Transition from Australia to Asia

The last week or so that I spent in Australia was a sort of transition period. I fnished all of my school work. I can't completely feel relaxed until I officially graduate, but I have definitely started the shift from student to non-student. So far it just feels like summer (or winter) break. Coming off of exams is usually sort of difficult because my mind and body get into study mode and I feel like I should keep up the constant schedule of studying...

It was also a transition period from Australia to Asia. We did a 3 day trip to Cape Tribulation to sort of unwind from diving so much. I had no idea that cape trib was just a small little area tucked into the rainforest. It was quiet, serene, and peaceful. Mostly we just walked along the mangrove and rainforest walks, searched for interesting new plants and animals, swam in the swimming hole and the pool at our resort style hostel, and chilled out. The beaches were pretty, but sort of disappointing b/c the stingers made it impossible to swim.

After Cape Trib, we flew to Darwin for an overnight stay before our flight to Singapore. Darwin seemed like an interesting place. There is definitely more evidence of aborignals the more north you go (at least on the east coast). We chose to spend our day in Darwin mostly at the botanical gardens. You never really know what to expect with botanical gardens, but I've been really impressed with the ones in Australia. I've become semi-obsessed with learning how to use my new DSLR by photographing tropical flowers. So far I've learned a lot about both tropical plants and my camera.

It's funny, we dropped off the majority of our luggage to be stored in brisbane. In addition to our backpacks, we had 4-6 re-usable bags worth of food and additional stuff. As we moved from brisbane to cairns to darwin, we shed and used up stuff the whole way. With the self-imposed deadline of our flight to Singapore, we were forced to let go ( of the rest of our junk) and move on- ready or not.