Part II
So Louma and I decided to catch a bus to Kuranda, we had to get out of Digger Street. By this point, Levi had a new job, working twice as much (he’s a tour guide in the Daintree!!) James and Sarah were staying at Kate (James’ and Levi’s mom’s house) and Sarah was also working, so we needed to get out and away. Unfortuantely the markets were closed by the time we got there. But our main goal was to join the locals on a river cruise anyway. Oh, I forgot, Levi met us up there for lunch, but he then decided to go home. So we made it to the river and we were th only non locals on teh boat. But everyone was kinda boozed up and they were cool with it. It was a fun little cruise, everyone just chatted and played music while we went up and down the river, in the middle of the rainforest. We brought out tent, thinking we’d camp out by the river that night and this one lady made it her life mission to help us find a spot for out tent after the cruise was over. She sought us out after the cruise and walked us all over town (its tiny…way smaller than GB proper even!) showing us where wee could pitch the tent, then she wanted to show us the one bar that the whole town was going to that night. We weren’t completely sold on camping in Kuranda that night, as much as we wanted out of Digger Street, it was “Digmas”, the Co Op’s Christmas party so we told her we would just hitch a ride home. On the way to the highway, she said she had a secret she wanted to show us…we thought…man this is weird, but ok. We followed her to a fence and she opens it up to rows of huge cages full of koalas!! BEST SURPRISE EVER! As we walked past she told us their names and then she opened one of them up and handed them to us. It was so cool! I paid for that a few months ago! But koalas are so beautiful. They are smart too, even if they sleep over 17 hours a day. They are like dogs, even. They know their individual names and come when they are called. When one wanted to be held, like a pet, it started to climb to the lady, and if it didn’t want to be handled, shied away. It was so cool! I love koalas, I wish I could bring one home, just for you, Jim ;)
Caught a ride home within 1 minute of being on the road, got dropped off at our back door and joined the festivities of Digmas which was a bunch of older artists jamming and drinking and talking about…art. It was good.
A few other nights we’d have parties just our group and it was fun. Our last night before Louma and I decided to hitch hike down south we had one and painted our faces in blue war paint. Done with cairns, next post will be about hitching and the amazing people we met.
