Brush with Death Episode Two

After the bike/snake episode, you would think I'd already had my dose of danger in Australia. But brush with death episode two came on a tour that I took into the Atherton Tabletops. Absolutely stunning lands, we visited breathtaking waterfalls, swam in crater lakes and rivers home to amethystines (Australia's version of the anaconda), learned about the rainforest, mountain biked, canoed, sang, tasted Vegemite for the first time (awful!!!) and slept in a quaint lodge in the middle of nowhere. It was fabulous.

On the trip, I must brag, I spotted TWO platypus in their natural habitat! This is such a feat because the platypus is a very shy creature and 92% of Australians have never even seen one! It was so much smaller than I thought, but so darling and cute!

The brush with death came on our canoe trip to Lake Tinaroo, where our guide Matt popped onto shore to help pull up our canoes and an inland taipan came surging at him, mouth open, ready to attack, as his eggs were mere feet away. In twenty years as a guide of some sort in the rainforest, Matt has only seen a taipan twice in his life and they are noted as the single most venomous snake in the world. It is very rare to see one and you know it's a bad thing when even your guide, who loves snakes, is visibly shaken by the episode. After hitting it away with a canoe paddle, Matt screamed for us to paddle away, as the snake slithered into the water, where Matt was sure it would enter our boats to attack, as it was clearly threatened and feeling very territorial. Screaming at the top of our lungs and panicked, we paddled away. After five minutes, Matt then had the audacity to ask us to get back onto that very shore and take a nature walk, assuring us that the snake had "left the area". After MUCH encouragement on his part, we reluctantly agreed, but I spent the entire walk on the lookout for any slithering creatures in the tall grass.

As if that weren't enough excitement, yesterday I dove in the Great Barrier Reef! My second dive ever (don't worry girls, no puke this time!), it was AMAZING, MAGNIFICENT, MAJESTIC, GLORIOUS, WONDERFUL. Words cannot describe the wonder that is the reef and the abundance of life that I saw yesterday, including stingrays, reef sharks, sea turtles, barracudas, clown fish (Nemo), and fish of every shape and color. It truly is a wonder of the world.

Today I head to the Atherton, where I have tentative arrangements to start working on a potato farm!!! As long as there are no inland taipans, I'll be ok!

**I have pictures but will download them at another time!