We pulled into the Cassowary House in the small town of Kuranda. Since Harris had booked the place, I was fairly sure it was going to be incredibly sketchy and that my organs were going to be harvested in the middle of the night.
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| The sign was high in the tree because people were apparently stealing the previous ones. |
It turns out that it wasn't nearly as eerie as I thought it would be. We were in a small, one-room cabin surrounded by dense rainforest. Maria and I called the bed with the electric blanket, since Harris has the legendary ability to withstand cold temperatures.
The woman running the house was very nice and informative, and gave us soap and shampoo for much-needed showers. There weren't any curtains covering the windows in the bathroom, so showering was a little awkward, but at that point we didn't really care.
That night, Harris offered to drive us into Cairns for dinner. He wanted to demonstrate that he was, in fact, a good driver. To prove his point, he backed up into a tree.
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| The tree. |
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| The back of the car didn't look like that initially... |
We then went down the very winding road into the city at speeds normally reserved for roller coasters and fighter jets. We walked toward the coast, hoping to find somewhere good to enjoy a filling meal, as we were all starving after a long day of traveling. As we walked down the streets, Harris pointed out something:
H: “Oh a tattoo place! We should get some to commemorate our trip!”
M: “Oh yea.”
H: “Like some kangaroos.”
K: “Or parking brakes.”
We walked up and down the street, eventually settling on a bar. After dinner, we decided to get some ice cream at a Baskin Robins, and settled on a large, chocolate ice cream cake adorned with pieces of brownie and miniature peanut butter cups. We took the cake to the park by the shore, and ATE THE ENTIRE THING.
Harris drove us back to the Cassowary house, where I loudly encouraged him to hurry up and unlock the door because it was dark outside and the velociraptor birds were going to get us. Maria and I then made him look inside the cottage to make sure there weren’t any serial killers before we went inside.
Harris asked us if we wanted to go on a nighttime hike and I laughed at him until he left with his flashlight to wander the darkness alone.
Maria and I curled up in the bed with our heated blankets and decided that we should make and market action figures of this road trip. We joked about the different pieces that would come in the set, and when Harris came back he told us he could hear our laughing from outside. Again. We told him our plan, and he didn’t think it was funny or a viable option. Again.
He also said that there was apparently a platypus that lived in the river below and came out around 6:30 every morning. He asked if we wanted to see it. Maria said "yes." I said "no."
Apparently Harris woke up and went to look at the Platypus by himself, which was a smart move, as there was a very high probability that if he had tried to wake me I would have killed him. Especially since the Platypus didn’t show.
However, this knowledge of imminent death did not carry over since he tried to wake me up at 9. And not only just wake me, but rush me. Maria tried to explain to him that poking my leg and nagging did not constitute the proper way to make me comply, but he didn’t listen. So instead of complying with his wishes, I remained in bed out of spite.
Around 9:30 I rolled out of bed to shower, seeing as we had to check out by 10.
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| Happy face. |
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| Harris attempting a "classic Harris wave" |
We packed up our things, and just as we were about to climb in the car to tempt fate once more with Harris driving down the mountain, we heard “Harris! Cassowaries!”
We immediately ran over to the main house, where two large and very velociraptor-like birds were feasting on fruit while the hostess’s dogs barked at them.
We took some pictures and videos of the giant birds, while she gave us a brief summary of them.
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| Hahaha |
Apparently, the female Cassowary leads a pretty decent life, as the male is in charge of rearing the young, which he will eventually chase off when they get older. The females are usually larger, and I am pretty sure the female we saw was taller than Harris. Cassowaries don't have muscles in their throats to swallow, so they would pick up the fruit or scoop up some water and then throw their heads back.
After the Cassowaries left, we climbed into the car and Harris maneuvered us out of the driveway and we went off to see the waterfall.
We hung out there for a bit, taking pictures of bugs, then we drove into town to get lunch.
Once again, we were on death road.
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| Harris refused to get the message. |
Maria spent the drive strategically trying to photograph Harris driving over the line.
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| The one sign Maria didn't want a picture of. |
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| Harris, take note. |
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| Caught in the act. |
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| It only lights up when you're speeding. |
I spent the drive praying.
We got down to Cairns and looked for a place to eat lunch.
We wandered around before finally deciding, and then killed some more time before leaving to drop Harris off at the airport and drive back down to Townsville to return the car.
After a few tearful goodbyes (on Harris's part) Maria and I set off on the 5 hour drive back to campus. We split the drive, so that Maria could experience the magic of driving on the other side of the car, and the other side of the road.
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| Yaaaay Maria is driving in Australia! |
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| Sounds delightful. |
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| :) |
