Thursday, June 21 - Cooktown's Finest

This morning we had some plans to talk to the city council of Cooktown. This city is amazingly beautiful, and not seen by many. I said we drove a long time on Wednesday, that's because this place is far North of Cairns, closer to the Cape York Peninsula. Also, here is a picture of Australia vs. the US in size, it surprised me when I first saw it.

Cooktown relies mostly on tourism, however unlike Cairns, tourism is not booming. There is maybe two streets with businesses occupying lots but the architecture is beautiful and the shore is full of history. My friends and I walked along the shore for about 2 hours I'd say in awe of the town's artifacts. First, here are some photos of us on top of the Grassy Hill, a hill showing most of Cooktown from the top. Absolutely beautiful. You can also see the river leading to the ocean looking like a snake. The tale is that a snake slithered through the land, creating the river and he curled up in the ocean, creating one of the mountains.

A councilman from the town took us to the end of the shore of Cooktown. This was absolutely beautiful, so beautiful my friends and I went back at sunset. There was a Powder Magazine, or storage house, from a long time ago still preserved. Here are a few pictures, the first has a perfect spot for tanning on that large flat rock with the view of the ocean horizon:

 If you look at the picture on the right, above this text, there is a bit of water in between the man-made shore. This was a recreation area for the public a long time ago. People could swim and fish off of it. Really neat to hear about some of the history while looking around.

After learning much about Cooktown, including touring the town and its new community center, we stopped at a James Cook University accommodations that were actually in Cooktown. We listened to another speaker, ate lunch and decided that the rest of the afternoon, we could explore Cooktown. US friends and I decided we were going to walk around the town and see what it had to offer. Before we left, we went back to the caravan park to drop everyone off except us, and found some wild wallabies!

Sharon gave us her cell phone and told us to call Matt if we needed anything. We were good to go! We stopped at the grocery store first, an IGA (Independent Grocery Association??) and bought kangaroo sausages for dinner. (YES I did try kangaroo! It was really good, and is really good for you!)

Then we began walking toward the shore. On the way, we saw Jackey Jackey's Coffee-- claimed to be the best coffee in North Queensland. We didn't try any though, they closed early :( The interesting thing I found with this was that later on the shore, there was a plaque speaking of "Jackey Jackey" being one of the only aboriginals to survive some kind of battle, from what I can remember. So, that must be why that little coffee shop is so important :)

This town had some amazing architecture that kind of reminded me of Old Louisville. Here are some pictures of what we found on the shore at sunset.

We went back to the caravan park and had some amazing pasta and garlic bread, I was so relieved. I was ready for something other than BBQ! More for you later, Cheers!

Mon. June 18 - Wed. June 20 - Class and 12 hour bus rides

MONDAY
Monday is just as rough in Australia then it is back home. We had a long day beginning at 9am. The course was titled "Creating a Green, Sustainable Environment". At first, this class wasn't my cup of tea, probably since we talked a lot about land tenure in Australia and all the legalities of owning land. So, after hearing about all of that, I was tired. I visited the library to work on a paper that had a due date pushed back, but I left it on my computer. Here's me leaving the library...

TUESDAY
Not much different from Monday, only I edited my paper and turned it in. Matt also talked to us about his development in his research for the Box Jellyfish.

The Box Jellyfish is a deadly Jellyfish and is extremely popular to be found off of the Australian Coast during Jellyfish season. It has said to begin in October and last until April for the threat. The Jellyfish are in a Polyp stage when it's the off-season. They are harmless and hard to find at this time. Otherwise, I wouldn't get in the water. We also learned and saw a video on the Irukandji Jellyfish Sting. This is said to be the most painful thing a human can experience. Once stung by a very very small (these suckers are tiny), you won't know it until about 30 minutes after. Then, you will start to feel pain everywhere in your body. I'm afraid that's no exaggeration. Matt was telling us of his experience in seeing someone get stung by one. The pain can last up to 3 days and there is no anti-venom or cure. No thanks.

WEDNESDAY
Woke up early on this day to begin our loonggg field trip to Cooktown! I had no idea what was in store...first of all, packing for 5 days in a backpack just doesn't work. It was maximized in weight and comfort, just don't do it. My professor even claimed I was crazy for somehow attempting to fit everything in it!

We begin our travels going up a mountain near Cairns. This is actually a road at capacity and it incredibly steep, twisty and dangerous in my eyes. My professors said there are a lot of accidents. We stopped at a lookout on our way up:

We headed north to Mareeba, which happens to be our professor's town. The vegetation immediately changed once we were outside of Cairns. The grass was more like savannah grass and the trees were really skinny. Our first interview we had as a class for our project was at a waste center in Mareeba. The man talked a lot about what they were doing for the town. He took us up to the waste yard and showed us his compost he'd been working on. It was amazing the processes that they had. There was also this awesome dump truck that emptied its load from the side. First, Mareeba's vegetation. Then, waste.

Mareeba's Old Prison

 We drove a LOT that day, so I slept on the bus for most of the time. I knew that there wouldn't be many sights from point A to B. I did wake up at one point and saw a lot of smoke, that's right our bus crashed!

...That's probably a bad joke. What was really happening was the fires that they have every dry season. It's apparently healthy for regrowing vegetation. Here's what it looked like from the bus (pardon the "Auto Door" sticker)

 We also traveled to a Mango farm. There were so many Mango Trees.

 

Our last stop for the day was Swiss Farms, a Banana farm. It was really neat, I'd never been inside one of these. 

Above: Banana's not fully grown. Below: First wild wallaby photo attempt.

 Our night ended with checking into our accommodations...I didn't think it would be a campsite. We had rooms in trailers that consisted of either one full bed or two twin beds. I shared with Rachel. When we walked in, there was a spider and a gecko on our wall. I was not too excited, except the showers were incredibly clean and roomy. I did enjoy my shower :) Here's a picture of our room.

Cheers for now!

Man, I guess I'm not too great at this whole blogging thing...

So, it's Sunday, July 1 here in Louisville KY. That's right folks, I'm home before my blog is updated!

Turns out, I had SO much fun in Australia that I couldn't keep up with recording it! The good news is that I've decided to post the days and their pictures anyways, just because it will help me remember as much as I can in the long run.

I will also be posting the pictures on facebook, just as I have been doing. Thanks for following, even though it's a tad disappointing :( Cheers