Jason got his first major practice driving on the left, which he mastered pretty quickly. The hardest parted seemed to be remembering to turn on the turn signal on the right hand side, and so the wind shield wipers got turned on with some frequency, despite the clear weather. I got a taste of Australian health care by going to a drop-in clinic to get a prescription for my ear infection. I dropped in at 8 AM, and was out by 8:15 with a prescription, having paid $30 US for the visit and another $12 for the prescription.

We had a relaxing morning and breakfast and then headed out to the Eungella National Park (pronounced YOUNG-uh-la) with visions of rainforest and platypuses. We arrived at our hotel, the Eungella Chalet, which was at the top of a mountain, overlooking a lovely valley. We went for a brief rainforest walk and saw trees with buttresses, tall fern trees, strangler figs, and numerous types of palms. It reminded me of other rainforests, and my time in Tropical class with Pat. There is definitely more of an understory here than in Costa Rica, and isn't as fully packed with diverse life.

Our next stop was the platypus platform where we stood and watched two platypuses swim around. They were VERY cute, with webbed front and back feet. They wiggle around as they swim. They would go under the water for 30 seconds to two minutes, and then surface and go under again. It was quite fun to watch them and all the crazy birds including hundreds of squawking cockatoos, a bunch of turkeys, and some kookaburras. While we were there we did see one dug out area of earth that looked like perhaps a place an echidna could have been in. The sun went down and we cooked dinner on the stove before going to bed.