Friday
The day had finally arrived, we were getting out of Darwin! Our flight wasn't until 14:40 but it was sooner rather than later. We checked out of our room with the person we were sharing a taxi with and loitered downstairs in the cool air conditioning. We planned to go and attempt the get the second book one last time before departing, so we walked along to the hostel at about 11. We waited around for about an hour but we didn't see the postman. We had to face that we wouldn't be getting the book and we would have to take it up with the book company, as we were a few days past the latest delivery date they had given. We walked back to the hostel we had stayed in, picked up our bags and our taxi sharer and picked up a taxi from the taxi rank. The cab cost us less than anyone had quoted us and was considerably cheaper than the airport shuttle bus, so it was well worth getting one. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare but only had to wait 10 minutes or so before we could check in and rid ourselves of our large rucksacks. We lost our companion while going through security, so we found a place to sit and eat our cheese wrap we had made after breakfast that morning. Departure time came round pretty quickly and we queued up and filed on to the rather empty plane. Despite it being empty, we still managed to end up with very young children behind, to the side and in front of us, so we weren't particularly impressed. There had been some rumbles of thunder during the morning and the clouds looked less than inviting when we trundled down the runway and climbed into the sky. After some initial bumps the ride did smooth out a bit. Not long after the fasten seat belts sign had dimmed, a stewardess came round and said “Charlotte and James? I have your lunch for you”. We had booked this flight before we had left the UK and I'd noticed while booking that it offered a free meal of fish and chips. We weren't going to miss out on that and I selected the option for us. Only one other person had a meal on the plane, so we were pretty chuffed with ourselves for securing a free one. It wasn't huge, it wasn't going to win a Michelin star but for an inflight meal, it would do just fine for us. We polished it off and bumped through the clouds the rest of the way to the tropical city of Cairns. We descended for what seemed like an eternity and then seemed to land sideways but we were safely on the ground. Seconds after retrieving our bags from the carousel we were accosted by a sour faced chap asking us if we were going to Caravellas Backpackers. We said yes and were rushed off to a bus with a few people already waiting inside. He told us to chuck our bags on the trailer and we would finally be able to get out of here, as if it was us holding everyone up. We weren't impressed by his attitude but as it was a free service stuck with it. It was only a short trip into town but on the way he took the time to repeatedly mock a group of guys who had missed the bus and were still at the airport. He had even seen them walking past and not bothered to grab their attention. We were the first drop and were put under pressure to get our bags off as quickly as possible. I took my time though and told him to leave it, we didn't bother thanking him for his troubles when we left. We checked into our 4 bed dorm that already had 2 people in it. One had decided to take up half the floor space with everything he owned (including a $50 note), despite this we settled in and made ourselves at home for the week. Time was getting on and we were hungry despite our 2 lunches earlier, so we walked into town, slightly disappointed that the supermarkets were a fair old trek away. From first impressions Cairns seemed a whole lot nicer than Darwin. The promenade area was busy with a mixture of tourists and locals, the humidity wasn’t quite as bad and we were confident we would enjoy our time in the town. We found Woolworths and picked up a few items for our dinner. We went for a one pot wonder of tuna and pasta as we hadn't seen the state of the kitchens yet. When we got back we sat opposite the tidier of our 2 roommates, who seemed like a nice, quiet guy. He inspected our purchases and told us he had eaten so much pasta while travelling he couldn't eat it anymore, while digging into his whole block of cheese. The kitchens were okay, despite nobody tidying their things away after eating, some seriously shoddy washing up and half the gas burners being broken. To make matters worse though, the humidity just seemed to get worse at night and cooking was an ordeal. The shower afterwards was always satisfying though.
We were in no rush to get up and out today but still had a few things we needed to achieve from it. For breakfast we started our box of honey and coconut Weet-Bix that we had calculated should last us all but one day in Cairns and had a coffee to go with it. After that, we had a quick cool down session in the room before heading out into town. We walked along the boardwalk promenade, which was an elevated platform along the waters edge leading all the way to the harbour area. We didn't quite make it as far as the harbour, instead cutting in through a market and going to the tourist information/dive shop on the corner of one of the main roads. The first thing we were eager to find out was whether we could get a snorkel mask with a prescription lens as low as -10/-11. We'd shot out a couple of emails while in Darwin and hadn't been filled with confidence by the replies we had received. One had said they go to minus 6, another minus 8 but we thought we would still ask around town to see if we could strike lucky. The man in the tourist office was as chirpy as the airport shuttle driver the night before (Queenslanders weren't coming across too well at the moment) but he did send us to a lady in the dive shop who was a bit more helpful, they still only offered minus 8 though. She suggested we try a few shops further up the road, so we set of in that direction. A few doors down was a tour shop, so we popped in to have a look what was on offer. Eventually, the lady came over to offer us some help and we explained our situation to her. She offered to phone around a few companies to see if any offered anything lower than -10. The result was the same as we had been getting, -8 was as close as we would get. The lady was really helpful but she couldn't understand that booking a tour depended on the masks and she was still constantly trying to sell us one. She said she would try a couple of more and we moved on to ask around a bit more, saying we would return. On the way to our final shop we passed a tree that was making a very unruly noise. We looked up and could see hundreds of huge bats roosting in amongst the tree branches. It was slightly weird and we couldn't take our eyes off of them. We moved round the trees which was fenced off, and noticed a sign saying they were spectacled flying foxes (which are just large bats). We pulled ourselves away from the bats to find the last shop but got the same disappointing result. We decided that we were pretty much wasting our time asking around, as -8 was obviously as far as they went, without getting some specially made. On our walk back towards the sea front we popped in a different tour shop and decided to have a good look through which ones were on offer. We took an assortment of pamphlets up to the desk and the man picked out a few that would be most suitable to us and within our price range. He recommended one that he had been on the day before (surprise, surprise) that wouldn't be crammed full of Chinese or have a group so large it would be horrendous. We booked up and then he also tried to sell us various other excursions but we were reluctant so he just gave us some pamphlets to take back with us. We thanked him and headed of in search for a coffee. The place we found was right next door to the shop we had been to earlier, where we told the lady we would return. We could see her loitering out the front in search for customers, so we did our best to keep out of sight. The coffee was terrible so we decided to find somewhere else to get some lunch. There was a café a few doors down, so we dashed past the lady in the tour shop and picked a seat. We both went for a sandwich each and a cold refreshing drink, as it was a hot and humid day. After our lunch we wandered round the endless souvenir shops looking for a pin badge but found nothing that would pass as acceptable. Bearing in mind the amount of them, it was a bit disappointing. We popped into the supermarket to pick up dinner and strolled back along the promenade to our hostel. We braved the kitchen once more to cook up our dinner.
Sunday
It was Sunday so it was quite a struggle to drag myself out of bed. Charlotte was up bright and early though and had done our washing before I'd even opened my eyes. We didn't get out and about until just before midday. Our main priority for our relaxing day was to do some more searching for a pin badge. We widened our search area today, taking in more blocks than we had the day before. We were on our final circuit when we found on right on the seafront road, just a few doors along from where we had had lunch the day before. We snapped up a couple (they had a crocodile on them) and then headed to do more shopping. We needed some snacks for our reef trip the next day and Charlotte was after a proper towel for the same thing, as she didn't want to take her travel towel with her. After our short shopping trip, we headed home to spend the afternoon relaxing out of the heat. Before dinner, we Skyped home for a catch up. We had a mammoth dinner of garlic chicken, broccoli, carrots and rice. There was so much, it was a struggle to fit it all on the plate.
Monday
We were due to depart for our tour at 8:30, so we were up early getting breakfast and having a coffee before 7. We got our things together and walked along the boardwalk to the marina to find our boat. Typically, it was the furthest pier away but we made it in good time and waited while the staff faffed around before boarding. It got to our turn but they sent us away as we hadn't checked in at the main desk yet. We traipsed up to the building the desk was housed in, joined the queue and checked in, shelling out for the reef levy in the process. We traipsed back, boarded, having to pose for a souvenir photo that we wouldn't buy along the way and were seated on the bottom deck to fill out the ‘I will not sue’ form. As Charlotte and I were only snorkelling and not diving, our form wasn't as bad. After filling out the form we were sent upstairs to get fitted for flippers and a stinger suit and then retrieve our prescription masks from behind the bar. I tried mine on and was slightly surprised at how well I could see with -8 lenses. The lady behind the bar also said that the water would magnify sight as well, so we were confident it wouldn't be too bad. We were sat on a table with one other girl who we got chatting to. She was from Weymouth and had come over to visit her father who lives in Brisbane. The boat we were on was brand spanking new and we were out to our first snorkelling spot within an hour. Everyone piled out to the back of the boat and Charlotte and I donned our very stylish stinger suits, which are made to protect the wearer from the tentacles of jellyfish. All suited and booted we sat ourselves down on the back of boat and dropped ourselves into the warm Coral Sea. We had got very lucky with the weather. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and there was no wind, which helps with visibility. It was a short swim over to where the coral came close to the surface, so we swam the n that direction. This reef was called Saxon reef and the water was crystal clear. We had about an hour and a half to float around admiring all the different types coral that were growing together. After all the worry over prescription goggles I was fairly pleased with how much I could see, my vision was slightly blurry but I could see things that were close up. There were thousands of fish of varying sizes swimming around and feeding off the coral. The one that caught our eye was a tiny electric blue one that was very energetic. We started taking some snaps with our new waterproof camera we had recent bought and were pretty happy with the way the photos were coming out. Apart from numerous fish we also saw a sizeable jellyfish floating effortlessly through the water and were pretty relieved we had opted for the stinger suits. The time absolutely flew by and before we knew it the call for lunch was being made. We swam in to the boat, removing our flippers and peeling the stinger suit of. Despite the aid of the flippers, the swimming had really taken it our of us and we were both starving. Before lining up for the food, we overheard a group of Americans talking to one another say “we saw a turtle” followed by “so did we”. Charlotte and I rolled our eyes and were fairly sceptical about the authenticity of the sighting. While waiting in the queue a French couple just decided we were standing in their place and shoved themselves in and a few Asians also made themselves at home between the two of us. We weren't overly fussed until it turned out that it meant Charlotte missed out on the fish that was on offer. Always caring though, I gave her half of what I had picked up. With plates piled high we sat down at our table while being given the evil stare by the people who had just decided they were sitting there. We had been there first, so we didn't bother thanking them when they moved out the way. Lunch went down a treat and after finishing we moved on to the second and final reef of the day. While getting our things ready for our next dip we got slightly confused with our masks. I'd picked up the one Charlotte had been wearing during the first swim and we were a bit stumped as to why it said -8 on it. After much debate we concluded that somehow, we had managed to go through the entire first reef wearing the wrong face masks. I had had Charlotte's -5 mask on and she had had my -8 mask on. We weren't quite sure as to how we had managed it, as they were clearly different, one having a black band around the edge of it. We felt really stupid and were quite pleased nobody would ever really know. What made us feel better though, is that we knew that when we got back into the water, our vision should be considerably better than it was the first time round. We got ready still in shock that we had managed to make such a stupid mistake. This time round, we decided to go in without the stinger suits on. Although we had seen one jellyfish during the first swim, it had been easy to spot and not to much of a problem. We hopped in in just our swimwear and almost immediately regretted our decision. I felt a few small tingles on my legs but didn't really register what they may be. Then as I was swimming towards the reef I felt a sharp sting on my wrist. I started to panic that I was surrounded by jellyfish but I had a look, through my now clearer mask and couldn't see any. I was fairly sorry it had been a jellyfish and quickly got a Charlottes attention so we could escape back to the boat. Along the way, Charlotte said she felt the occasional tingle on her legs so we were definitely going to go for the stinger suits. We struggled back into them onboard and headed back into the water, now free to not worry about the jellyfish. The water here wasn't quite as clear as the first reef we had visited but it was considerably more dramatic. The reef appeared from nowhere to almost break the surface in some places and then after 20 metres or so, would just drop back to the depths of the sea. We spent another 2 hours exploring and appreciating the beauty of the coral reef but apart from fish, only had a sea cucumber to show for our marine life tally. We were called back in for the trip back to Cairns and we could help ourselves to some complimentary cheese, crackers and wine. One of the staff members sing some songs and played a guitar for the trip back and told everyone that they only got a dozen or so days like the one we had had in a year, so we were pretty lucky to get it so good. Charlotte and I went for a wander round the boat and got speaking to a different staff member who was using the boat to become a dive master. He backed up the claims that we had had a perfect day and also said that there were no reports of the turtles so the Americans must have fabricated their sightings. We arrived back in Cairns and all went our separate ways. On the way home we stopped by a bottleshop and picked ourselves up some pale ales to have with our dinners over the next few evenings. We were becoming masters at making dinners go far and we had left over garlic chicken, rice and veg.
Tuesday
After an exhausting day enjoying the Great Barrier Reef the day before, we decided to have a relaxing day around the hostel to recuperate. We looked into things, wrote some blogs, uploaded some photos and decided we would rent a car for the following day to get out and about. In a few weeks time, we would have over 2 weeks driving around Tasmania. With me unable to drive, it would all be up to Charlotte. Charlotte hadn't driven since leaving home, so it seemed a good idea to get her back in to the swing of things and have a day on the road. We found some fairly cheap options for the single day and booked one to be picked up the next morning. To celebrate, we had fried egg muffins for lunch which were an absolute disaster. The frying pan we had was far too big to fry eggs in, so the whites went really thin and stuck to it, making them impossible to peel off. We eventually ate scrambled fried eggs on muffins but they were still pretty tasty and a nice change. We carried on with various admin until we popped out to pick up dinner. Sticking with something different, we made a really tasty beef stir fry. While we were cooking it up, an eccentric man cooking next to us complimented us on using strips of beef in a stir fry, saying it was very professional. We were a bit confused but took the compliment anyway.
Wednesday
The car was booked to pick up at 9, so we got up early and had some breakfast. The car rental shop was only a 5 minute walk away, so we ended up getting there slightly earlier than planned. I'd always thought car rental staff would be really rude and picky but the man who served us seemed like a really nice guy. We picked up our car and headed back to the hostel to make a pit stop for some food. I'd like to tell you what make the car was but we cannot remember, only that it was one we hadn't heard of and probably only found in Australia. We headed North out of town, clearly not satisfied with the amount of sweating we were doing at our current latitude, we wanted to go higher. We weren't really sure where we wanted to go or what we wanted to do, so we had a look at the maps we had accrued and pick a few things out. We drove along the Captain Cook highway in the direction of Port Douglas. Along the way we found a lookout point which gave great views along the rocky coast and out into the Coral Sea. We had to park the opposite side of the road to where the lookout was, which was fine, until we walked the fair distance back up the road to the point and then Charlotte realised she hadn't put the handbrake on. The car was an automatic, which Charlotte had never driven before, so she was still getting used to all the quirks. She returned and we took some snaps before continuing north. The road hugged the coastline most of the way and offered great views at most of the twists and turns, although we didn't get much time to appreciate them. We decided to leave the town of Port Douglas until later and drove past and on to Mossman gorge. We had spoken to a few people who had said it was worth doing and that the rainforest was pretty impressive too. After a brief stop for an early lunch we parked up and slapped on the factor 50 sun cream we had picked up in Alice Springs. We had 2 options of getting to the gorge, walk, or buy a ticket and ride the settle there. At first we said we'd walk it but after feeling the heat outside, we bought a ticket and hopped on the bus. The ride only took 2 minutes and we hopped off and followed the suspended pathway through the rainforest, to the gorge. We left the pathway and walked down to a swimming area where a few people had taken the plunge. It was clearly cold and they weren't exactly selling it to us, so we moved on. There was a 4km walking circuit through the rainforest that we followed, with the occasional sign giving information about the various plants and wildlife we could see or hear. When we had first got beneath the canopy of the rainforest it was a nice relief to get out of the sun and was fairly cool. Not long into the walk though, we were sweating like never before. My t-shirt got so saturated with sŵeat I had to take it off. It also didn't help that we were doing the walk in flip flops, which made it quite hard when navigating large rocks and clusters of roots. Eventually, we made it to a turn off which led to a small creek. When we got there, the water seemed pretty clear, so I decided to rinse my sweaty t-shirt out. Despite ringing it out pretty thoroughly afterwards, it was still sodden. We finished the walk and went to have a look around the gorge. The viewing platform was just up from where the swimming hole was. As gorges go, it was slightly disappointing but it seemed like a nice cool oasis tucked away in the middle of the Daintree rainforest. When we made it back to the car my shirt was still sodden, so I had to get in with it still off and hope it dried while heading to our next destination. It was a place called Wonga Beach and wasn't far up the road from where we were. When we arrived we were slightly confused, as there didn't actually seem to be a beach anywhere, all we could find was a caravan park and a private road, so we turned round and gave up. We thought it was time to visit Port Arthur which wasn't far past Mossman Gorge, where we had just come from. We drove right through town and went straight for the elevated lookout which was up an incredibly steep hill. The lookout gave views of the 4 mile beach which I guess runs for 4 miles from Port Arthur. In the sun, it looked absolutely perfect. A car joined us up there and the lady who got out immediately engaged us in conversation. She offered to take a photo of Charlotte and me so I thought that now was probably a good time to get my shirt back on. It was still damp but would probably dry better on me than scrunched up on my lap. It turned out they were from Montreal, not that we asked, she just had to tell us. But we humoured her and before long they were off back down he hill. We stayed a short while longer to admire the view, before deciding it was time to head down into town to find a fish and chip shop. We parked up and wandered along the main street but struggled to find a proper chippy. We did a full length and veered off down a side road but had no luck. All there was was restaurants that didn't serve food between 2pm and 5pm (it was currently about 3pm) and hundreds of clothes shops that were all shut up. Just before we were about to give up, we found a pub/restaurant that had an offer on Barramundi and chips, so we settled for that. The fish was grilled, which was nicer than it being smothered in batter or covered in breadcrumbs. It was tasty and meaty and a nice change from the usual cod or haddock we get in Europe. We paid the bill and left, keeping an eye on the ever darkening sky. We walked to the car and drove the short distance down the road to 4 mile beach. We parked up and wandered on to the beach to have a look around. Again, it was such a shame. All that beach and people are only able to swim in a very small cordoned off slice and even then, they are still at risk of crocodiles and jelly fish. As we were standing in the beach, lightening started flashing and we could hear grumbles of thunder in the distance. A beach 4 miles long isn't where we particularly wanted to be while a thunder storm hit so we retreated to the car. The day was getting on at this point, so we decided to start heading home. Rather than take the same coastal route home we decided to head in land through a twisty, turny mountain road. We set off with the storm still bubbling away to itself without causing much grief. Just before we reached our turnoff though, the heavens opened. Visibility was down to about 10 feet and water had settled on the surface making the going pretty dangerous. To make matters worse, there was a madman in a ute driving so close to us it was slightly nerve racking. To get him off our back we found a lay by to lose him and wait out the rain that was still pouring. The rain passed, so we continued climbing through the mountains. Along the way there were a few lookout points which we stopped at to admire the view across the clouds covering the rainforest. The remainder of the drive home was quiet with little action, apart from a couple of one horse towns that we passed through. We drove back into Cairns, battling with the one way systems around the town, eventually managing to hit the prom which we could follow along to our hostel. Over our dinner of left over beef stir fry, we contemplated going for a drive after but thought better of the idea, as we wouldn't have been able to see anything and would have probably been dodging suicidal kangaroos along the way. After dinner, we turned in for the night, both tired from a long, sweaty day.
Thursday
We were up early as we had to return the car by 9 o'clock. We swung by a petrol station to fill the tank and made it to the shop with time to spare. There were no issues and we walked back to our hostel pretty happy with our day of driving. We still had one more day in Cairns though and decided to spend our morning walking the full length of the boardwalk promenade. We started by heading away from the centre of town, towards the airport. We made it most of the way and found a small jetty to stand on and admire the storm that was making its way very slowly across the bay and into the city. While we were standing on the jetty we experienced just how suddenly it can creep up on you though. The water, that had been quiet during our walk along suddenly got choppy and started to form waves on the beach. Next up we could see the rain approaching at unnerving speed across the water. We were faced with the choice to run or stick it out. We ran and found cover just in time next to a shut up building on the front. The shower passed and we decided to take our chances getting back to the hostel before it inevitably started raining again. We hadn't got 50 metres back along the prom and it started cascading down again. We were soaked to the bone within seconds as we'd moved away from cover and we couldn't see any other options ahead of us. We carried on through the down pour, which eventually passed and we dried off at the hostel before heading into town for one final look around. After checking out Cairns we walked back to the hostel for a short rest. We got a shower each as we were heading our for a cheap meal to save ourselves some cooking on our final evening. When we had checked in to the hostel, we had been given a card that would get us a $10 meal and a beer at a restaurant and bar at the marina. The restaurant was called the Pier and was fairly full at 6pm. We had to pick from a set menu but for 10 Dollars, we weren't complaining. I went for chicken parmigiana and Charlotte went for the fish and chips. We also got a free ‘pot’ of beer to go with our dinner. A pot isn't much bigger than a shot though but again, we couldn't knock it. Having constantly seen Victoria Bitter advertised at cricket matches I tried a glass of that and Charlotte had a local Carlton. After dinner we sat on the harbour wall enjoying the sunset and watching the huge ex cyclone roll in towards the Queensland coast. We walked back to the hostel to get packed up and get an early night in preparation for our mammoth greyhound ride down to Brisbane the next day. Getting an early night wasn't that easy though. We'd been told earlier that we would be getting a new roomie very late at night so were put off going to sleep, knowing we would be awoken when they arrived. We did drop off however, only to be woken by the torrential rain and thunderstorm of the storm that had finally reached land.
We really did enjoy Cairns. The Great Barrier Reef had easily been a highlight of the entire trip and we almost booked ourselves another tour while we were in town but decided to save our pennies for other things to come. It was time for 31 hours on bus though and hopefully, a cooler climate as a result.
James and Charlotte
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