This was basically a free day so I slept in a bit and we spent the day coconut throwing (think bocce ball, with coconuts), feeding parrots, and just hanging out. That afternoon the group a day behind us, which Ashley was on, checked into their rooms as well. When we had first gotten there there was hardly anyone else on the island, so it was exciting to suddenly have 75 more people (they were much bigger than us). It was kind of bizarre to see them exactly 24 hours behind us, it was sort of like watching yourself after you took a time machine back a day.
That night the theme was plastic party, so we grabbed our colorful plastic bags from reception, and made with the creative. I must say I had a pretty sweet lemon-lime dress (they only had green and yellow left), complete with white sash and green hat.
DAY FIVE:
We boarded our catamaran that morning and waved goodbye to Molle Island. Our first stop was this funny little strip of sand which is apparently well known for its turtles. We spent a good chunk of time there getting our snorkel on (which I had never done before, and had a rocky start since my snorkel was broken...). It was really cool, as it was our first time seeing the reef and the super colourful fish. I didn't actually spot any turtles myself, but a bunch of people saw them around.
After that we had lunch and made our way slowly back towards Airlie Beach to pick our big bags back up from where we left them. Again we just changed in the bathroom, moved around some of our stuff, and got back on the bus. From here it was about a 6hr drive to Mission Beach, which was our brief stop for the night. It was too dark for me to take pictures, but as we got closer, about every 100 feet there were signs for Cassowary crossings (cassowaries are these huge aggressive birds). I've seen them in zoos here, it just constantly surprises me to see these crazy animals still wild everywhere here. This is someone else's picture:
But yeah, we got in at about 12:30am in a monsoon (it's the rainy season there) and ran to our rooms, only to get up again at 6am.
DAY SIX:
Despite the very early start, I think this was my favorite day because it was our river rafting day! We were met by this swanky bus with leather seats and taken to the officey sort of place to have breakfast and rent shoes (youre required to have them), and wetsuits (since it was chilly). From there we got bused to the river where we grabbed lifejackets, helmets, paddles, and of course boarded up! It was 6 of us with our guide, Chris who was really cool. This was of course another time where I couldn't bring my camera, and I was pissed because I couldn't get my underwater camera to reload in time to take it with me. Which I'm still kind of bitter about since it was soooo gorgeous on that river.
Anyway, first thing we did was go over the commands (such as forward, back, hold on, etc) and then after testing it out we were made to jump out to practice floating down the river properly. It was kind of a leap of faith out of the boat, and then not only were there the huge boulders to try to avoid plowing into, but there were hidden underwater rocks that I realised later gave me some really pretty bruises. I'm glad we did it thought, because I knew that I would read an area without a current, and it gave me a chance to calm down and realize it was fine that I was being carried along. (in the picture that's me facing the camera, the last one in the back of the boat before our guide).
That evening found us at our ending city, Cairns, where we would spend the next 4 days. We got a nice pub dinner and had a fun night afterward before heading to bed.
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