Solo trip to the Great Barrier Reef before heading back to the U.S. June 22 - June 27th

After parents had left and school was over I decided to shoot up to northern Queensland for one last solo adventure. Before heading out my friend Mark and I hung out for the drive up to the Brisbane airport. We randomly stumbled upon this sort of carnival happening and decided to give it a visit. enjoyed carny food and watched a couple of bands play along with a gymnastic performance. the music was really good, especially this one girl named Hazel. She really hit the blues style well. Another band was actually from Washington state like myself, crazy. Finally got dropped off at the airport where I decided to stay the night before my 6 am flight. hoped on plane and shot north to the crazy tropical Cairns Australia. Cairns was absolutely beautiful. definitely the first place i'm going to when I go back to Australia, it was just the coolest area by far! So biodiverse with the rainforest and the sea full of massive crocs. Stayed at a hostel and made friends with people from Holland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and all over. I should have stayed longer and wish I had more than the three nights I had. There was a surreal botanical garden in Cairns where they had an awesome rainforest board walk along with several different gardens and displays, like having a section all about orchids. it was really beautiful and felt really nice to walk around barefoot. I also got to take a trip to Green Island which was a rainforest island on the Great Barrier Reef. It was really cool but also sad in how much color was lacking on the reef. The reefs in Bali were definitely way more vivid. But on the island I got to see the worlds largest crocodile in captivity, King Cassius. This guy was a swamp deity! Missing his left arm and bits of his tail, he was well seasoned with age and experience. Besides the garden and the reef, I spent the rest of my time getting to know people and the town of cairns, which really did have a beautiful layout. one night at the down town park a reggae band was jamming onstage next to a public pool in the shape of a manta ray, it was just a really cool town. But Cairns was over and I flew back to Brisbane to stay the night in the airport one last time before that 14 hour flight back to the states. I said good bye to the ocean and to the rainforest, to the kangaroos and the accents, to the humidity and the surf, I said goodbye to the massive island Australia as I restlessly shipped back to the United States. It really was amazing and I loved it, I regret nothing and my time there shook the wildness and made me a maniac for life!