Thru the eyes of Road Warrior Stefany
Like I said in the previous entry, today we arrived in Yepoon after escaping the wrath of Cat 5 Tropical Cyclone Yasi. We entered the Capricorn Resort just as the sun began to sink towards the horizon. On our way to reception we spotted a few kangaroos – our first of the trip! My mission was clear…find more kangroos and any other Australian wildlife.
That evening was when Yasi was scheduled to make landfall, so our group and another Contiki group that was displaced due to Yasi decided to have a cyclone party. We danced the night away as feeder bands pummeled the shoreline. However, once they let up the kangaroos came out to feed. On our way back to our rooms, we found 2 hanging out by the volleyball court. They were friendly enough to allow us to get within 5 feet of them before hopping away. And those tails that they use for bouncing are intense. Larger then my arm and about as long as the kangroo is tall, their tails help the kangaroos want to make a quick getaway. Basically, whenever they are bored with the tourists with cameras. ☺
In the morning the sun streamed thru the curtains indicating that Yasi had passed and in her wake left us with a beautiful, sunny day. I quickly got dressed and headed out to explore the resort, which was rather expansive. First stop was the sand dunes that lead to the beach. Not as easy as it sounds. To reach the sand dunes, you must navigate a maze of trails with no signs or lights (I noticed it now but it wouldn’t be important until later), but it was worth the trouble. The smell of seawater filled my nose as I approached the dunes. Once I climbed over the sand dunes, I arrived on the most picturesque beach. It was a little windy from the storm but that didn’t matter, I still headed down for a little investigating. The first thing I noticed is that the beach was covered in little sand balls EVERYWHERE. Very near to the sand balls were little holes no bigger then the circumference of a pencil. We later found out that little “sand ball” crabs create those holes and balls before high tide in order to hide.
On my way back from the beach, I ran across a kangaroo and her joey. In the daylight they are even more incredible. They humored me and I was able to get some great photos before they decided to move on.
The rest of the day was dedicated to hanging by the pool, relaxing and making various Yepoon (pronounced Ya-Poon) jokes. My favorite came from Adri, "Came down under to visit Yepoon and all I found were some kangaroos.” Brilliant! After some rousing games of pool volleyball with the group, I headed to the spa for a lovely massage/facial/pedicure combo. Soooo nice!
Immensely relaxed, I headed back to the room to sit on the balcony to watch the sunset and read before dinner. After dinner, a group of us decided to hike to beach at night. Remember my early statement about the maze and no lights? Yeah…this is when it became an issue because none of us had flashlights. For light we used the screens from our cameras. However, it was definitely not enough light to keep Adri and Katrin from running into a gigantic spider web that had formed across the length of the path. After some screaming and laughing, we navigated around Charlotte’s web and onto the beach.
Have you ever had one of those moments in your life where everything around you just slips away and all you can do is marvel at how amazing the universe truly is? If you haven’t, you should fly to Yepoon right now and hike onto the beach at night. Words can’t describe how amazing it was. There was no light or clouds to interfere with the stars, the surf was warm and the breeze was gentle. No one spoke for what seemed like hours as we all stood around taking it all in. It was absolutely spectacular!
There was no way to top that experience, so we decided to call it an early night.
Tomorrow: Langmorn Station
