Australia Day 8: Easy day and long way home

Emily and Greg of course weren’t ready to give up, so they were on the road by 5:20 AM heading back down to Berrima for a final chance at a platypus—I love that girl! They arrived just as you could see the water by natural light at about 6:45. They waited and watched patiently with no luck.  But Emily did see a solitary dark colored wallaby watching from the hillside across the river. Perhaps it was a final new species to end the trip—iNaturalist came through later with the good news that it was a Swamp Wallaby! No platypus but a new species so worth the long drive.

The other girls and I enjoyed sleeping in, watching the sun light up the sky from our hotel window and finding a lovely café for breakfast. 

We stopped at a grocery store for some treats to bring home for the other kids to try and Lily took some pictures of flowers on our walk back to the hotel. We watched some Phineas and Ferb while we repacked our backs and sadly put our still damp reef clothes and suits back into a trash bag.  

Unfortunately, the girls had not had time to buy souvenirs yet and there were no shops close to our hotel so we decided to just let them buy some at the airport, not our typical move but we were running out of time.  We had some trouble navigating the construction to get to the airport and get the car returned but it all worked out with time to get Lily a stuffed wombat, Emily a key ring, and Kate a t-shirt.

 

For our last meal in Australia I enjoyed another unique and fabulous salad and the girls ate at KFC and McDonald’s - no comment.  However, the McDonalds was pretty cool.  It was two stories tall with the kitchen on top and the order and delivery below with a visible system getting the food down and the orders up.  

The rest of the trip was a blur with lots of movies, reading, trying to sleep, and random airplane meals.  Kate must have been too tired because she left some Sticky's candy and her new tee shirt on the second to last airplane.  We arrived home Saturday afternoon tired but excited to see the kittens and enjoy a fabulous meal of chili and cornbread made by Deanna.  We tried to keep ourselves awake by unpacking but we didn’t last long.  As I got up to go to bed, I found Emily out on the floor.

 

While sitting in testimony meeting the next day I was thinking about our leeches when the dews of heaven rained down…I suddenly had a clear analogy about the leeches.  I shared my thoughts with the congregation and have thought on it a lot since.

 

I wish I could see the “leeches” that are sucking the Spirit out of myself and my family.  I wish the leeches of discouragement, distraction, depression, self-doubt, and pride, were visible to my eye so I could pull them off before they enter my home and take hold in my family.  Once they get in my house, they are much harder to eradicate (like those unsquishable leeches).  I need all the leech repellant I can get to help my children become sin-resistant.  The prophet challenged women to step up and lead and teach our children so they can be sin-resistant.  Sister Joy expounded by asking parents to make sure our children know who they are and why they are here, know the doctrine of repentance, practice daily discipleship (scriptures, prayers, sabbath worship), and are prepared to make and keep covenants.  There are so many leeches in the world trying to sneak in, but I know when we repent we can pull them off, we can heal from the bites and we can become more sin-resistant as we keep trying to be Christlike in all areas of our life.  

Australia Day 7: Royal NP, No Koala's, Kangaroo Valley for the win.

We enjoyed goodnights sleep and woke to muffins, Bluey chocolate milk, croissants and mangos for breakfast (thanks to Greg’s early grocery run).  We all relished a real shower, did a lot of braids, and dressed for the sun and animal adventures.

Map drama meant it took 20 minutes longer to find Whitney than it should have.  Royal National Park was beautiful, and we were excited to hike.  Much dryer than the places we had previously been, with sunny skies, we made a fatal assumption- no water on the trails = no leeches on the trail- WRONG.  Only about 30 steps into our first hike Emily found a leech on her foolishly croc clad foot.  Whitney kindly gave Emily her sock and we decided not to risk more leeches (she wasn’t the only one in sandals). We made a quick retreat to change shoes.

 

The beach walk was leech free, had great views, lots of kookaburras, but a bit too much PDA on the shore.  

Greg found a three-mile loop, and convinced the girls to do the whole thing, promising to turn around if it was too much.  Chatting with Whitney, we easily covered the first half mile before Emily discovered leeches.  These were a new species, and they were bigger.  Even though she had socks on they had squirmed into her croc and were trying to find her skin.  I took her croc and tried to get the two leeches out of it while Whitney helped her not fall over.  Then she realized there were several on her other croc.  Whitney held Emmy in her arms while Greg and I frantically tried to remove the stubbornly attached suckers.  It was hilarious and we actually remembered to take a picture of the leech.  After that everyone checked their shoes to discover leeches everywhere.  We covered that half mile back to the car in record time; everyone was doing the mom speed walk.  We figured the leeches couldn’t attach themselves if we were moving fast enough.  No more hiking and Greg started to refer to the leeches as tres leeches because there were three different kinds.

We headed to Campbell Town to search for koalas.  We scanned the trees and crossed our fingers - no luck.  The Koalas stayed in their hiding spots. (When Greg got home, he posted his trip report and a lady responded - “Next time you are in Campbell Town let me know before hand and I will find a koala for you - we see them all the time.” - bummer we didn’t make friends sooner.)

Whitney found us a classic Australian place for lunch with enormous portions and lots of chips (fries).  Emmy and I shared a plate of chicken schnitzel, an item we had seen on menus all over Australia.  It was quite good, and everyone was happy with their meal.  We said a tearful goodbye to Whitney so she could get to her rugby game, and we headed to Kangaroo Valley.

The drive into the valley was so beautiful with the sun shining.  We spotted a few different wallabies or where they kangaroos?  

Greg had read about a campground that was a sure place to see wombats, but our map was letting us down.  A nice lady walking her dog pointed us in the right direction.  We had to take a quick potty stop before we hit the road and Kate had to have a pic in front of this cool bridge.

Arriving at the campground we were informed that we were hours too early.  They let us drive in and just hang out while we waited.  Evidence of wombat holes and poop were everywhere, as were several dozen campers setting up for a weekend by the river.

We parked the car and wandered around chatting with friendly people, looking at interesting ducks and just killing time. Then we lucked out with a few wallabies hanging around for pictures and a nice kangaroo that let us take lots of photos. 

After being in the camp for an hour and a half we spotted a wombat who quickly retreated into its hole.  Then one of our new friends brought our attention to another wombat, unbothered by all our pictures and videos.  The girls wanted to give it a big hug, it looked so cute and fluffy.

At this point Greg looked at the time and the map and figured we could get to Berrima in time to look for platypus so we hit the road, enjoying more wombat and wallaby sightings on the way. 

 

The silliness on the car ride was epic, but not as crazy as the map run around, we went on looking for the Berriam quarry walk.  On our misguided meandering we did find this really old prison.

We went the entirely wrong way but while scanning trees I did find two little possums running through the trees.  Greg walked back to get the car, I had twisted my ankle at the campground and was struggling a bit.  While waiting I spotted another possum.  This one sat so still and waited for Greg to return and get a picture.  The walk was worth the fun of seeing some nocturnal life.

We finally found the quarry walk, just steps from where we had originally parked the car.  Our headlamps were pretty dim after all night searching and a wombat spooked us on the trail, but we made it to the platypus viewpoint.  We scanned the water till the headlamps died - no luck, but it was beautiful.  Arriving back at the car we were looking at ETA at hotel 11:00 if we didn’t make any stops.  We made dinner on the variety of snacks and protein bars we had in the car and sleepily climbed into bed by 11:20.  Our last full day in Australia had been wonderful, lots of new animals, beautiful sights, and good memories. 

Australia Day 6: Crocs and Barron Falls

Thursday morning Lily woke with a strange bite on her palm and Emmy’s leech find from the night before had left a mark.  We cycle through the shower and debate what to wear.  Most of us were running low on jungle clothes but didn’t want to wear wet clothes all day if the rain persisted, which seemed likely, so much for the shower. 

 

Opting out of the local breakfasts limited options we hit the road early and crossed the river to see our breakfast options on the other side.  

The Daintree village café didn’t disappoint.  Emily had lamington, a vanilla cake dipped in chocolate and rolled in coconut for breakfast.  We had been searching for it so when she found it she had to try it.  

We let the girls look around the local souvenir shop before heading to look for crocs.  

We were stunned to find sunshine - like seriously we hadn’t seen the sun in more than glimpses since we left Sydney.  I worried we might need sunscreen but didn’t want to bother since the boat was covered, I did drench all of us in bug spray which left us smelling bad enough no one wanted to sit by us and I never saw a single bug, did I say so much for that shower?

Our hour-long croc tour in the beautiful sunshine revealed the devastation from the cyclone.  The side we had just left had obviously been hit much harder than the other.  Our guide was entertaining and left us all with a healthy fear of entering any water where crocs may be present - “it’s too easy” to stay safe.  We were lucky enough to catch site of a little baby croc and a big female.  She was hiding but you could get a feel for how big she was.  We didn’t spot any really big males, but the girls enjoyed the trip and the sunshine.

Greg wasn’t feeling great, so he dropped us off at a café while we rested in the car.  Lily’s gigantic kids’ burger surprised us with its size and the Easter bunny meringue surprised us with how amazing it was.  

Our drive back to Cairns had incredible views of the coastline.  I tried to capture it but failed to ever get a good photo - cyclone construction had blocked off any viewpoint turnouts.  

We took a quick stop to see the agile wallaby only to realize that we had already seen them in the tablelands.  Still cool though.  The girls entertained themselves in the back seat with the Ditten Game - pretend to be Ditten while a sister pets you then suddenly nip and scare the petter.

 

Our instructions to Barron Falls were a bit off but eventually we found the trail and enjoyed a little walk and the amazing falls across the canyon.  The silliness from the car was still flowing strong with Lily and Kate running around and around the circular areas of the walkway pretending that they were a revolving door.

In Cairns we stopped at a Woolsworth for dinner.  The supermarket was in an upscale mall; we may have looked a bit out of place in our shabby jungle clothes complete with whiffs of bug spray.

At the airport we chugged water, enjoyed our dinner and Tim Tams knowing that there would be no food or drink on this next flight to Sydney. We said goodbye to Queensland, the reef, and the rainforest.  All of us were happy to arrive at our clean, dry, bug-free, air-conditioned, quite hotel room.  We loved our jungle stay but it was nice to end the trip staying in a comfortable hotel.  We spread out all our wet clothes in hopes of things drying (fruitless) and headed to bed.