Cameron composed the title for today's blog, and I think the folks from Tropical North Queensland that acted as our tour guides over the past few days would have approved. To hear them tell the story, it is a wonder that so many tourists make it out of the region relatively unscathed. They all seemed to take a great deal of pleasure in describing the dangers that lurk around every watery bend, and although more than one threw out a comment along the lines of "Well, you do have the grizzly bear,"' it was clear that they take a great deal of pride in the peculiarly horrifying ways that humans have met their end in the far north.
Many of the stories we had the privilege of hearing I will share in coming posts. For now I will leave you with a few pictures of the sharks to which Cameron referred, the Black-tipped reef shark. Our guides assured us that this type of shark is completely harmless to humans due to its small size and its preference for crustaceans and bony fish over human flesh. In the end we chose to believe them, and into the water jumped Cameron and Sophie.
Here is Sophie shortly before swimming with the sharks:
And Cameron just afterward:
Much remains to be shared of the few days we enjoyed up north. I haven't yet decided which superlatives I will use to describe them. I feel as if I have already employed the majority of them previously (marvelous, wonderful, amazing, incredible). Had I know what awaited us, I would have kept a few in reserve.
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