Cairns around the city:

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Greetings from North Tropical Queensland, North East tip of Oz!

Overview: Australia:

It’s winter. Neighbous and Home and Away are lies. It’s not amazingly hot, although after SE Asia we did feel cold even when it was 30 centigrade!

Things we noticed are how much cheaper petrol and food is here, the lack of integration between aboriginal people and white people - which is quite sad, and just how big this place is, we only did a small part of it and that tiny bit was as big as the UK!

Fri 1st: Cairns city
Arrived in Cairns 9.30am, and they had a useful tourist booth with touchscreens, free phones and the numbers of a billion tour operaters, hotels, hostels - a bit too much information for that time in the morning. So we opted for a hostel called JJ’s and got a free transfer to it.

It was okay, but as soon as we arrived at the hostel it was a let-down. After being pampered with swimming pools, giant bungalows and nice big double rooms all for less than a fiver, going into a shared dorm with single bunk-beds and paying $42 between us (about 20 quid) was a bit harsh. But then this is Australia, not South-East Asia.

First thing we did was went for a walk, both feeling a bit disorientated being surrounded by clean roads, open empty spaces, and a distinct lack of touts (We still both hurry past taxi’s trying to avoid eye contact).

We walked up top the Lagoon. Basically Cairns being surrounded by beautiful sea and having warm weather (although it’s winter here right now) has water that you can’t swim in. Two types of jellyfish here will kill you. Sharks have been known to bite, and as if that’s not enough - saltwater and estuarine crocodiles surround the shores. So, Australians being resourceful people, the people here built a man-made saltwater lagoon, right next to the sea. And it’s free to use - as are the showers and toilets.

Also spent most the afternoon trying to track down a camera shop that can do repairs - or at least make a letter to say Matt’s camera is beyond repair. Eventually found one - and they have the replacement camera Matt needs coming in 2 days!

Later we went for our free dinner (with a token given by the hostel). It was a strange experience, it was almost like a borstal/orphanage (think Oliver Twist) type thing. It has a massive queue of backpackers from all the hostels coming for their free dinner. Luckily we saw someone get the free meal before us and quickly decided to pay the $5 extra to get a big sized portion. The Woolshed, the place was called, later turns into a bar where the backpackers all stay out and drink. The backpacking/traveling clientele here are very different to SE Asia - They’re usually between 17 to 20 and don’t seem to go anywhere except the hostel and drinking at the Woolshed. So after dinner we left and headed back to the hostel.

When we got back a new inmate had joined us, a Northern Irish lad that had been traveling for about 2 days just to get to Cairns. He flew from Belfast to London to Frankfurt to Singapore to Darwin to Cairns - one flight straight after another. So we were chatting to him and then at midnight he decided he was getting a night bus down south to go meet up with his friend. Crazy guy.

Sat 2nd: Cairns city:
Still feeling a bit lost being back in westernised civilization, we got up in time for our free breakfast, headed to Garrick’s (the Camera Shop) got the letter and a quote and faxed it off. Then we walked around Cairns. Cairns is daytrip central, and everything costs. On a holiday budget it would be great, but on a traveller’s budget it’s a bit too costly. So being a bit bored we went to see Pirates of the Carribean III, which was okay but had a bit too much of an open ending.

After dinner we went to a Bottleshop and bought a 5 litre box of cheap wine (for $12/less than a fiver). In true Aussie bigotry the general name for boxed wine is Goon or Goon Sacks. Bottleshops are an odd thing - No shop here that sells food can sell alcohol. Food and alcohol can’t be sold in the same shop. However they do have drive-through alcohol shops. Eating and drinking is bad, but drink-driving is okay. Bizarre.

Anyway, we drank our box-wine and sat outside the hostel chatting to the only other couple in our hostel - and the only other people over 20. Matt and Rachael from Wales, they have done South America, Fiji, New Zealand and after Oz are heading to SE Asia - they’ll arrive just in time for the changing of the monsoon seasons (we didn’t tell them this.), and another guy, Dave, sat with us, from Eire. At about 2am Matt and Matt got told off for turning the music up too loud on the iPod. Being told of by a 17 year old was quite funny. We were very drunk


Sun 3rd: Cairns city
The stupid hostel woman came knocking on the door at some ungodly hour like 10am or something. Time difference, jet lag and hangover as a combination is never good. So Leanne sorted the room out for the night and Matt continued believing he was about to die. A Can of Coke and a McDonald’s later and we were almost feeling human again, then spent the day by the lagoon and being bored just waiting for a reply from Matt’s insurance people and then went to watch 28 Weeks later- and saw the trailer for Transformers whilst Matt nearly had a hysterical fit of ecstasy when Optimus Prime appeared. It was even better than the first one and very scary. We had to walk back through empty deserted streets at 11.30pm and were both spooked out by it all.

Mon 4th: Cairns city
Did a bookshop and swopped the Lonely Planet - SouthEast Asia on a Shoestring that we borrowed on a long term basis from the Aquarius hotel (Bali) library, for two more LonelyPlanets - Autralia and New Zealand, and a really old Fiji one.

Then we decided to book two dives for tomorrow. You can’t go to Cairns without seeing the Great Barrier Reef. We also sorted out hiring an underwater camera for the day. So both pretty excited.
And a reply from the insurance people. So all is looking good.

Tue 5th: Great Barrier Reef
We had to get up early to get to the Pier for 8.15am. Even on our big trusty catamaran Sunkist it still takes a few hours to reach the outer reef - it’s 60km or so away from land.

So arriving there Matt and Leanne decided to do something either very brave or very stupid. We did our first dive with just us two. No guides, no group, no instructors. It was scary at first, especially when Leanne started getting ear trouble at 10 metres underwater, but it was pretty good after a while. We didn’t get to see a great deal, and the site (Fishbowl) was supposed to be really good for seeing stuff, but neither did the group with a guide so we didn’t feel too bad. The snorkellers however saw Nurse sharks, turtles - you name it.

Back on the boat we saw our dive time was really low, and then realized that the air tanks they use here - called Ponies are smaller and hold a lot less air. They also make you come up before you get to 50-Bar, so the dive times are either really short or you have to dive really, really shallow. It was also a bit disappointing that the sky was overcast, so the lack of sunlight gave poor visibility and made all the photo’s very murky.

Our second dive we decided to pay the extra for a guide so that we would see more stuff. The boats Skipper took 4 of us on an underwater tour around 360 and again, we didn’t see a great deal.

It was great to have dived the Great Barrier Reef, but both of us had expected there to be a bit more to it, and were a bit let down. For $135 each (about 60 quid) we could have done 6 good dives in Koh Tao (Thailand), Perhintean islands (Malaysia), or Lovina (Bali), which is a shame really. So we went for dinner and afterwards went for a drink with Eddie and Kat, a Durham couple we met in the Woolshed when the people outnumbered the tables and the shared with us. Then an early night ready for the morning.

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Photos

Clown fish
Sometimes confused with a 'nemo' fish

Scuba diving
Both of us scuba diving - no one told Leanne her wetsuit had come undone... mmm ... Maybe they were making Scuba porn.

Rainbow - But where is the pot of Gold?
This is the rainbow we saw on the way to dive at the great barrier reef - you can actually see both ends - but where's the pot of gold?

Cairns Lagoon
Its a massive swimming pool, right on the edge of the beach - perfect on a sunny day.

Matt and Dave at the hostel
Look at the state of them - this is what happens if you drink too much 'Goon'

Matt and Rachel from Wales
Another example of too much 'Goon'.