Cairns - 22nd - 27th Nov

So two and a half weeks in I head off to Cairns. I fly from Sydney on a 6am flight, its actually really easy to get to the airport from the hostel I was in but unfortunately meant I had to get up about 3.30am to check out and get the train. I flew with Jetstar which is basically the Easyjet of Oz, checking in took ages so by the time we got through security it was time to board! I had a travel companion for most if my time in Cairns and this was in the form of my annoying American friend Rich.

Sid

So we land and it is HOT neither of us can check in as its only 8.30am so we head out for some brekkie and then wander aimlessly around Cairns and along the Esplanade, (which is a word I have massive issues pronouncing...) this is also the day my random sunburning starts.

We find the loneliness tree in the world, Sid, stuck out at sea so we befriend him before wearing ourselves out walking for a good few hours in the sun, we then decide to head off and check into our hostels. I'm staying at Gilligans, the party hostel and I must be the only person who hardly partied who stayed there! Shocking I know! Don't worry I made up for it at other hostels!

So after checking in, I met up with Amy, who is one of my friend Alexis's best friends, she moved over to Cairns with her now husband. We hit it off instantly and spent a good few hours gossiping away having a few drinks at a nice bar called the Rattle and Hum.

The next day, I had a day trip to Cape Tribulation with Jungle Tours. On this day trip I did a crocodile cruise - I did manage to see one but only its head! Then we went to the Daintree Rainforest and had a walk through the rainforest, getting the low down on the animals and plants etc our tour leader was ridiculously informative and made the day really good with lots of inserts of random information along the way.. We stopped off for lunch at someplace that I can't remember what its called but its (I believe) the only beach where the rainforest and beach meet each other and where if you were doing the overnight tour you would stay at for the night. After lunch we headed off again to another part of the forest and had a talk with a native tribesman, learning more information and trying out some of their natural paint that they would use to decorate themselves and then on to a beautiful lagoon in the middle of the forest which is so picturesque and peaceful with beautifully cold water, bliss, the perfect way to end the day and on the final journey back we stopped off on a few look out points for more pretty photos. A very enjoyable day.

My ridiculously small flippers in relation to everyone else.....

The next day I did a boat trip to the Great Barrier Reef with Ocean Freedom who I would totally recommend! This has been one of my favourite days/activities so far.
I decided that I was going to do an Intro Scuba Dive on this tour and it was AAAAMMMMMAAAZZZZIIIIIINNNNGGGGG - this may be a slight over exaggeration to some people but I absolutely loved it! Its such a weird feeling being completely weightless and submerged under water with all these other creatures! Unfortunately I didn't see a turtle or a shark but that really didn't matter to me. Depth wise we didn't go down too far I think no more than 10 meters but it was still breathtaking. I must admit, I found the breathing a little odd, I had to pinch my nose whilst we were under water as I couldn't stop breathing through my nose and making my mask fill up with water! And getting all suited and booted up was interesting too, I tell you walking around with flippers on, a weight belt and a massive oxygen tank is hard work!!! I also did snorkelling a few times and had a tour on a glass bottom boat, although in fairness you can't really see much when you are on the boat as the glass is so thick and also fairly scratched. However, we did spot a barracuda and this was just before the first snorkel! I wasn't happy about this I can tell you, they look so mean and vicious, I knew if it came near me when I was in the water I would freak out!! But thankfully, it didn't and I swan in completely the opposite direction and so I survived!! Woooo!!!!!!!!! I met some really lovely people on this boat, one girl I've kept in touch with and the others we all hung around together that night/ the other nights they were in town. And then as is the way they head off and then you don't really see or speak to them ever again, which may seem a little odd but you get used to it.

Rich the mud monster.

I spent the next 2 days after this just chilling out around the Lagoon, doing 'admin' stuff and lazing around the pool at YHA with Rich and Will. Amy treated me to brunch before she headed off camping, which was yummy! In the evenings the 2 Americans and I hit a few bars. On my last night we went out for a few quiet drinks and on the way home decided we all wanted to just lie down and watch the stars for a little bit. Because there is hardly any light pollution here the skies where ever you are are amazing. In Cairns you can't go onto the beach/into the water because of crocodiles and jellyfish, so whilst we were near some rocks, I found a long concrete ledge which I thought would be perfect for us all to chill on. Rich, decided he wanted to head down the rocks to this one small section of sand which was within the bordered off beach. The next thing Will and I hear is Rich screaming "Guys don't come down here!!!" and we are like What the? We then see him humped over the rocks with his arms waving around as he tries to pull himself back on to the rocks. By this time, we've realised that, yep, you guessed it he ended up walking on some bog like sinking sand. Great, I think, I'm gonna have to try and go over and pull out this guy who is twice my size from out of the sand, and I'm blatantly going to get stuck myself. After a bit more wriggling and wobbling from Rich and having to dig deep into the sand because his flipflops were no longer attached to his feet but now slowly sinking further into the sand, he thankfully manages to pull himself back onto the rocks, with his flipflops and thus back to safety. Now being the good friend that I am, I'm obviously very concerned and considerate of him and what he has just been through and am in no way shape or form laughing hysterically in his face, this does also not continue for about an hour with me crying with laughter and being stopped by a woman in the streets to ask if I was ok and if I knew the 2 guys I was with. Nope, none of that happened cause obviously that would be mean and highly inappropriate. (Sorry Rich). Thankfully there are a lot of sprinklers around and so we take him over to one of these to get him hosed down, he's cut his foot but he's ok and then we head off to another bar to get him a stiff drink, because bless him, he needed it. This still cracks me up 3 weeks later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The next morning, still laughing merrily away to myself I check out of my hostel and head to the bus stop to jump on the Oz Experience bus to head to Magnetic Island.

In general, I liked Cairns but I found it to be a bit 'plastic' for me, the town itself didn't have enough culture or depth to it for me. There are a lot of hippies there too, which is cool but none of them seem to work apart from the bit of odd hola hop twirling or fire eating in the evenings. It does have a good vibe to it but for me its lack of depth meant that 5 nights here was enough for me - I mean I don't want to start planting roots now do I?!