Palmetum Botanic Gardens

July 24th

This morning, I went for a run and did a few quick workouts to get the day started. For lunch, we went to an Australian barbecue. We were all very excited for this. But we ended up just getting meat pies that were smaller than the size of our palms. They were very delicious, but they did not fill us up enough, so we ended up going to the cafeteria after that. I made myself a grilled sandwich which was so good.

After lunch, Sara, Becca, Siena, Andrew and myself decided to go to a walk. On campus there is a place called Jamaica Blue, which is a cute little cafe, so we decided to stop for coffee. I got an Iced Chocolate Mint, and it was amazing. So delicious!

We walk for about 15 minutes to a place called Palmetum Botanic Gardens. This place was just so beautiful. There was a river, a lagoon, and a rainforest. Every so often, there were benches and places where you could sit down, have a picnic, or just enjoy the views.

All of the black dots you see on the trees are all bats that were in the trees. The bats were insanely big and so loud! This was my first time seeing a bat, and it was so crazy. There were 100's of bats..

 We found a vine that was hanging off of the tree, and we decided to act like it was a rope swing!

We saw this cool looking tree and decided to climb on it and take a bunch of pictures. The bark on the tree is indescribable. It was so smooth. We climbed up it bar foot, and did not get any splinters or scratches or anything. It was so smooth, not like any other bark i have ever felt before.

These palm trees lined the walkway and were just beautiful.

This river is called Ross River. At the end of the semester, the Uni students go tubing down the river!

So many ducks!

Lots of turtles in the creek!

 MANY MANY wild turkeys!

 Becca!

 Sara!

 Siena!

 Andrew!

 These palm trees were awesome because their branches were yellow, orange and red!

 Overall, today was great! We didn't spend any money, and we got to walk around beautiful gardens. There are different paths and trails so it would be a great place to run through!