Back in Cairns

The overnight bus to Airlie Beach is full so I'll be staying in Cairns for a night and taking the morning bus. It's an eleven hour ride. woo hoo! The rainforest was pretty incredible. Australia appears to be very environmentally friendly because they have realized through errors that their ecosystem is delicate. In years past the introduction of other species have had devastating impacts on their ecosystem. I like the one about the cane toad which has no predators and whose skin secretes a poison that kills crocadiles and whose eggs are poisonous. This toad was brought over from South America by sugar cane farmers to get rid of a beetle that was ravaging their crop. Apparently it never took care of the beetles either. The toads have spread across Australia in about 30 years.
Interestingly, people lick the toads and smoke their skins to get a hallucinogenic effect. The rainforests were cleared because it was believed that their soil was rich, but actually, it's just sand without the rainforest.
Anyways, I'm not turning into a GreenPeacenik, but it's fascinating to hear about the end of the world especially while I haven't invested in one yet. Did I mention that they sell dog food in the refrigerated sections of the supermarket next to the meat aisle? Either that or it's dog meat. I am told they sell kangaroo meat too. It's supposed to be lean like deer meat, and I'm told that it keeps in the refrigerator for up to three weeks. And there is a section in the supermarket for people who homebrew their beer. This is simply amazing. There is a beer called XXXX. Actually I saw this up in front of a bar and I thought it was an especially dirty nudie bar. Well, as it turns out, it's the name of the beer that tastes like s**t, but since they can't write that everywhere, they just name it "****" or "four-x". The Burger Kings are called Hungry Jack's. I'm not sure why. I keep getting confused with the side of the road to walk on and the way I should be looking for cars at crosslights. It is especially frightening to be sitting in the front while a car is making a left turn at an intersection. It seems to violate my sense of safety. It's a good thing I'm not going to be driving anything around here. There was intermittent rain today while I was in the rainforest. Listening to the rain fall, the insects buzz, and the waves crash at Cape Tribulation was pretty neat. Cape Trib is very quiet and peaceful, and there are few visitors.
I'm looking forward to seeing more of the coast. I bought a Greyhound bus pass that will take me down to Melbourne over the next 30 days.