind of bad for me for I didn’t bring a change of clothes and it was pouring so I was completely soaked afterwards. It was hilarious to see the reaction video they took of me as I had a go pro attached to my wrist. My friends said I was smiling the whole time while compared to them they were spewing prayers and making all kinds of awful faces. The rain started to simmer down a little and we headed back into the car to do this gondola thing. It came with some really pretty views. The gondola takes you all the way to a little town at the top of the mountain where tourists raid the areas shopping at the cute markets and dining.

At the very top we explored the markets and a lot of my friends found this really aesthetic store, apparently it was really “preppy” to them. They found some flower clips and some cute things they wanted to bring back home to display in their rooms. We did find a little cafe where I got an asian salad because I felt very healthy in that moment. Note to everyone: I defiantly did not eat healthy on this trip, sorry mom. The rest of the day definitely went by super fast, we mostly explored the little town before deciding it was too late and needing to head back. We found a super cute authentic Australian restaurant, named Ochre. I say this because we had kangaroo skewers and it was certainly divine. Kangaroo tastes just like pork and honestly couldn’t tell a difference if you never told me the animal I was eating. Next I ordered myself some sashimi because I LOVE sashimi, especially with sushi. I like tuna, but I prefer salmon and other things more. We also ordered a tray of meat that had a platter of emu, kangaroo, crocodile and salmon. So for appetizers we were good, then when selecting our entrees it was hard what to choose so I shared with one of my friends, I got a salmon entree and she got shrimp. We also ordered fries because everyone that came on this trip is MADLY in love with fries. Lastly for dessert we treated ourselves with sugar, a lot of sugar, not that we needed it. Getting a creme burle and a chocolate mousse.

That was our time in Port Douglas, our last destination in Australia before packing up and going back home was Hayman Islands. We were really sad to be going because it marked the ending of our trip. We were really excited though because Hayman Islands is KNOWN for their beaches. City check, rainforest check, and now onto the beach.