Blogs from Cairns City, Cairns, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 19

Life in the Tropics Hello Hello family, friends and anyone who has somehow found this page in the middle of the internet. If you don't know me then no doubt the following blog may be a little dissapointing (and indeed that could be the case even if you do know me) unless you just fancy hearing about an English backpacker's perspective on living in Cairns after spending the last year living in Melbourne and in that case you have come to the right place, which would be a pretty huge conincidence but then if traveling and living abroad for over two years now has taught me anything, and I like to think it must have, its that crazy stuff happens every day! Right, didnt intend on starting my first blog in about 6 months with such ... read more

Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie! I Love Australia! Cairns is rather touristy but very pleasant! It's really nice to be able to climatise in such nice conditions! We're staying at Carvella Backpackers which is very nice and cute, with pink and purple wooden huts surrounding a communal area and swimming pool. I was also able to access some home comforts here, Earl Grey Tea with Marmite (well vegimite!) on toast. Although Vegimite is no marmite, I have to make sacrifices whilst I'm backpacking, therefore I bought a squeezy tube of vegimite...we'll get through these hard times together! Our Hostel also provides us with a free evening meal at the 'Woolshed' and it's nice to be able to chill out in a cool bar, drinking XXXX and listening to good music :) Yesterday was awesome, we went snorkelling on ... read more

Hello! After a tiring overnight flight (which consisted of two flights, one from Singapore to Darwin and then a 3 hour break in the airport lounge in the early hours of the morning before the second to Cairns!) we arrived in Australia! It was a comforting feeling to be back in a 'Western' culture and once we got over the tiredness we enjoyed wandering around the town for a few days. It was quite a lot smaller than we expected which meant everything was in close walking distance. Although there was no beach at the city, there was an impressive mountain-like rainforest backdrop. We stayed in our first proper hostel (sticking mainly to hotels and guesthouses in asia) which had a kitchen meaning we could finally make our own food and not be forced to eat ... read more

THE GREAT BARRIER REEF Up early again today, gosh we are gluttons for punishment! We take a lovely early morning walk along the sea front, past the Lagoon to the Marina. We are the first here, so hop on board and grab a coffee & Danish for breakfast. We do like these trips that include loads of food! It is a god send really. We watch everyone else board and grab there breakfast before the first briefing of the day, this is where they try to upgrade us (for a hundred dollars or so) to diving. But apart from it being cheaper, we decided that as the reef is so close we can probably see just as much. Although the dive mistress did have amazing boobies! We sailed out to the outer reef for a good ... read more

With Caoimhe and Lauren gone back home, it was time for us to start exploring what else Australia had to offer. We wanted to have absolute freedom to move as we wished so decided to buy a van in Sydney and drive it all the way up to Cairns. In true traveller style we bought Charlie, a white Toyota Hiace, modified as a camper, fully equipped with a bed and camping gear in the back. Our first road trip was to the 'Blue Mountains', just a two-hour drive outside Sydney. We did a bit of trekking the following morning. The scenery was really beautiful. From here we headed back to the coast and started our new life on the road. The east coast of Australia is a beautiful place to travel. With no time pressures, we ... read more