Cairns to Brisbane - Part 1: Cairns/Cape Tribulation

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We arrived in Cairns as homeless people,not having any where to stay and no clue where on earth to go! Whilst Matt was in the toilet i had a brain wave! There was a little information desk which looked like a good place to start. After approaching them with sad eyes saying i had no idea where to go and no idea where to stay tonight they kindly booked us onto a bus andtold us to get off at Bellview (what on earth Bellview was we had no idea). The bus took us to the main central strip where all the pubs,hostels and restuarants were. Bellview was a hostell where we booked our selves in for the night into a nice basic room on our own!
The following day,25th September, was my birthday,I was 25 years of age. Initially we had planned to go visit the scerary and possibly the beaches around the area, however that changed quite quickly. Over breakfast we realised only having 17 days in the Gold Coast where we wanted to do so many activities we really needed to plan ahead. As a resuly the day predominantly consisted of countless brouchures, leaflets and flyers, resulting in our bank balance reducing heavily! But we now knew what we were doing for the next 17 days.
Friday 26th September was the start of my birthday present, woohoo! An early start, we were being picked up at 7.30am to start our trip to Cape Tribulation. The next two days consisted of guided tour of the Daintree rainforrest and river split over two days - Friday morning and Saturday afternoon. This left us some spare time to go jungle surfing and horse riding.
the guidedtour was quite interesting - our guide 'cindy' was a bit of a wild card! after dropping us at the daintree river we took a cruise on a little boat tryingto spot the rivers wildlife along the way. First our boat driver spots the most tinyest of tree snakesfrom quite far away,how on earth he saw it i dont know. After a couple of minutes we finaaly spotted it, a small green snake wrapped around a tree. After a few picys and a bit of information about the snake we carried on down the river. Stopping again not so far to see an old croc sunning himslef on the bank of the river. He was massive they reckoned he was 60 years of age and his name was Scarface! While on the river the heavens opened and the rain came lashing down. The bus met us on the other side of the river, as there is no way accross the river apart from boat the bus had to take its own ferry accross.
We arrived at our hotel at 1pm, Ferntree lodge. The only way to discribe our room was a luxurious shed situated in the rainforrest. After a little snooze it was time to get picked up for our activity of the day, tree surfing. As we waited for the mini bus to pick us up yet again the heavens opened and it started to lash down. Sporting just our t shirt and shorts we happened to think yet again we had miss packed our overnight bags leaving the trusty water proofs behind, doh! Unfortunatley this time it wasnt just a small shower, it poured with rain for the whole time we were up in the trees leaving us soaked to our underware! Although sporting very wet clothes and extremely soggy shoes it was such good fun. Swinging from tree to tree up to 19 metres above the soggy ground and even mamaging to swing from one tree upside down, wicked!
After two long hot showers we thought it would be a good idea to try and dry our clothes and more importantly our shoes as we only had the one pair with us. Our plan soon came crashing down as the laurdrette place in P K's ( a bar/camp ground) down the road did not allow you to place shoes in the dryers. due to 'da management's' rules we dinned that evening with soggy shoes - nice! to be fair after some decent grub (reasonabally priced too), a couple of drinks and some games of pool we didnt feel too bad! we were quite suprised!
The evening was going really well - we left PK's with full bellys and smiles on our faces. then we reailsed we had to walk home in the dark - not even the moon was present that night - leaving only darkness - not good! We both felt we did not want to walk in the dark back as we did not know what was out there. Thankfully we flagged a camper van down and they happily ran us round the corner back to our hotel, not even excepting any cash for a couple of cold ones - fair play! Result we were alive and back in our hotel room, still with soggy feet! Day 1 of Cape Tribulation was over!
The following day we headed out to go horse riding. thankfully the weather was all good,hardly any clouds and plenty of sun. The jeep picked us up and we headed to the farm. We all grabbed some very attractive helmets and waited to climb aboard. As I have never graced the saddle before I was more than happy to accept the offer of "a slow horse". After everyone was kitted up and saddled up we headed out - 10 of us in total. I was near the back, yoli was further ahead the pack, leading at times. The pack split into two groups of 5, I cruised in the back group (led by a young busty french girl, it was tuff but i struggled through!) - slow and steady, just how i liked it! ALthough my horse needed some serious encouragement to even move at times! This became a problem after a while - we were tryin to canter but after a few strides he just decided to slow down to walk - much to the delight of the 4 people riding behind me! At this point yoli was in heaven, she was really enjoyin herself, just aswell really as it was her birthday present!!
After about an hour we made a pit stop at a little creek, time for a dip - it was lush! whilst in the water a spider came cruising past yus surfin on a leaf! the girsl loved that i can tell you!!
After a short ride we were back at the farm and off back to ferntree. The afternoon we travelled back to Cairns via a couple of spots - port douglas being one of them.
We returned to Bellview ready for our trip to the Great Barrier Reef the following day.

We arrived at the marine terminal by about 8am to check in, the terminal was just over the road so we didnt have to walk far - result! The took a boat out to the pontoon at the reef, but before we could jump aboard we had our picture taken - somethin to make us part with some ridiculous amount of money later on in the day! Craig had given us a couple of sea sickness tablets prior to lavin the hostel - 'just in case' - we popped those little bad boys ready for the journey. Just aswell we did because the second half of the voyage was rough as fook! we were sat on the rear deck soakin up the sun, gettin the odd bit of spray - nice and refreshin! after a while we headin inside, this was short lived after seein some old chinese women chuck her breakfast back up into a small white bag - yoli wasnt feelin too good after that so we headed straight back out to the rear deck!
We arrived in one piece with our breakfast still in place unlikle a few others on board! we heade onto the pontoon. before we even dipped our toes into the ocean water we took a short guided tour around the reef. the pontoon had a semi-sub - basically a boat with a perspecs hull - we were quite excited, but it was a disappointment - not much fish and murky water - brilliant!
Once we arrived back we slipped into our flippers and masks and jumped in for a dip investigating the coral beneath. There was quite a few fish about and some nice coral, although it was less colourful than we both expected!
We had a bit to eat onboard after which the staff feed the fish, at this point some massive fish appeared, I forget the species but it changes sex from a man to a women when it reaches a certain size - weird! It was really tame, swimming right up to the people in the water!
In the afternoon we took a snorkel tour around the perimeter of the reef - was better than what we had seen before with massive schools (not too sure of spelling!) of fish swimming about. Once this finished we headed back to shore - before which we popped a coupler more tablets to keep the rather tastey lunch from making a re-appearance!

The following day, Monday 29th we travelled from Cairns to Airlie Beach - the home of Whitsundays - a group of 70+ islands with some beautiful beaches, coral and more. Initially we planned to head from Cairns taking the night bus (monday night through tuesday morning). unfortunatly the bus was full, meaning we had to leave cairns at 1pm - spending the entire day on the bus, arriving at approx midnight - wo ho! We didnt have anythin planned for the day, but would have been nice to relax for a bit, well that didnt happen!
So by midnight we had arrvied at Airlie beach, we had directions from the bus station to Koalas - our hostel, our key was being held at Morroccos - the bar next door. We didnt need the directions as we spotted the hostel as soon as we pulled into the town, however the bus drove for what seemed an eternity - leaving us to walk through the middle of town past a shed load of piss heads, which yoli was well impressed with! But ce la ve! The follwing day we preped for Whitsundays!

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Photos

Tree Frog
Whilst we took a short break at the cross raods cafe in Daintree I spotted this fella

60yr old Croc - named Scarface
Scarface was takin it easy along the banks of the Daintree River

Tree snake
Spotted by our skipper whilst cruising along the Daintree river

Yoli prepared for the rain
we took a walk throug the Daintree Rainforest, yoli didnt want to get wet!

'Walking' Tree
If the tree doesnt like its current soil conditions it sprouts new roots from its branches in another direction, when these have taken the old roots die.

me licking an ants bum
when it feels threatened the ant gives off a sting, which tastes like lemon!

Our room at Ferntree Lodge
the most luxurious shed Ive ever been in!

yoli jungle surfing
soaked to the bone and lovin it!