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Published: February 2nd 2012
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Drivers Arm
Driving to Cairns in the sun! After the short and sunny three hour drive from Townsville, we arrived in Cairns. It took a month and 4500 kilometres, but we made it!
Cairns is another small town, but extremely spread out! We drove around and found Castaways. Castaways is a backpackers hostel a five minute drive from the centre of town, but a 30 minute walk!
Having the car we stayed away from the centre of the town hostels as many of them did not offer any kind of parking. Castaways on the other hand was laid out more like a Motel. The rooms circled a central car park for about 4 cars. It had a small pool, balcony area, big kitchen/dining area and a tv room with plenty of dvd's to watch.
We had two weeks to spend in Cairns and selling the car was the priority to allow us to enjoy the rest of the time we had in Australia.
All of the hostels offer free dinner as part of the package when staying with them. This is taken care of by the pub in the centre of the town, The Woolshed. The options are based on the same tomato sauce, spaghetti
Our Home
Castaways was a great place to stay bolagnase, chilli con carne or vegetarian pasta! This was a good option for us as we were able to save money on food. We got into our room and the only problem was a slight issue with cockroaches in the bathroom. I told the reception and they were more than willing to help. I was given a spray cockroach killer and got to work! Allen, the American hostel manager followed me back to the room an apologised, giving us free meal upgrades for dinner in the process. That night I enjoyed my free steak and Charlie her filo pastry.
It wasn't until the following night that we go to the other staff and a few guests. Tuesday night is quiz night at The Woolshed. After we ate our free meal the hostel bus arrived, bringing with it guests and staff. James and Ruth walked through the door first, they help run the hostel with Allen, then Richard and Graham, two 21 year old Geordie lads paying for their accommodation by working as the hostel maids and Nigel, another traveller from Cambridge. We failed at the quiz at the first time of trying! We didn't know until they arrived, but
Our Car
This 22 year old beast got us from Melbourne to Cairns! as part of Castaways entering the quiz we get free pizza! So we had finished our meals 30 minutes previous and now had pizza to eat, bonus!
Ruth and James left us at the pub and we all got to know each other over the next hour before heading back to the hostel.
On the third day at the hostel we were able to jump on the free computer in the office and post an advert for our car online. This was the only way we would be able to get rid of it with free advertising and hopefully not lose too much on it.
Each night The Woolshed has a different theme. Following the quiz night, Wednesday was wet t-shirt night and goldfish racing and Thursday is Meal or no Meal, their adaptation on the TV game show, and a male stripper for the ladies.
Each night, us, the two Geordies and Nigel would head to The Woolshed for our dinner, a few drinks and chat about what to do and where to go.
Time soon flew by and new years eve was upon us. Nothing special had been planned by the hostel. There
Tropical Weather
Only had this twice in two weeks, but...wow! were fireworks and live bands playing on the seafront, so we all headed down there. An artist called Diesel was headlining. None of us knew who this chap was playing his guitar on stage, but the Australians loved him and got a bit angry at us for not knowing who he was. The fireworks were amazing, the seafront was packed with thousands of people.
Cairns seafront, like Townsville has beautiful waters, but you cannot swim in the sea. The danger of jellys and worse, crocs were worth avoiding! What had been build to feed the Australians hunger for being in the water was called the lagoon. A purpose built, large a of water no more than a metre deep for everyone to relax around. Lifeguards watch over the water to save the day if needed.
A couple of days after the new years celebrations and everything had calmed down, graham mentioned going to Crystal Cascades. This is a natural river with areas of rock do jump off from 20-30 metres into the water. There are different areas to swim in and even a natural made slide! Nigel, Graham and I spent the whole day there enjoying the cool
Meal or No Meal
Charlie and Nigel got picked to play the game! water in the 35 degree heat.
With a week to go in Australia, we were texted about our car. Two German lads came to look at the car and go for a test drive. Luckily, after a few days they decided to take the car off us. We filled out all the paperwork and took payment in cash for the car, lovely!
With the weight of the car off our shoulders we started to really enjoy our time in Cairns. The parties in the pubs were great, the people were awesome, we even started to get used to the weird lady in the street singing in a foreign language every night!
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