Family

Family

Called to Serve

We have loved traveling and being with family for the past two years but we felt the call to serve another mission so here we are in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania for the next year.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Cairns, Australia

I thought that I had posted pictures of our trip to Australia but I have just realized that I had posted them on my Facebook page. These pictures are all of our trip to Cairns. We arrived a few days earlier than Jonathan and his family so Wayne and I took a train up to the Kuranda area and then returned via a Skyrail. The ride was fun and the scenery was great but I did not really enjoy the Skyrail. It is just to high above everything.!










Jonathan and his family joined us a the next day and we spent time just driving through the countryside.

We stopped at the Curtain Fig Tree. Those are all roots or tendrils hanging from one tree. We went on to see waterfalls, pastureland and just plain old scenery. Interesting and beautiful.





One day we took a 90 minute boat ride (each way) out to a pontoon in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef. The weather was not the best that day and it made for a very rough trip. I was glad I had taken my dramamine. I think a lot of people forgot theirs!

There was snorkleing and glass bottom boat rides. A lot of coral and fish were seen. They served lunch on the pontoon. If it had not been so cold it would have been great.




Another day, we went to the Crocodile Adventure Park. We saw kookaburras, Koalas, Kangaroos, Wallabys, Parrots and lots of Crocodiles.






We also got a chance to taste some crocodile meat.





This was a termite mound. Big HuH!


Later in the week we drove up to the Daintree Rainforest. Here and there along the way we saw Cassawary crossing signs. The birds are as big as an ostrich. We never really saw the actual birds but there were plenty of signs.

There were wonderful trails through the rainforest. We saw lots of really gnarly trees.



There were bird nest ferns all throughout the area.

Our last full day we went to an aboriginal theme park. We rotated through lots of areas where they presented the aborigine story and showed some of their skills. It was another cold day as you can tell by Lucas' attempts at staying warm.


The video is of a man playing the digaridoo. While we were in Cairns, Jonathan and Margo went to a workshop in Kuranda where they sell the digaridoo and he ordered one. When it arrived at his house in Melbourne the next week he entertained us with his attempts at playing it. I have to say, he did a pretty good job. Even Thomas was able to make some decent sounds.

1 comment:

Evan Excell said...

What a wonderful opportunity. You saw some great sights and weird things. We had the privilege of being in Cairns and other cities down the coast to Sydney. We took a basketball team over to play for nearly a month. Great trip! The GBR was wonderful. We were able to walk around on it after the tide went out. Great country. We may the chance to go again in a couple of years. Our daughter's family is going to Brisbane while her husband takes advantage of a fellowship in orthopedic surgery for a year. He wanted to go back to Australia, if possible, because he served his mission in Sydney.

By the way, we'll pass on the croc meat!

Excell's