Cairns and other little bits of Queensland!! A truely Amazing experience!

12th-21st Oct 2008

Cairns City

Checked out from our hostel in singapore and travelled to the airport via Tube... Once there we had to wait around for 9 hours being bored... We decided it would be best to get there early lol... turned out not such a good idea in the end. After a 'Long weight' we were aloud to check in... Finally... Our flight was changed from Quantas to a company called Jetstar... which we've never heard of before... We put our bags on the conveyor belt ready for it to go off to the plane when the women behind the desk said to us that we wasnt booked for this plane after looking at our passprts... It took an hour for them to relise that we were!!!... What a complete nightmare... Thought we might b stuck in Singapore lol!

When boarding the plane we got a little excited thinking that we would be boarding the massive double decker Air bus.... turned out to be a crappy little plane like u'd fly to spain on!! haaa none the matter... Once on the plane we had to take seperate seats apart from each other because of the Jetstar staff Mucking about at the desk!...

After an 8 hour flight and stopping in darwin in between we finally touched down on Cairns airport! Only to be welcomed by rain lol... We must be bringing english weather around the world with us ha!...

We came from the airport and was then picked up by the Hostel bus... The hostel was really nice called Cairns Beach House We got a room which was for about 6 people and they turned it into a double private room for us.... It was hugh!!... had a massive double bed, fridge, TV, Aircon, Ensuite bathroom and a balcony...! Also the hostel offers a free meal every night... Which turned out to be just a starter really not big enough for our belly's lol!! You could upgrade for about 1 quid to a bigger meal if u so wished... after we had the keys handed to us for our room we crashed out from the rest of the day because we didnt get much sleep on the plane.
That night we missed the free meal the 1st night but bought a Lasanga for about 3 quid which was really nice and had a free drink... You got a token on your first night for a free drink from the bar... Had a couple drinks and played a little pool. The Hostel has a big bar and food area with a swimming pool next to it.

The next day it rainded all day.. We didnt do much but did abit of food shopping for the rest of the week...

15th Oct 2008

Today was sunny!!! yeaaaaaaa! We decided to go down to the beach front.. but Cairns doesnt really have a beach... instead they have slushy marshy sand and you cant see the sea it goes out miles... So they have made a Lagoon area for people to sunbathe and cool down... The area is like a big swimming pool... Walked to the harbour and town. Then we went to the casino, we went in to have a look... Got I.D'd on the door lol... After getting ID'd we went in and had a little flutter... only spent about 4 quid but didnt win nothing! haaa.
Walking around the place, the roads are very long and everything is spread out! Wooden houses on stilts, not alot of people around.

Booked a Barrier Reef trip today! Can not wait...!!!

16th Oct 2008

Today was soooooo sunnny!! we went down to the Lagoon on the Espalade and relaxed and had a sunbathe and a swim!!! was an amazing day with not a single cloud in the sky...
At night when you walk around its pretty creepy as theres no one around and the roads are massive! You dont really start seeing people until you get down to the Espalade... Around the Espalade there are little BBQ areas where local family and friends get together and have a little feast... Would be soo cool to have this in England! It would prob either get trashed, not cleaned or just get rusty from not being used!!!

Barrier Reef Baby!!! 17th Oct 2008

Today we woke early to catch our SuperSwift Catameran to the Great Barrier reef!!! As we set off the crew recommended to take some sea sickness tablets for the ride... We bought some as did others on the boat and set off to the reef...

After about 20minutes during our brief about the reef... People started to drop like fly's with sea sickness... One women looking like she just came out of a World war 2 battle field!!! lol... was so funny until....
Kirsty started to feel sick... after about 20minutes we had to go out on the back deck being recommened by the crew that this was the best place to recover... WRONG!!! Once out there everone pretty much from the boat was being sick into little sick bags!!! it was gross!!... this made kirsty a little worse.... and then worse!!! and then alot worse until finally she sicked up a whole bag of sick... the bag full of cereal and milk from the morning before the trip... Yuk... But as kirsty was being sick she tried to get into a toilet compartment with lewis who got the sickness from the other end...!!! She was so imbarassed when handing over her little gift of sick to the crew memeber...!!! that one girl and about 3 others from the boat crew had the wonderful job of collecting these little gifts... Was sooo funnny!!!

After an hour we finally got to the Outer reef... and everyone started to feel a little better... This was our first of 3 stops at the reefs... Kirsty was snorkeling the whole time whilst lewis was doing one Intro dive on the second reef... At the 1st reef we got all geared up and went for a swim... After lewis put his head under and then came back up to ask kirsty what she thought when she replied 'Nah not yet im too scared!!' then lewis said 'dont be silly ava look' Then she did to find beautiful reef fish and coral!!
Its like a completely different world under there... words cant explain how amazing it is!!!... We were at this reef for about an hour snorkeling.

At the 2nd reef kirsty snorkeled whilst lewis went off to do his intro dive... This was truley the most amazing experience in my life!!! want to do a diving course now!! the reef was so peaceful whilst diving and there was so much to see... Whilst diving the group lewis was in saw a turtle.. Was so close to it, it swam right over lewis's head. And then kirsty saw the turtle swimming by the edge of the boat. Another group which dived saw a white tipped reef shark., was a little gutted but also abit relieved lol....
Had a buffet lunch after the second reef which had salad, prawns, veg, curry and rice was really nice.

At the 3rd reef we both snokeled together.... It was so shallow we were so close to it as we swam over it... we were to scared to touch it though incase something stang us. We swam around for a good 2 hours seeing little nemo's and all other types and got our selfs some nice pictures on the 12 megapixel camera we hired... We almost got some nicely shrivelled fingers from swimming for so long... Could ave stayed in there all day and night there was so much to see but we ran out of time as they Honked the horn for us to come back to the boat and set off back to port.

Our trip to the reef was the best experience we have ever done and would love to do it again any day!! Completely out of this world...

Road tripping with Bruce Alrighty... 18th-21st Oct 2008

Checked out of our hostel Cairns Beach House today and hired a car which we named Bruce and named again to Bruce Alrighty... We started our road trip to a place called Karanda North of Cairns there it had a massive waterfall called Barron Falls it was completely huge!!! You could see it from a lookout point at the top of the falls which you had to walk though a little forest first to get to it...

The Second stop was a place called Port Douglas on the way there we took the out back roads which was just one road which went on for miles and miles with cars ages apart and either side of the raods were just dried out grass, trees and termite mounds... Hehe felt like we were on the road to no where... Lets hope the people that we hired the car from dont read this hehe... because we wasnt ment to take the car to the places like this... off roading it!!! lol... On the way though the outback we witnessed our first bush fire which was complete huge. We saw flames and the smoke spread for miles... making parts of the road we drove through pretty hard to see.

As you drive closer to Port douglas you start to see the dried out grass becomes more greener and nicer looking with big lush mountains of rain forest in the distance... Once we got to port douglas we had a look around the beach and then went to the top of a cliff too take some photos of the amazing veiws... You could see where the rainforest meets the sea... It was pretty windy so didnt stop there long.

We then drove to Daintree which is one of the oldest rainforest's in the world!!!... In the forest theres a whole load of different weird looking trees which spiral around each other because theres no where else for them to grow... You see all types of beautiful tropical butterflies and kirsty saw a little fat lizard which scared her half to death first of all... Also came across a wild turkey... Cook him up on the BarBie Sheila... Ha didnt even know you could get turkeys in the rainforest.
On the way back from Daintree in the car we came across something which was massive in the road not having a clue what it was lewis swerved the car to avoid it and stopped... As he got out the thing... Ran off... lol it was a lizard which was the size of your leg!!!... tried to take a photo but it disappeared into the forest.

We were thinking of staying up in the north of Queensland but there was so much we wanted to see to the south of Cairns so decided to drive back and find a hostel for the next couple nights whilst we had the car... Once back to cairns we found a place Called Castaways finding hostels with a car is sooooo much easier and soo much better for your back!!! lol. The place is pretty basic but you get free nightly meal and internet which is always good for the budget. That night we went to find the place for the free meal which was called the Wool shed but couldnt find it any where so decided to treat ourselfs instead and went to a Pizza resturant. Kirsty had mussels on her pizza which is the 1st time she's had them since getting food poisoning from them 3 years ago!!! Enjoyed them loads and thankfully she was fine the next morning the risk paid off. hehe.

Got up early for our second day Road trip in 'Bruce Alrighty'... we were going south of cairns with really winedy roads snaking up the the mountain sides which had really amazing views!!!
The first stop was The Cathedral Fig Tree the thing was anormus!!! You could stand inside it. After we went to Lake Tinaroo from a distance it looked like a beach with white sands and had loads of really nice looking camping sites around it. Not like our camp sites though with no club house or bar, you gotta entertain your selfs here. hehe...

Whilst on our drive we passed though a couple villages which looked abit redneckish, the places were really deserted and nothing looked open... We then went to Curtain Fig tree this was one of the oldest and biggest fig trees... Was a pretty amazing sight...

After we then went to Malanda falls on our way down to the falls we came across another turkey this one was a little bigger 'Cook that little beauty up aswell' hehe.. We started chasing him for a photo but he started back kicking leaves at us... So we left him alone. Prehaps he thought we was trying to catch him for the BBQ... there was one at the falls... ha. The waterfall was pretty small but it had a jungle trek which we explored... We saw a Tree kangaroo didnt know these things exsisted thought it was a monkey at first could get a photo he darted off to quick!!!
On the way back to Cairns we broke the 'Hire a Car' rules and went on a off road track, the car was bumping all over the place thought the engine was gonna fall out... The hills started to get stupidly steep sooooo we decided half way it would be best to turn back... When we got to the start of the off road track there was a notice saying about this road being shut off because it was too dangerous!!! lol... Note: Should always read the signs before entering... Nevermind was pretty fun and we got the car muddy as hell!!! atleast now the car looked used.

Finally got back to Cairns and decided we'd try and find the Wool Shed again for our free meal... So this time we got our little coupon and directions... Once there we had a look to see what was on the free meal list you could get Lasanga, Carbonara and some veggy thing... We decided to upgrade... As you could upgrade to the main meals for $5, $7 and $8... We shared Nachos with chilli beef and cheese and Pork spare ribs with sides and oh my god you get loads!!! It was sooo nice glad we found this place in the end!

The last day with Bruce we booked our Greyhound coach ride to sydney... You can stop off as many times as you like in 45 days so thats the travelling to sydney sorted!!
We then set off to Millaa Millaa which has a circuit of waterfalls the 1st falls was called Elliniaa Falls it was beautiful there was a family in the water it must have been sooo cold because they were screaming lol... we decided to pass... you could go right under the falls.. Then we went to Zillie falls this one was bigger then the last but you could only veiw it from the top because it was too rocky at the bottom.
The 3rd was Millaa Millaa Falls this falls was sooo beautiful it was the nicest we've seen so far, with a lovely to sit and BBQ, would have been amazing if it was a really sunny day!! Could ave swam and spent the whole day there...

The next stop was Innot Hot Springs you go down some outback roads to get to it... On the way we stopped to have a look at these massive termite mounds! They were huge taller then us... At home in the one we took a look at had a Black Widow Spider in it... Couldnt believe it!!! at first lewis got a piece of grass to tickle its web with to get him out for a photo but then realising the danger of this decided it would be best to just leave him where he was... It was pretty scary outhere because it looked like it would home to loads of snakes.! SSSsssSSSssSssssss...... ahhhhh. Whilst lewis was taking photos of the spider 'inside' his web... All these fly's started buzzing around kirsty she was screaming and ran towards the car to get away from them only to find that the fly's swarmed the car lol!!! because we left the door open... It took the next 5minutes whacking them out of the car... Gross...
We then got to the hot springs we were kind of expecting big hot pools where we could strip off and goo for a swim in them... But instead.... What we found was what looked like a swamp of shallow water no deeper then your ankle.. it showed on a drawing near the entrance that people were bathing in the water with all there bodies hanging out in the air... We went down to the springs and kirsty decided to try them out with her toe.... The 1st bit was nice and warm but down a little she tried and the water must have been at boiling point as it was steaming haaa... she didnt keep her foot in for long as it burnt it...!

At the end of the Springs there was a whole family all laid out in it!! rather them then us... It had mushrooms and allsorts growing in it!! Yuk! haa... bet it makes you stink!

We kept our eyes pealed on our travels for kangaroos and Emu's as there were signs warning you of them but we didnt see one!! Oh well... Ave to wait till we get to the Zoo might be a little easier to find them there.

The next day and our last day in cairns we checked out of our hostel and lewis dropped kirsty off to the bus station with all the bags... Lewis took back the car to the hire people... Whilst there the guy said 'did you take this car off road' Lewis said 'nope' He then said 'well its pretty dirty we cant take cars back this dirty... the boss will go mad, you will either have to take it too a car wash up the road or we'll charge you $50 surcharge to clean it' Lewis then said 'well didnt relise to be honest... because it didnt say on the contract we signed or would have cleaned it otherwise' the man then said 'well... it does say on here some where' after scanning though the piece of paper... and relising it didnt say he said 'well you right it doesnt guess i cant charge you' haaaa!!! what he doesnt relise is that we did off road it hehe... dont tell him. shhh

Next stop Townsville... But only to get the ferry to Magnetic Island!! Whooooop!!!

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