Wednesday, 26-Dec-2018

As is tradition, Sarah and I spent Christmas and New Years on an international adventure of epic proportions.  This year, the Lydecker clan (including myself and Henry’s girlfriend Leah) met up in the land down under, the magical land of Australia.

Jumping off from our relaxed Christmas, we took our family adventure off to Northern Australia, flying from Sydney to a town called Cairns, as a layover before catching a ferry to Fitzroy Island…

Wednesday, 26-Dec

I’m usually really good about keeping track of my stuff.

I’m paranoid about my wallet, and I don’t even leave my phone at my desk at work when I walk down the hall to get coffee.  After having my passport stolen in the Buenos Aires airport, I guess I’ve gotten paranoid.

But, I still make mistakes.  Such as leaving my camera on the plane after we landed in Cairns.

YUP.

Left it.

On the plane.

Thankfully, Cairns is a small airport, and it’s in Australia… which is notably different from the United States in terms of security and general letting you work through non-standard situations.  So, with a lot of freaking out from me and a lot of sanity and politeness from Henry, the camera was returned.  With a fancy photo, no less!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Yep.  That’s the pilot.  A very, very, extremely unconvinced pilot.

Anyways, I kept my camera.  Yay camera!

Then, I used the camera to take photos at Hartley’s Crocodile Adventure!  It was awesome.  Hartley’s is, at it’s core, a tourist trap.  An amazing one – it was built from a small coffee shop on the highway, and now is a working crocodile farm complete with a zoo, cafe, boat tours, and a ton of amazing guides.

Also, from what Sarah will tell you, way too much Caesar dressing on their salads.

But they’re definitely awesome, and definitely a fun adventure for our day in Cairns.

The rest of the day was spent picking up food for Fitzroy, adventuring in the rain, and watching huge flocks (flocks?  Swarms?  Colonies?  Armadas?) of bats!  Huge flying fox bats make Cairns their home, and watching them swoop and wheel around town was an amazing way to watch the sunset, without question.