Advertisement
Published: February 8th 2009
Edit Blog Post
So...I arrived in Cairns on the 31st January with a couple of must see destinations in my mind, Cape Tribulation and of course The Great Barrier Reef. As soon as we touched down at the airport it was pissing it down so not a good start at all. It didn't stop raining for the first 2 days and people's snorkel and dive tours out on to the reef were getting cancelled left right and centre. I was rained in to the hostel the first couple of days and spent the time chilling out with the girls in my dorm and catching up with people who I had met in Uluru. It was busy in the common room areas since a catergory 1 cyclone warning was issued and we were advised only to leave the premises to stock up on food and water. Scary stuff!
The sun decided to make an appearance on the 2nd Feb and I took that opportunity to try and get out to Cape Trib, a place famously known for being where the white beach literally meets the rainforest. I booked a tour with a company called Foaming Fury and it went ahead according to plan...actually better
than planned. We had a really cool tour guide (who will remain nameless at his request), who drove us to additional places that weren't included on the tour and gave us much longer than he was meant to in each place to explore. The Daintree River was our first stop, where we took a short cruise and did some croc watching, followed by a walk through the Daintree Rainforest. It was all cool, but I had seen crocs and rainforests in Asia, so at this point I was just desperate to get to the main attraction...Cape Trib.
We arrived in Cape Trib around 1pm and as soon as the bus stopped I ran off and made my way down to the beach. It was a short walk through the rainforest to reach the beach and it was all pretty cool, apart from the weather not being on our side. It wasn't raining, but the sun went into hiding again. Standing in the water looking back at the beach and the rainforest is a pretty spectacular sight, but in all honesty it reminded me of a dirtier version of Pulau Perhentian Kecil in Malaysia. I suppose that's just because the
Cape Trib
Shame about the weather tourists are too inconsiderate to pick up after themselves which is such a shame. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more if it was a hot day too. I didn't stay on the beach for long and decided to head back towards the bus where we had lunch waiting for us at a near by bar called PK's. The group had their lunch and then took a quick dip in the pool. I was roped into playing water volleyball (and sucked!).
We were soon on the road again heading for Mossman Gorge about an hour drive away. The river was beautiful and of course I couldn't resist the urge to go for a swim.It was friggin' cold, but refreshing. After we had all dried off and were making our way back to the bus, all of a sudden the heavens opened and it started raining cats and dogs. Even people wearing raincoats were getting soaked to the bone. The bus ride to our next destination (Port Douglas) was interesting, with thirty odd 18 -30 year olds sitting in soaking wet seats in their underwear. :o* Port Douglas was a nice little boutique town. I would have liked to
stay there longer but we had just 45 minutes to look around. I opted for a quiet coffee at a place called 'Re:hab', run by a Kiwi guy who just won the world barrista title. We were meant to be back at the hostel by 5pm, but it was 7.30pm by the time I was back. It was a brilliant day!
The 3rd Feb was my last full day in Cairns so I spent the whole night before sleeping with my fingers firmly crossed that my trip out onto the Reef wouldn't get cancelled. It was raining as usual, but I was up bright and early to make my way to the reef pier worried I would just get turned away when I arrived. Thankfully, the crew (SilverSwift) decided to go ahead with the planned tour. As soon as we boarded the boat the crew were handing out sea sickness pills (my heroes) warning us that they were expecting winds beyond 25 knots. I was happy to overdose on the pills since I'm famous for my sea sickness antics. It was one hell of a bumpy ride out to our first dive/snorkel site, but thanks to the pills it
didn't bother me at all; I actually enjoyed the ride. It was like a really scary roller coaster! I thought it was hilarious seeing the big brawny guys who said they didn't need sea sickness pills throwing up overboard or into bags. A couple of the guys ended up being out of commission the whole day and just slept on the deck.
Throughout the day we visited 3 dive sites and had and hour and a half at each site to snorkel and dive. I wasn't allowed to dive since I have asthma, but that didn't bother me too much. The first site was by far the best; I saw a turtle and reef shark within the first 10 minutes of entering the water. The only downside was I got kicked in the head a couple of times by people who really couldn't swim and started panicking as soon as they realised just how deep the water really was! I had to swim back aboard a couple of times until the headache wore off. The remaining two sites were unfortunately disappointing because you couldn't see a damn thing :o( The weather was just too bad that the water wasn't cooperating with us. We made it back to the mainland around 5pm and guess what?.....It was raining :o)
By this time I was so sick and tired of running to try and get out of the rain so I walked slowly back to the hostel and even stopped for a couple of beers at P.J. O'Briens enroute.
I left Cairns in the morning on the 4th Feb for Auckland. I was full of excitement to see another new country, especially since my brother and Lee have been there and have nothing but good things to report. What I didn't count on was, whilst on the flight I started to get a pounding headaache and my ears were throbbing. When I arrived into Auckland I checked into my hostel and went straight to the nearest A&E. After hours of waiting around it turns out I have a pretty serious ear infection, probably from my adventures in the Reef. Typical! I was meant to leave Auckland on the 6th Feb, but it's the 8th now and yes I'm still here. I am under strict orders from the doc to stay put and not recommence my travels until at I'm fully recovered, which I think will be tomorrow. I can't wait to get back out there again.
xxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.145s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 12; qc: 43; dbt: 0.0433s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb