Cairns

Saying goodbye to Sydney…

It was very sad to be leaving Sydney… it was a beautiful city to call my home for so many months, but it was time to be moving on and seeing more of the world. Sydney is a wonderful, vibrant city. It’s always buzzing with people and entertainment. There is never a dull moment. As we arrived in to the city on the Manly ferry, we took our final photographs of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. We said our fond farewells to our flatmates (miss ya already) and jumped on a plane to Cairns.

No more feelings of sadness, just excitement. Our holiday had begun…

Firstly the heat in Cairns! Sydney, although beautiful, is bloody cold in winter. Nobody warned me about this before coming to Australia. I was under the impression that this country was hot all the time, well I was very much mistaken. The locals love the rain. There was a drought before I arrived so the wet weather seems to be a blessing, but it’s hard to see it that way when you’re a tourist from the UK! So we landed in Cairns on Tuesday evening, stepping off the plane to the wall of heat is amazing, it felt tropical, we were on holiday!!! We got a taxi to our accommodation, Ecto had previously booked it for us. It was ample but nothing fancy… we are backpackers after all. It was good catching up with Ecto and Davey. It had been a few weeks since we had seen them, so as you can imagine we really spent the next couple of days on the drink and talking fash. The hostel we are staying in is above a pub and beside a bottle shop, so ideally situated for us. There is a balcony at the front with tables where we all sit and eat dinner, mainly some culinary delight rustled up by myself or Ecto.

I was surprised with Cairns. I always imagined it to have a beautiful beach, just as most other tourist mad East Coast towns, however, the water really isn’t very nice. There is a manmade lagoon next to the estuary, kind of like a massive swimming pool, which is always buzzing with people and action. Tourists and locals alike, all flock to the ‘watering hole’ to cool down when the heat hit’s the mid 30’s in the middle of the day… the perfect hangover cure. The town itself is very pretty, you can tell the council put a lot of effort into the presentation of this backpacker haven. It’s quaint and full of pubs, surf shops and travel agents… the 3 most important things for a backpacker. There are palm trees lining the streets and girls and guys walking around half naked soaking up the parfel Australian rays.

On Saturday Don and I went for a cruise up the river. I was feeling a wee bit shady from the night before, but I managed to drag myself out of bed and head down to the marina. It was $19... Bloody bargain! We boarded and got our complimentary glass of champagne, that kicked the hangover right out of me and by my second glass I was feeling fresh. The boat took us up the river through the mangroves as the sun was setting. Keeping an eye out for crocodiles we cruised about a bit. As they took us out to sea, hundreds of bats appeared. I don’t know if you have seen these bats before, but they are not like the bats at home, mice with wings, they are huge. It was amazing to see this many flying overhead, just about making out their silhouettes against the night sky. It was pretty cool. As the sun disappeared, the city began to light up, building by building until we could see the whole of Cairns twinkling in the landscape. Cairns is surrounded by mountains and hills, we didn’t notice this when we landed in as it was dark, it wasn’t until the next day that we realised. Seeing the landscape from a boat in a river… as the sun was setting… with a glass of champagne in hand was absolute bliss!

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