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Published: April 21st 2008
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Phew, what a long journey to Cairns that was... Nice early start at Byron Bay for the minibus transfer to Brisbane airport (not helped by the fact that we had to do a ‘u-turn’ after 15 mins as the driver had a ‘funny feeling’ that he’d left a bag behind, which he had indeed done!), and as soon as we arrived at Brisbane the sun was out and the horrible grey clouds that had followed us all the way from Byron had disappeared (and I hoped that it would be a v long time before I saw them again). Flight to Cairns was relatively painless - and got a transfer to Dreamtime with a driver who made some sarcastic comment about my bag having ‘bricks’ in it (ha, ha, very funny - not!).
Dreamtime is my first ‘proper’ hostel experience of my travels so far (read as meaning ‘shared bathroom’), but it’s actually pretty hospitable and of a level of cleanliness that even Mum would approve of... Not too keen on the aggressive marketing tactics employed to get me to book trips through the hostel, but hey you can’t have everything. The weather in the evenings in Cairns is infinitely
warmer than Byron so spent my first evening sat outside and drinking the bar of the hostel out of Corona (ok, so it only took 4 bottles to do so but I thought that this was pretty funny). Woke up the next morning and guess what? - went for a run! My calf muscle is still kind of sore after the bl00dy climb to the Byron lighthouse (yes, really) - but justified to myself that a ‘light’ run would help... It kind of worked! Ran along the esplanade at Cairns and passed several ‘activity areas’ and also a sign telling me that if I had got up at 7:30am that morning I could have done aqua aerobics at the lagoon (hum, no way am I getting up that early unless there is a flight to catch!).
The rest of the day was spent wondering around drinking coffee, sitting in the sunshine (whilst watching seaplanes and helicopters taking tourists to the great barrier reef) and then went on a mission to try and find perfume and my lancome 3-in-1 cleanser (a much harder feat than it sounds!). Well, I found the lancome stuff, a new perfume (note to self -
buy a bigger bottle of dior addict eau fraiche next time, as the only place that sells it in Oz is in Sydney!) and a new dress... Not quite sure why or how the dress snuck into the shopping list - but my rationale was that it would look fab back in London in July, when I get to show off my tan!!! Ok, so it’s totally girly logic but it worked for me. Then a quick stop back at the hostel to book my trip to the Whitsundays - leave on Tuesday for 6 days of sailing, and then took myself off to a pub to watch the Super 14 matches. Got to get my rugby fix somehow!
The experience of being a girl alone drinking in a pub watching the rugby is certainly one that I won’t forget in a hurry... Shenannigans is a massive place but they had TVs outside in the beer garden so I took myself and my Corona (my current drink of choice!) to a table outside and settled down to watch the rugby. Noticed that an old guy and young girl kept on trying to catch my eye, so did my best
to avoid them - they asked if I wanted to join them as was on my own but I made a comment like ‘thanks but no thanks as I’m here to watch the rugby’... A fact that was clearly lost on them as they kept on asking me to join them and partly just to keep them quiet I sat at their table - needless to say they talked at me for the rest of the match so I didn’t really get to see that much more of Richie ‘Phwoar’ McCaw!!! Brian and Natasha were uncle and niece and ‘indigenous’ - call me ignorant but they didn’t really look like aborigines to me... I got their whole life story over several bottles of Corona which they kept buying for me - Brian was just out of jail for drink driving (ok, got a bit scared when he said this) and Natasha was up visiting her sister as her nephew had just been murdered by her sister’s boyfriend (ok, this really freaked me out). Spent the rest of the night working out how to best leave the pub without offending these people - the easiest option was the fact that by
9pm I was fairly ‘inebriated’ so made my excuses and left (pretty good going I thought given that the match started at 5:30pm!).
Woke up the next morning not feeling too great and headed off to the Skyride for an excursion to Kuranda. The skyride is a 7.5km gondola journey that takes you over the tropical rainforest and waterfalls - pretty stunning scenery (and lots of photo opportunities, especially at Barron Falls). Didn’t really think much of Kuranda at all, bit too much of a tourist trap for my liking - so stayed for lunch and then sat in the sunshine whilst waiting for the Kuranda Scenic Railway trip back to Cairns. The train ride back gave you a different view of the rainforest and the gorges, but just took forever! Seemed like the maximum speed of the train was only 15km/hr...
Weather on Sunday was gorgeous, so after a run along the esplanade, I jumped on the ‘sunbus’ and headed to Trinity Beach. It was beautiful and bizarrely for a weekend fairly deserted - just a few token people indulging in sunbathing and people out walking their dogs (but no-one was in the ocean as it’s full
of crocodiles(?!) and a woman and dog had been attacked only last week!). All in all a fairly lazy day was had and then once back in Cairns had a look around the night markets and listened to the impromptu concert that was taking place next to the lagoon.
Monday was a very early start and taken to the ‘reef terminal’ to catch the Osprey V boat out for my days snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. The sun was shining and the sea was a little bit choppy, but hey just told myself that I was ‘finding my sea legs’ ready for the Whitsundays... Snorkelling was fab and after my ‘mini’ panic attack when Elvis (the not so sympathetic dive instructor) told me that we’d see reef sharks, I really enjoyed myself and saw loads of fish (big ones, little ones, but no reef sharks - ha ha Elvis was wrong!). Spent a fair portion of the afternoon on the sundeck (fancy name for the bit at the front of the boat) swapping stories about adventures so far with other girls on the boat - and bizarrely enough 1 of them lives v near to me in London
and another one lived in Leamington Spa (Sister - apparently her parents live across the road from you on Warwick New Road!!!). Got off the boat feeling a little bit weird to be back on dry land - especially as it was super windy and rough on the way back.
Next stop is the Whitsundays... Can’t wait!
L xxx
P.S. In case you're wondering, the reference in the blog title to 'flashpacker' is apparently (so some english 'geezer' on the boat told me today) because I have a working holiday visa but have no intention of working! Not sure if that's a compliment or not...
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Sister
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Funny!
Am reading the new installment whilst in bed with the flu (real not the man version).. really enjoying the updates. Are you going to make it to the Woolshed in Cairns? How random about those girls! x