On to the Next Adventure

To Melbourne!

Our media trip officially ended yesterday and Natalie and I spent the night over at the Shangri-La Hotel in Cairns.

Waiting to board a flight to Melbourne for a whirlwind 16 hours in the city. It’ll be great. There’s a Queen Victoria Night Market that just began its annual run Wednesday nights, so I’m looking forward to checking that out.

It will be refreshing to be back in a metropolitan city after spending a week in the Australian bush. At the heart of it, I’m a city girl. I love exploring unknown cities. Even though some may say they’re all the same; they’re not. I hear Melbourne is high on the arts and food scale.

So I will get into the city around 4 p.m., dump my bags off at the Space Hotel and head off into the city.

And walk.

And walk.

And walk.

Best way to get to know a place is to just get lost in it. I have until about 7 a.m. the next morning before I need to be at the airport to fly to Perth and then to ChristmasIsland. Yes, the crabs! Looking at pictures on Facebook, it looks like they’re migrating already. Prime pinchy viewing.

Some things about the last few days in Queensland:

People are passionate about the things they’re into.

Case in point: We went to a turtle rehabilitation clinic, river cruises, nature walks in the rainforest and a bat hospital. Every one of our guides was 110% emerged into their specialty and research to the point where even someone in our group said, “There’s passion – and then there’s far gone.”

The founder of the bat hospital lambasted the media for spreading the “bad rap” of these creatures, to which they are “cute and cuddly” to her. “What’s a koala bear ever done for the environment? All they do is eat toxic leaves,” she said.

But as our tour guide Stevie pointed out – these bats are now flocking to cities by the hundreds, roosting in fig and mango trees. They shit everywhere, peeling the paint off cars and though rare, do carry a disease that humans can contract. In more rural areas, they eat the fruit and crops off farms.

When I was interviewing Jenny, the bat clinic founder, she was going off on the media for bats’ poor public image, but when I gave her a chance to speak about the benefits of these bats, she didn’t have much to say. If you’re going to invite reporters to your hospital, then shit all over their profession – you should probably have something informative to say that goes against what was previously reported.

That’s just my opinion, though.

The trip to Queensland has been fantastic. We’ve been taken behind the scenes in many cases and given a great overview of Australian wildlife. The group has been decent as well. Everyone's been getting along.

So, here are things I’ve learned:

• Wallabies don’t like to share with others. But moms with joeys in their pouches are quite friendly and will go up to you, unabashed

• Kangaroo meat is quite tender; wallaby meat is tougher than a well-done steak
• Green ants are intimidating to eat, but give off an explosive citrus flavour I’ve never tasted in all the limes and lemons I’ve ever consumed
• Kangaroos can hold off on their pregnancy until there is a better climate (temperature, food), and even pause their pregnancy. Amazing.
• Bats are called “flying foxes”
• Crocodiles are most vulnerable up to the age of six. Other crocs are cannibalistic
• Helmet diving is fun and strange
• I still flounder in open bodies of water
• Pillows shielding your face make you feel better when a giant-ass junebug erratically flies around the room at night
• Always wear SPF45. Always wear bug repellant. Doesn’t matter what time of day
• You have to toss down a spear with great force to piece through a mud crab
• Toads are poisonous; frogs are not
• Don’t touch any plants unless someone knowledgeable of the flora tells you to
• Simon was right – everything in Australia will kill you twice before you even know it! (I kid. Australia is awesome)