Sand and Sunburn!

This past week has been filled with beaches, sand and sun! On Monday, Amy and I went to Cairn's Northern Beaches, and went to Trinity Beach. We were told it was one of the best in Cairns, and were expecting pretty white beaches. The beach ended up being very tan colored, and the sand was not very fine, lots of pebbles, and wasn't very wide. We did spend the afternoon there, as it was sunny and gorgeous out. We even went swimming for a bit in the ocean....until we got kicked out by the lifeguard. Unknown to us, it's stinger season, meaning the Box Jellyfish are near the shore. The lifeguard told us if we got stung by one of them, we would have 90 seconds to live...not a good idea to go swimming there. They do have certain areas at certain beached with enclosed areas you can swim in, but we weren't in one of them. We did wonder why no one else was swiming.

Tuesday morning we left for Cape Tribulation with the Tropics Explorer Tour. On the way to Cape Trib, we went on a River Cruise on the Daintree River, where we saw a bunch of Saltwater Crocodiles-these are the big ones, the ones Steve Irwin was always with. We also went on a walking tour through part of the Daintree Rainforest before arriving in Cape Tribulation. Cape Trib is a very small town, one of our guides said only 58 families live in the town, but it's a popular destination for backpackers. That afternoon we went on a walk along the beach, and went to the actual Cape Tribulation. It's named such for some explorer who had trouble running aground in the reef and called it the cape of tribulation. The beach was awesome, and the type of beach Amy and I were hoping to find-gorgeous white sand, and lots of beach. The sand is very very fine, and sticks to you like crazy, it's impossible to wipe off. I think I have sand everywhere in my stuff.

Wednesday we went snorkling on the Great Barrier Reef! It was so awesome! We went with the Ocean Safari Company, and I highly recommend them. We saw other boats on the water with snorkelers that take up to a couple hundred people at a time. The company we went with only takes about 25 at a time, meaning while snorkling you rarely saw anyone else, and there was no one else to disturb the fish where you were. The reef was so cool! There were so many fish, all different colors, and the coral was all different colors too. It's so hard to discribe how beautiful and how colorful! Just imagine snorkeling at the aquarium, and you will kind of get an idea. The only bad part of the morning was I got badly sunburned on my back and shoulders. I lathered up with sunscreen that morning, but being in salt water washed it all off. I'm hoping it turns into a tan, so I have a great tan after this trip! Wednesday night we went on a Night Walk in the Daintree Rainforest. The Daintree is the oldest rainforest in the world, and is a World Heritage Site. We saw a lot of huge spiders and some small lizards, sadly nothing too large, but even being in the rainforest at night was awesome.

Thursday morning Amy and I went horesback riding. It was a 3 hour horseback riding tour that went along the beach and through the rainforest. The guides were really good, and even let us gallop. Thursday afternoon we left Cape Trib on the same tour bus that brought us, and on the way back made a few stops to see one last bit of the rainforest before leaving. Thursday night we stopped in Port Douglas for the night. Port Douglas is a very ritzy expensive touristy town, with some of the best and most luxurious resorts in Australia.

Also, for those who have facebook, I've posted two albums of pictures from Brisbane. If you don't have facebook, you can still see the pictures.
The link to the first album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2194890&id=27216207&l=24c94ceafe
The link to the second album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2198299&id=27216207&l=e159fc322a

As soon as I can, I'll post pictures from Cairns and Cape Trib.