Australia Adventures Part 3

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Arriving in Cairns was similar to arriving in Hawaii, or at least in a different country. The air quality had changed to take on that humid tone where you can feel the air as you breathe it in; everything was suddenly very green and very lush and not at all the red, red soil we had seen on the drive in or the dusty endless plains that accompanied the highways. We arrived at our resort, "The Lakes Cairns" which really was the definition of a resort, huge sprawling entry gates, sheltered parking and an apartment much bigger than my own big apartment in Copenhagen. The balcony alone was bigger than my bedroom. We could hear waterfalls but not see them since we arrived at night time and embarrassingly given all the luxury surrounding us, we had KFC for dinner, again, after that long of a drive, no cooking or even eating out was possible; on the plus side, I hadn't had KFC in years, and Dzl had never tried it, so it was an adventure of sorts.

The week in Cairns was spent exploring, relaxing, exploring again. We went to the esplanade, a beautiful gigantic pool beside the ocean with an accompanying walkway along the ocean front. Due to the fact that everything in Australia is trying to kill you (sharks, jellyfish, snakes, seashells!) you can't go on the beach so they built a nice walkway and pool complete with sand well above the ocean level. There was also a night market which was half asian night market and half opal/crocodile skin market. After two trips here, Dzl came out with a new static electricity toy for himself, my dad bought my mom a gorgeous amber bracelet and I don't think I actually bought anything, for once. We had dinner at "Outback Jacks" where we had initially gone thinking it was a souvenir shop and it turned out to be a great place (obviously, with the oversized crocodile hanging on the wall!) for not only drinks but a fantastic dinner menu. Dzl and I both had the special - crocodile with asian salad and calamari. My dad tried to order the best steak possible but all the cuts and terminology are different and so he ended up with a pretty good steak but not exactly what he had in mind and my mom somehow managed to get the best steak on the menu. All of us were pretty happy and I spent the rest of the evening worrying that since I had eaten a crocodile, did that justify a crocodile eating me?

Cairns of course, was our gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. We found, after exasperating searches online (which yield hundreds if not thousands of search results for various trips provided by various companies, rated by hundreds of people with expressions ranging from love to hate of the same company at the same time of year) a fantastic guide to the reef, Reef Experience. I was impressed because they offered all the perks of the more expensive tours (intro scuba diving, catamaran, quick trip, breakfast, wine and cheese on the way home) but for a mid-range price. It was reasonable and fantastic...in hindsight. The day of, I suffered from being cocky. I took the suggested ginger tablets, handed out freely upon boarding the ship and enjoyed my sandwich. I listened to the instructions and the warnings. I enjoyed their jokes about seasickness. My response to my mother when she asked if I wanted some medicated seasickness tablets was, 'no thanks, I practically live on a boat in Denmark'. 10 minutes later, I had my head in a paper bag, along with 10 other passengers (not the same bag!) and was begging, *begging* for some seasickness tablets. It was awful. I don't think I remember being that seasick before. I remember being queasy but never shaking like I had a bad fever, unable to move my limbs, so focused on the horizon that I couldn't respond to simple questions, "Sunscreen?" "grunt!" "Water?" "grunt!" I was reduced to a shell of a human, and I wasn't even the worst off of the passengers. So imagine this scene if you will: 10 people, told that the stairs of the catamaran between the two floors is the most stable area. We all crowded, two people per step, leaving an aisle in the middle, all with one arm looped around the base of the handrail, all with the other hand resting, exhausted, on our opposite knee, working to hold up our sacred paper puke bags. All trying to keep an eye on the horizon and praying the trip ended soon. At the foot of the stairs sat a member of the staff, paper bags in one hand, paper towels in the other, foot resting on a garbage bin, always at the ready to rush to the rescue of one of us, taking away our full bags, giving us an empty bag and a paper towel and returning to their post at the bottom of the stairs. I noticed that three people handled this job over the one hour trip out the reef, I guess it's not the best position one could be working in. I would like to take this opportunity, Reef Experience and / or ReefExperience (yes, I want google to pick this up!) to address the obviously new member of the crew with his black gloves that he wore the entire trip, the one who thought that eating a bacon egg sandwich, oozing ketchup IN FRONT of the people who were puking, was a good idea. You are a jerk. A horrible, mean, disgusting jerk. He was completely oblivious to his actions until another crew member motioned at the puke brigade, and motioned at his sandwich and then he got the idea and moved away. Ew. The feeling still rests in the physical experience part of my brain and I shudder writing this. Ew. So I spent four hours, four of them, one minute where I actually said out loud that I really wanted to be back in my stable office chair at my desk, being horribly ill. When we finally arrived at the reef, I thought: obviously, the cure is to get in the water. I remember repeating to myself, almost there, almost there, get in the water, almost there. We got there, I had help getting in my wet suit, people putting on my fins for me, and I got in just as quickly as I could given the fact that my whole body was shaking as if poisoned and I could barely propel myself forward crawling never mind walking or swimming. I experienced the briefest moment of joy as I pushed myself off the boat and into the water, anticipating the relief of the end of seasickness. It was brief; as soon as I hit the water, it was twice as bad, the waves were choppy, the water tried to swallow me, my suit made me float, all of which was a very strange sensation and I nearly fed the fish right there. After a few minutes of trying to force myself to breathe through my snorkel, and nearly crying, I crawled back on to the boat in defeat and had my one minute madness of wanting to be back in my office. Finally, after a series of sickness related events I'd rather not relay, a staff member explained to me that seasickness is the body's reaction to being confused by the movement, and that perhaps I should sleep and then I'd feel better. Laying down seemed to be the worst idea ever but I think my body desperately needed to rest so it gave in and I woke up, cured. I am not sure why they didn't tell me this FOUR HOURS EARLIER but this was the case, and I enjoyed the rest of the day with only the slightest bit of queasiness and memories of the earlier part of the day.

Once I actually got to the snorkelling part, it was amazing. There wasn't a square foot(meter) that wasn't covered in life. The water color was incredible, blue, green, light blue, changing due to all the different heights of the coral reef below. Going through the coral reef was an amazing experience, it was really difficult to get close to it without accidentally touching it and when I did, I felt awful, like I had kicked someone in the stomach, on purpose. I didn't mean to of course but with the current and trying to paddle along and see things it was nearly inevitable. People crawled all over each other in a panic not to hit the reef whenever we got close to it. There was so much to see, besides the fantastic range of fish: plants and wavy underwater trees, shells, a giant clam that opened and closed for us and could have easily eaten my car as a light afternoon snack, a seacucumber that felt like a dolphin's skin with jello underneath, and who was remarkably heavy for his level of squishiness. If you've ever played with one of those dollar-store toys that squishes back and forth in a most disgusting way, the clear plastic thing with liquid and glitter inside, that's precisely what a seacucumber feels like, but with dolphin skin. Strange. No amount of taking underwater photos did any justice to the array of colors, the textures, the universe below us. There was so much to see, and that was only as a snorkeler. Dzl got to dive and was able to see and get up close to a lot more and I would love to try it out one day (when I'm not busy staring into a paper bag).

The day ended with a car ride back to the resort; we had had delusions of walking around town afterward but we were all so pooped we could barely make it up the stairs to the apartment when we were done never mind consider wandering through town.

Our last days in Cairns were spend in Kuranda; the epitome of beautiful tourist traps. It is a rainforest area with tons of plants and tons of markets. The whole concept is to take a train trip up, up, up through the mountains until you reach this small village of markets. Endless wares, crafts, and kangaroo scrotums. (It's a thing there apparently, to sell these as a novelty gift). It was fun to see the markets and I got a beautiful floral dress there but it was a really populated market in reality. We did manage to sneak away and order a marvellous plate of nachos at a table overlooking the rainforest so that was great. The train ride was the best part, seeing all the plants up close, being on an old rail train, stopping to see beautiful waterfalls and huge drops and views of all of Cairns. It was really fantastic, especially when you could see the train curve around a mountain up ahead. There were many tunnels and it was interesting to hear the story of how it was built and to imagine people living up in sparse villages in the mountains working hard to create the railway - a little overemphasized in the narration but I got the point and appreciated it.

I think the best other parts of staying in Cairns were cooking at our fabulous resort. We barbecued outside, cooking up loads of prawns and steaks and throughly enjoying the space and foods available to us!

Before we knew it, it was time to leave Cairns and head off to Darwin! We flew there, luckily because even though it's only a small area on the map, it's an enormous distance.

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Photos

Beach
Hmm this is actually Bundaberg, whoops. Ah well. Still pretty.

Beach walk
Hmm this is actually Bundaberg, whoops. Ah well. Still pretty.

Bundaberg Rum
Hmm this is actually Bundaberg, whoops. Ah well. Still pretty.