Rachel in the Rainforest: Mamu, Josephine Falls and Cairns

What an exciting weekend! We started on Saturday morning by driving to the Mamu Canopy Walk at Wooroonooran National Park. The 30 students and couple of staff spent two hours helping to plant rainforest trees where recent construction destroyed some. After packed lunches, we walked along the canopy walk-suspended up to twenty feet. The grand finale was a canopy tower, where we climbed 6 flights of stairs to a very impressive view- the canopy was placed on the side of a mountain. Then we went to Josephine Falls, where we swam and went on the 'slide'. Up river there were some huge falls, and some smaller ones were downstream. In the middle there was a shallow pool (with some distance before downstream) and a mini-falls rock that you could sit at the top of and slide down, it was awesome.

We drove to Cairns after the waterfalls where we checked in at the hostel and headed to the Rugby game. It was the most relaxed professional sports game that I've been to, with high school stadium sized seats along one side, and a grass ampitheater around the rest. I sat in the grass with some friends and tried my hardest to understand the game, by the end I think I got most of it. On Sunday three friends and I caught a bus to the botanical gardens, which were great. Lots of cool flower pictures and huge leaves. The rest of the day in Cairns we ate at very nice cafes, ate gelato and swam at the 'Lagoon' which was actually a very nice, free controlled beach. Time for class!