Posted on Sunday, June 21st, 2015 at 2:37pm
Hey peoples! On May 8th I left with my study abroad group for our free excursion weekend. Here's what we got up to.
We left campus around 1pm in our bright yellow van. We drove north to Ingham and stopped for about an hour at the Tyto wetlands and walked around. We saw a few wallabies here and there and many birds. No freshwater crocodiles though. It was really pretty there. The water lilies here are purple. The next stop we made was at Hinchinbrook Lookout which had one of the most stunning views I've ever seen. There were several rivers winding across the land into the ocean with mountains as their backdrop. So beautiful. After that we stopped at Five Mile Creek for a short swim. I wasn't really in the mood to go in the water so I spent my time taking pictures and watching the others play. We made a quick stop in Cardwell to refuel and we went down to the beach for a few mins to take some more pictures. Finally we reached Echo Creek Homestead which is a cattle station in the mountains of tropical north Queensland. It was breathtakingly beautiful there. I could have lived there. It was so peaceful. After dinner we spent some time star gazing. So far away from the major cities you could see everything. I think I mentioned this before but it's strange to look at the stars and not recognize them or to see a constellation you recognize but it's in the wrong place. We also heard dingoes howling which was really cool and very eerie.
We woke early the next morning and headed to Tully to meet with our Aboriginal guide who would be taking us kayaking that day. We drove up to Tully Creek and got all of our gear ready. We spent most of the day kayaking down the creek. We had to go through I think it was more than 10 mini rapids which was interesting to say the least. It was really fun though. Our guide told us about how the different plants along the creek were used by the Aboriginal people. She also showed us the different clays they use to decorate their skin and what the different symbols mean. We stopped for morning tea on the banks of where the creek widened into a small pool. Our guide made and brought damper for us to try which is a traditional Australian soda bread that consists of a wheat flour based bread and is traditionally baked on the coals of a campfire. You usually eat it with golden syrup. It was so amazingly delicious. After grabbing some ice cream back in Tully, we headed to the Jackaroo Hostel where we would be spending the night. We cleaned up and then headed to Mission Beach to hang out for a few hours. I went off and did my own thing. I took a lot of pictures and am actually really proud with how they turned out. We had dinner as a group and then headed back to the hostel. I turned in for the night pretty early because I was super tired.
The next morning was another early start. We went for a morning walk at Lacey Creek and then headed to Alligator's Nest to meet with another Aboriginal guide who taught us one of their stories and how to pain boomerangs. We spent the rest of the morning painting. We had lunch and then a swim at the waterhole before heading back south. About an hour and a half from campus we stopped at Jourama Falls for a short hike. A half hour later we stopped at the Frosty Mango which makes THE BEST ice cream. It's all freshly made on site from the fruit in their orchards. Another hour and we were back on campus.
As always, pics are posted. Later peoples!
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