This morning we flew from Uluru to Cairns, so in the span of four days we’ve traveled over two thousand miles from Australia’s southwestern coast through its center to the northeastern coast. Cairns is where our weeklong Great Barrier Reef diving trip starts in three days, but until then we’re spending a couple of nights further north in a rainforest that is around 180 million years old, making it one of the oldest rainforests on Earth.
After checking in to our ecolodge and giving Audrey time to photograph the very large spiders outside of our room, we ate dinner next to a small pond with several of the world’s largest tree frogs hanging out on leaves nearby. There were also some distressingly active spiders ensuring that the mosquito population was kept in check, as well as the biggest moth I’ve ever seen watching over the entire scene. Audrey has been in her happy place since we arrived, but while I’m a big fan of the frogs, I’m going to need a bit more practice before I’m totally OK with having golfball-sized spiders bungeeing in throughout dinner.
Our plan for tomorrow is to go for a drive to look for cassowaries and whatever else pops out of the rainforest, and in two days we’re planning on an early morning river trip to spot giant crocodiles (as one does). Somehow I’m down to the last two weeks of this long sabbatical, but that two weeks is going to be filled with plenty more epic adventures.
