Goodbye Winter, Hello Summer!

Today we woke up very early to see the sun rise over Uluru. We were not very hopeful as there had been no sun at all the day before. But, once we got to the viewing point, we did indeed see the sun rise...before disappearing into the clouds again. We then got to see a watering hole and the Olga Ranges. I was very sleepy and did not really remmber any of these little stops.

Much of day was taken up by our flight to Cairns. When we got off the plane, we were greeted at the gate by a gust of face-melting heat. Being from Los Angeles, I never, ever, EVER thought I would say this about the heat but IT WAS WONDERFUL!!! It was muggy, and hot, and awful, but we LOVED IT!

This didn't last long. The moment we were all in the coach, it started to rain. But, it was HOT rain. We started to make our way to Hartley's Crocodile Adventures. But it wouldn't be a visit to Cairns if we didn't stop at the beach! We stopped at a tiny little cove and hopped into the water, which we weren't supposed to do...

At Hartley's Crocodile Adventures, we got to watch some enormous "saltwater" crocs being fed. But saltwater crocs are incorrectly named. While freshwater crocodiles, or "freshies", can only swim in fresh water, saltwater crocs can swim in both saltwater AND freshwater, making them much more dangerous. (It also doesn't help that they're a lot more aggressive!) We also got up lose and personal with a cane toad, a python, and, best of all, a koala! As it turns out, Queensland is the only state in which petting of koalas is allowed, so we were very lucky we were in this state.

We were very happy after a long day to drive to our hotel and go straight to bed. Goodnight!