Becoming the Tour Guide

Aussie term of the day...

The Pronunciation of "Dachshund" -  If you are from the States, the way you would normally say the name of this rather vertically challenged canine breed would be something like "dawk-son." Australians, however, say it rather differently (and wrongly I might add), the name coming out more like "dash-hound." Because that's totally what the word looks like... Although, someone did point out to me that they do look an aweful lot like they are dashing when they run because they are build so darn close to the groud.  But if someone hadn't clarified this for me  a while back, I don't know if I ever would have connected the two as being the exact same thing!

It was time to bid Cairns a fond farewell for a few days this week as we headed back down to Townsville for a few days of touring around my old stomping grounds of the past 5 months. The drive itself took up the better part of a day, much because of all the stops we made along the way! 

Passing by the Pyramid on our way out of Cairns

First it was a short stop in a town for some much needed coffee,  then a break to stretch or legs near Kirrimine Beach, a quick stopover in Caldwell for the potential to see a dugong off the pier (no luck this time), and then the side tracking detour near Ingham to visit the sight of Wallaman Falls.  

The falls are well known as the tallest single drop waterfall in Australia and boy is it beautiful! Even the gorge surrounding is beautiful and I can only imagine what it would look like during the rainy season!

            Despite the beautiful sight of the falls though, I think the highlight would have had to be the drive up to the falls where we were beyond lucky to have the privilege of seeing a wild cassowary! We had just passed one of those “watch out for cassowaries” signs and my mom had just commented on how cool it would be to see a wild one. No sooner had the words escaped her lips than we saw this dark shape walking down the road towards us and we all stared in utter disbelief as this cassowary walked straight up to us, gave us a good long and curious look, and  proceeded to circle our car for the next half an hour. 

            We had several theories as to the reason for its extended and undivided attention; maybe it was sizing us up as a potential threat to its territory, maybe it was just being plain old curious, or maybe, and possibly the more likely reason, it was hopeing beyond hope that we would somehow be brave enough to feed it. We finally had to just drive off and leave it standing there in the road so we would have time to get to Wallaman Falls and back to Townsville in time for other activities. But wow, that was cool!

              We got to Townsville just in time to make it to the evening church service over at Northreach and then afterwards we made the short jaunt down the road to Cactus Jacks where my parents got to meet some of the amazing group of church friends I have made while living here.  Of course, they had to experience those oh so infamous chocolate nachos too! 

Our first full day, we made it a trip to Billabong Sanctuary where my parents got to have all the “Aussie” experiences I had when I first got here including holding the wombat and a koala…

            … handling some snakes, feeding the cockatoos, petting the birds, posing with the young crocodile, ‘enjoying’ the screetching and squabbling of the gigantic flock of plumed whistling ducks that are constantly seeking to be fed… I think to say that they were a little excited to see some of the animals up close would be a bit of an understatement!

My Dad, the Black-headed Python wrangler

I loved it just as much as I did the last time of course, and I even got to see a few new things this time including the Tawny Frogmouth during the free flight birds show…

Really though, how cool looking is that bird?! Oh alright Dad, you're not too bad yourself.

… and some new snakes during the venomous snake show including the Inland Taipan and the Common Brown, numbers one and two as far as the world’s deadliest snakes go. 

            We ended off our trip for the day with dinner up the top of Mount Stuart and watching the sun set for one of the last times over the city of Townsville. I cannot tell you how much I am going to miss it here; the people and the experiences I have had.  They will certainly be ones that I will never forget and will remember and look back on with fondness until the end of my days.

            That night was my ‘final’ final trip over to the church for the Monday night Bible study meeting. It was the beginning of a new series on Exodus and as such it was decided to make it a showing of a childhood favorite film, The Prince of Egypt.  Great way to introduce my parents to the happenings of Monday night Life Groups J. 

            And because there is no rest when traveling, the next day we took a day trip across the ferry and over to Magnetic “Maggie” Island.  We made sure to make our first stop the Forts Walk for a chance to see some wild koalas as it is apparently home to one of the largest wild koala populations in the world.  And see them we did! Three of them in fact. The first was a momma with a baby and the last was a... well, very obviously male let’s just say.

Momma and baby koala

Arriving back to the bus station at that oh so perfect time during the wait between buses, we decided to just say heck with it and hike the track down to our next destination at Horseshoe Bay.  I think by the end of the day we must have walked a good half the island in total and I didn’t even feel the least bit guilty when we all got gelato again at one of the beaches for probably the second time that week!

            Day four, and the final one for us in Townsville, was one to see the local sites and introduce the places that hold a special place in memory for me.  There was the Palmetum, where I had seen my first flying fox colony, then a walk around uni and getting coffee at Miss Sushi which had become my favorite coffee place and where I once achieved the impossible by biting my tongue while drinking a liquid.  Can someone please explain to me how in the world that is even possible!?

            We dropped by the Museum of Tropical Queensland where I had first learned what cyclones were like in the cyclone simulation room after the disappointment of the anticlimactic Cyclone Ita and where I had seen my first semi-real cassowary (it was stuffed).

Touring my parents around Reef HQ

            We toured the Reef HQ aquarium where I once had seen my first hawksbill turtle and gotten a glimpse of the things I had the privilege of seeing later on on the Great Barrier Reef itself.  We met up with my good friend Julia down at Juliettes for our final farewell at the place where we had had our first outing together when we had started out our weekly meetings. We walked down the Strand where I had once experienced my first view of what the Australian beach front was like. Oh yes, and I had to drag them out to watch the final of the three origin games with me and I finally got to see the Maroons win at last!

            It has definitely been a few days filled with nostalgia and the remembering of times past. It’s funny sometimes how you don’t quite realize how much something meant to you or how much you will miss something until it dawns on you that you may be experiencing it for maybe the last time. But I will always have the memories of this place, and some mighty fantastic ones they are at that!

My final walk down the Strand