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Published: August 14th 2011
My next Australia blog (aka massive essay..... :9 ) is here! This one is just going to be about my time in the Cairns area, as I have so much to write about Queensland that I could never fit it all into one blog. It would cause me to breakdown!
I was shattered when I eventually arrived in Cairns, after having my flights screwed around. Rocked up to my hostel at 9.30am, not having slept at all. I was allowed to dump my stuff but couldn't check into my room until 2pm, so had a whole lot of time to waste when all i really wanted to do was sleep.
I headed on down to the Lagoon, which was basically this swimming pool with salt water in it, and found a nice tree to sit under. About five minutes later I was fast asleep, looking a bit like a hobo as I was using my jumper for a pillow, was fully dressed and was surrounded by about a hundred people sunbathing in bikinis and swim shorts.....
I survived to that evening without getting my stuff nicked, and was persuaded out on a pub crawl, which truly finished me off.
The next few days passed in a blur of laziness, as it took me a while to recover, and get over the shock of being off on my own again. Eventually I got my act together and planned a few things.
My first trip was out to the Great Barrier Reef. I had heard so much about it that I had really high expectation and it was the whole reason I had learnt to dive in the first place.
On the way out to the reef on the boat, we saw two humpback whales breeching, and several times they breeched together. The crew commented that it is rare that you come across such playful whale. They were literally out of the water more often than they were in it, absolutely fantastic to watch!
I ended up doing three dives on the reef in total, and they took such good care of us. I'd been a little worried as I hadn't done any diving since I got certified, and I'd been convinced that I'd forgotten everything. We got such 5* treatment that there wasn't a whole lot I actually had to do, I mean they even put our
fins on for us!
I remembered how to 'dive' as soon as I got in the water, but alas the visibility wasn't great. We didn't see any sharks or turtles, but we saw a hell of a lot of beautiful coral. So much of it, and so many different types. We were also lucky enough to spot a sting ray and a giant puffer. Still, I was quite disappointed. I'd heard so much about it that I had truly thought that the experience would blow my mind, but to be honest, the snorkelling I'd done in Thailand and Indonesia had been a million times better. It was a good day overall, just I'm not sure it was worth the fortune I paid to do it.....
The next day, I hopped on a public bus and toodled off to Cairns zoo. The day was overcast, so it was pretty much the perfect day to go to the zoo, as it would have been cold hanging out by the Lagoon.
It was a really small zoo but it had a lot of talks about the animals going on throughout the day, and had the option to get close to some
of the animals. I spent the whole day there, and went to practically every talk that they did.
Thanks to the snake talk, I now know what to do if I ever get bitten by a snake (don't move as the venom goes through your muscles and not through your blood like I'd thought!).
I think one of the reasons I enjoyed the zoo so much, was that it was my first chance to see a lot of Australia's native wildlife, and I found them so fascinating as we just don't get anything like them where I come from.
The zoo allowed to me to get up close and hold a koala (which means 'no drink no water' in Aboriginal). It was very cute and fluffy and didn't claw my face off (as some Aussie had been teasing me and telling me it would). The koala did have a very distinct smell, not exactly unpleasant but it is definitely not going to be the latest perfume to hit the market. Unfortunately I was being watched too closely to make a run for it with the koala, or smuggle it into my bag, but I've still got ages in
Australia, so plenty more time to try!
I also went on the wombat experience at the zoo, where I learnt all about the interesting nocturnal animals. I even got to stroke one as it lay in it's keepers arms, dozing. I think that wombats are incredibly cute, and they look an awful lot like a giant guinea pig but don't make that horrid noise! I loved the fast that the wombat I was with, kept rousing itself, only for it's eyes to slowly slide shut again, it was adorable.
Cairns zoo even had Kangeroos that I could go up to and feed (but only the special food they give you), however, the kangeroos were obviously over fed by tourists and werent all that interested in the food I was offering them. I probably should have headed to them early in the day, before they got so full. Oh well!
I was up early the next day as I was going on a trip to Daintree rainforest. Daintree rainforest is the oldest rainforest in the world; three times older than the amazon rainforest at a whopping 150 million years old, and it contains some tree species that have
existed since the time the dinosaurs walked the earth.
We went on a walk on some boardwalks, which allowed us to go though the rainforest, looking for Cassowary, without the danger of treading on a snake or getting too close to a croc.
I was staying at the place when Daintree rainforest met Cape Tribulation. It was such a beautiful, relaxed place, a nice break after the party atmosphere of Cairns.
That night I went on a spot light walk through the rainforest. I thought this would be a good way to see a lot of the creatures, as most of them seemed to be nocturnal.
I LOVED the walk, even the bit when it started raining, as it just made the rainforest come even more alive, full of animals and insects calling.
We saw a green ringed frog (or it was called something like that), a couple of snuffly long-nosed bandycoots out foraging, a daddy longlegs centipede (supposedly it has really strong pincers), an emerald dragonfly, a brown rock frog and a boyd's forest dragon.
Our guide also pointed out several types of ants and showed us some AWESOME glowing fungi. He made us turn
our torches off, and after our eyes adjusted to the dark, we could see the ground glowing gently. Very cool.
After spending the night in this sweet little place in the rainforest (though I'm not sure if they had bedbugs, because I left with a load of bites on me....but they could have occurred during my night walk), I got up to do some horse riding through the rainforest and along the beach at Cape Tribulation.
On our way through the rainforest, heading to the beach, we went along side a creek, and who should be in the creek but a 2 metre crocodile!
I really enjoyed seeing one of these creatures in the wild, but I was also pleased he was on the otherside of the water from us.
I had a trot and a short canter on my horse, Oscar, along the beach, and just generally enjoyed being on a horse again. We also came across a HUGE black snake, no idea what type it was, but it was pretty close, but thankfully left us alone.
In the afternoon, I hopped back on the bus to take me back to Cairns, but it stopped at
some cool places along the way. We stopped at the Daintree Icecream Factory, where i got to try Soursop and Wattleseed icecreams. Both were delicious, the soursop really refreshing, and the wattleseed tasted an awful lot like chocolate (how awesome is that, a seed that tastes like chocolate but isn't bad for you!!). Yummy!!!
We then went to Walu Wugirnga to lookout over towards the sea; seeing all the islands in the distance, and the rainforest reaching down onto the beach, heading towards the sea.
Next we stopped at this wildlife place, where we got to see lots of Australia's native animals, including the adorable sugar-gliders and an emu that thought my camera was edible.
We had a brief stop over at Mossman gorge, a sacred site to the local Aboriginals. It was such a picturesque, peaceful place. And I couldn't help but wonder how powerful the river would have had to of been to move some of the huge boulders dotted within the river.
Some of the group (not me) were lucky enough to see an adolescent Cassowary walking around when they were heading back to the bus early. I was still busy taking pictures
of the gorge at the time. I was a little disappointed not to see one, but not too gutted, as to be honest, I find them pretty scary. Kinda like dinosaur turkeys! And they have been known to kill people. Definitely not something I'd like to bump into if I was by myself.
Our last stop before Cairns was to Port Douglas, play ground of the rich and famous. We only had a short while there, but it was nice to walk around for half an hour and get a feel for the place. It is completely surrounded by water on three sides, and has a four mile beach. With it's posh ersorts and nice boutique-y shops, it was easy to see why the rich like to go there to relax.
The bus dropped me back for my last night in Cairns, and I was more than ready to leave and move on to the next place.
Whoop. Cairns blog done!
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