Cairns: The good, the bad and the ugly

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We finally made it up to Cairns on 24 September and went to work putting Helen up for sale. Within half an hour of the first poster going up we started to receive phone calls about her and by 5pm she was sold. It was a pretty hectic day, trying to tidy the van up a bit, meeting various people and supervising test drives and we were knackered by the end of it - we were chuffed that we managed to pretty much make back all the money we'd paid for the van and all the camping gear though!

So this brings me to the explanation of the title of this blog:

- The good: After selling the van we kept hold of her for the weekend and went out of Cairns for a little trip up to Cape Tribulation and down around the Atherton Tablelands.

The area around Cape Tribulation is where tropical rainforest meets the beach and the home of cassowaries (big emu-type birds with bright blue heads and red wattles an their necks). After catching a ferry across to the area, we found ourselves a nice little campsite right in the middle of the rainforest where we saw our first cassowary. We were very excited but a little scared when it started coming towards us - we had read that they can be quite aggressive - but, following the advice signs we backed away and Del even put something inbetween her and it...me!

After a couple of days in the rainforest, we headed back down south to the Atherton Tablelands, just west of Cairns. Highlights were a couple of massive green fig trees, a green pool (see pics) and a DRIVE-IN!!! Del says, "It was like being in Grease". It was brilliant - wish we had them back home (and the weather for them, I guess).

On the 29th we had to be back in Cairns to part with Helen. It was a very sad moment and we had to get used to hostel life again (see below).

Since being in Cairns we've been out to see the Great Barrier Reef. The coral was awesome and we got to swim with a fish (a Moari Wrasse) at least half the size of me (no lie). A really memorable and fun day out.

- The bad: Staying in hostels is rubbish! On our first day here we bought a block of cheese...in less than 24 hours half the block had been stolen. At 3:30 this morning we all had to evacuate the building when the fire alarm started going off. The disturbance didn't stop there. Even once we'd been given the ok to go back to bed, there were loudspeaker announcements asking for one of the fireman's helmets to be returned. Ridiculous! All of this was enough for me to completely lose my sense of humour especially given the day we'd just had, which brings me to...

- The ugly: BEDBUGS! Yes, we managed to get bedbugs. Following the rule that if anything bites it'll bite Del, we first suspected that there were bedbugs in our room on Wednesday but it wasn't until Del killed one yesterday morning that we knew. We reported them to reception and we got told that evrything would have to be washed and dried and what couldn't be washed would have to go out in the sun. As we were sorting everything out the others in the room came in and started scratching. When asked if they had been bitten, they told us no but as soon as we told them that there were bedbugs in the room, pretty much everyone started showing us that they were covered in bites but hadn't said anything. Thanks roomies! We spent all afternoon yesterday washing and drying our stuff, it was a nightmare and to make matters worse we had to do it all again today because apparently it needed to have some time in the sun first.

Needless to say, we're really looking forward to Fiji on Monday...

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Photos

CASSOWARY!!!
Look for the blue blur

The photo that sold her
This was the picture that we put on the 'for sale' posters. I think you'll agree she's looking good