Final thoughts

I have been home almost five months now after my journey finally ended in Australia.  In that time I have reflected quite a bit on my adventures abroad and I have to say that it was definately worth it.  It sounds cliche but the truth of the matter is when you travel abroad you learn more about yourself and what you want your life to be.  I have grown and matured in ways that I would not have been able to had I stayed home. 

Perhaps the greatest gift I received while abroad was making friends with so many people that gave me opportunities to go beyond the tourist sites.  I was able to be incorporated into Australian life which made me feel like I wasn't just a tourist.  I will get to Australia again someday, I have to...now that I have this global awareness, it would be a shame to not explore it!


I want to thank everybody that followed the blog and enjoyed the pictures that I put up on it.  Thank you for encouraging me and staying in touch while I was abroad.

I also want to thank my girlfriend Ally for staying with me and coming out to visit me in Australia.  She was the cure to homesickness quite often.  Not everyday in Australia was wonderful, you can have bad days as well and it was great to have my bestfriend there to talk to.

Mom and Dad, thank you for encouraging me and giving me the tools I needed to be able to go and explore Australia and everything it had to offer.  You guys are the best parents anybody could ask for.

If anybody ever wants to ask or talk about my adventures I am more than willing to and if anybody needs travel tips please let me know!

Signing out
-Josh Howell

Day 142 Final Day in Sydney

The day before we had flown back from Cairns to Sydney.  I had to spend the day chilling in Cairns before I flew in at night so I can't say for sure what my family did in Sydney without me.  Anyway, with the jet lag having finally worn off we had time to enjoy one final outing in Sydney.  We started the day off taking a lovely stroll from our hostel to the Botannical Gardens in Sydney.  Basically, the day was spent as a photoshoot of Sydney and enjoying being together as family.

This was actually taken from land but on the other side of the Gardens.

The skyline once again, never gets old.

Of course...there is only so much family you can take...too bad Dad and Mom said they loved her otherwise Nick and I would have done our own version of the Mafia cement shoes, hahaha

We decided to take a ferry ride out to Manly just to check out the rest of the city area. I gotta thank my parents for making this whole experience possible.  I really owe these two a great deal.

We had traveled by plane and ferry.  We had walked and driven in Australia.  There was only one option left, to take the train!

Well, the Australian paparazzi got the Howell women strolling throughout the city. 

We went to Paddy's Market to do some final souvenir shopping.  After that we returned to Darling Harbor for a final dinner together.  What was awesome was that unbeknownst to us there were fireworks that night over the Harbor.  We got dinner and a show.  My little brother also had the opportunity courtesy of Kate, Nat, and I to enjoy a Long Island Iced Tea.  We got a few laughs outta that.

This picture was actually taken in the morning of their departure as I would leave after them.  We stayed just outside of King's Cross.  The funny part is that after dinner when we were walking back to the hostel, we happened to pass some cops and there was a puddle of blood on the street.  An interesting end to a great trip! I got to watch the planes fly over Sydney and I believe I watched my family's plane fly right over the Opera House as they departed for home. 

Day 139 and 140 Cape Trib. back to Cairns

Unfortunately, I do not have many photos of day 139.  You will have to ask my mother or Kate for pictures of their adventures that day.  I spent the day with my mother and brother checking out more hikes and the beach.  Meanwhile, my sister, Kate, Nick and Dad went ziplining through the rainforest.  I believe it was called Jungle surfing, which is a pretty sweet name. 

We loved this sign, some artist had added his unique touch to the sign.  The sign is next to a speed bump so basically whoever did it was implying that if you don't slow down you could kill a cassowary.  They are endangered afterall.

This is an example of the boardwalk structures they had through the national park.  These parts of the forest are prone to seasonal flooding from cyclones and such.

There is only one road into Cape Tribulation and in order to get there you have to take a barge.  How cool is that!

I have got to give my little brother credit for this photo.  On the drive back to Cairns, we crossed over a river and my brother was so excited.  "I saw a crocidile!"  I didn't believe him but we pulled over to initially humor him.  Kudos to him though, that Saltwater Croc was at least 200-300 yards away from the bridge.  To be able to spot him from that far must mean he was a big fella.

Another funny story concerning the ride home was when we got stopped by some construction.  This hawk was just sitting in the forest by our car.  I think he noticed us looking at him because he was staring us down.  We were just some more annoying tourists to it, haha, but he obliged us by showing off his awesome feathers.  Kate thought he was gonna fly into the car because of how intently he was staring at us!

Look at that smirk...He finally bought his kangaroo skin...sigh...the hunter in him lives on.

Day 138 Cape Tribulation

Well...to be honest, it's been a very long time since I uploaded the rest of my family's trip to Australia.  We last left off in Cape Tribulation after seeing the saltwater crocidiles at Hartley's.  On this day we woke up to check out the rainforest which was notorious for being home to the Cassowary.  I did not happen to see a wild one but my mom, brother, nat, and nick did.  Do not be fooled by the fact that it is a bird; these guys have been known to kill people that get too close.  This picture doesn't show it very well, but Cassowaries are about the size of an emu.

The rain forest had very damp ground so they had built these awesome boardwalks for people to use. We emerged out onto the beach.  I don't know what is going on in this picture but it appears as if natalie is mimicing the cassowary look while my mom is trying to mimic its walk, haha.

As we were in saltwater croc territory, it only seemed natural to not go swimming, furthermore when there are signs like this one...why risk it.

Don't ask me, I don't know what it is, but they were everywhere.  Literally scattered all up and down the beach by the hundreds. I am going to assume it was a crab-type creature.

In the top left you'll see Nick.  On either side of Cape Tribulation there are two beaches.  Apparently, there is a hike from one beach to the other.  My brother and I did not find that trail so we made our own.  We hiked along the rocky coastline forging our own trail.  There were a number of tidal pools with crabs, shells, and sometimes fish. 

At times the journey was a little questionable, it didn't help that the tide was coming in either but we continued on.

Eventually, we had to turn back because we couldn't get around the cape without going into the water or through really thick rainforest.  We doubled back to the original beach.  This picture can give you can idea of how big this beach really was.

Wild turkey's seem to follow my brother wherever he goes, the continent doesn't matter.

Just a more expansive view from the very tip of Cape Tribulation.  This is the furtherest out the peninsula extends into the ocean.

Day 137 Hartley's Crocidile Cruise

After seeing the more gentle creatures of the Australian landscape, it was time to see some of the more deadly creatures.  The Saltwater crocidile that I am next to is between 13 and 16 feet long.  The size of his head was literally a third of my body length.  They have the strongest jaws out of any creature on the planet.  Even more than a Great White Shark.

When is the last time you saw one of these owls in the wild?  I was suprised to see one chilling with the crocs.

If my brother really wanted to impress me I thought he would have tackled one of the 15 foot crocs but alas he decided to settle for holding a baby.

This place had kangaroos and wallabies as well. This redback wallaby was a little thirsty so Kate and I helped him out.

I couldn't get a picture of his face but this is a Spotted Red-tail Quoll.

No, this is not photoshopped or fake.  That is the actual size of a croc that was being fed a chicken.  The thing looks like a dinosaur.

The crocidile in the picture above was allowed to have a girlfriend and despite being only 10 years younger than him, she was only 10 feet long while he was 16 feet long.

His name was Sollie.  Properly named after the poor dog he ate that led to his discovery.

After watching Sollie get fed, we went to a snake show in which this brave girl allowed herself to be wrapped up in an andaconda coat.  Australia is home to the most poisoneous snakes in the world and has six of the top ten living along its east coast.

Talk about your typical Aussie Croc Handiler.  This guy had the thick accent, dangerous antics and everything.  He was really provoking this croc and it was crazy how close he would get to it.

After the show, we were lucky enough to go on a mini croc cruise where they feed the crocs in the big open enclosure.  It was really awesome to see the power of these animals tails as they propelled themselves up out of the water to snag the chicken.  When their jaws shut, it would make a loud sound like a pop if they missed.  I wouldn't want to be in their jaws.  They can hold their breathe for 45 minutes underwater, so if they get you under the surface...your chances are slim haha.

When we got to our next location which was Cape Tribulation, we had a lovely encounter with this Golden Orb Spider.  Here is the scenario of what happened.

Dad, "Nick, what's that thing on your shoulder?"
Nick -"I don't know" to which Dad quickly shuts Nick out of the room. "Josh what is it?"
Josh- "It's just a Huntsmen dude relax..." WRONG!
Turns out if my brother had been bitten by this spider which was on my brother's shoulder, he would have ended up in the hospital.  It almost crawled on his head!

Day 136 Kuranda Train Ride

This historic rail line was essential to starting up Cairns as a tourist town.  Built before World War I, it served as a link between the mining towns and the coast.  There are a billion facts about the rail line that I could tell you but the cool ones are that there are 15 tunnels and at least 12 bridges we traveled on as we ascended the mountain range to the town of Kuranda.

This was one of the largest bridges we crossed.

On the other side of the bridge was this waterfall.

The train made a pit stop to allow us to look at a historical waterfall that had been made into a dam.  It is a small dam because when it becomes the rainy season and floods the entire area that seems bare becomes a massive waterfall with various rapids. 

Once in the town of Kuranda, we did a bit of shopping and went to a petting zoo of sorts.  Here is a swamp wallaby with her baby.

Natalie and Kate finally got to hold their koalas, which girl do you think the koala preferred to be with?  Let the pictures decide!

My brother and I were fortunate enough to get a sweet photo with some kangaroos!

My family finally got to see what a wombat looked like!  This creature is actually related to the koala!

My mom is feeding the common wallaby in this picture.

And in this picture we can see my father has not lost his magical touch with animals...he's so good with them, haha.

Overall, it was a good day petting kangaroos and koalas while enjoying a beautiful scenic trip by train.