The adventures of Jeremy and Bridget part 2: Australia Part One: Cairns

My parents and I took the first two weeks of January to go on an adventure through Australia! Fondly referred to as "Oz" it definitely felt at times like a make believe place. I left from Chicago and 40 hours later we arrived together in Cairns. Then began the 2650km (=1,600miles) road trip to Sydney.

It sure doesn't look that far on the map, but it was quite a hike! We arrived in Cairns and picked up the rental car easily. Then... dun, dun, dun... I had to learn to drive on the other side of the road. Slow and steady with LONG right turns and EASY left ones - that is how I remembered to stay on the wrong :/ er, LEFT side of the road. The main givaway was that since everything is switched, I usually hit the windshield wipers instead of the blinker at least once per day.

That night, we went out to explore Cairns (pronounced Cans) and it was so pretty! Enjoy some pictures below.

We walked along the Esplanade and enjoyed the beautiful view of the mountains and the ocean. Notice that no one is in the ocean because of Stingers - jellyfish that are REALLY BAD off the coast of north eastern Australia from November to May.

We got further toward downtown and the sun was going down... and all the sudden....

BATS!

Hundreds... probably THOUSANDS of these HUGE BATS started flying around everywhere. The picture above is just the beginning... they kept coming and coming and COMING! I couldn't get a better picture because, like I said before, the sun was going down. Apparently this is a phenomenon that happens every night, so not everyone else was astounded like we were. The fruit bats are native to this area and (thankfully) don't usually attack humans. They are after the big juicy fruits that grow all over Australia.

The next day we went to a park called Barron Gorge. We walked along a lovely path that led down to a pretty waterfall. Enjoy the pictures below!