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Published: June 30th 2008
Big Foot
Amy on her foot massager machine!22nd June- We arrived in tropical paradise!
Too tired to do anything, we slept for pretty much all of our first day in Cairns!
Flight was very tiring, and confusing. We have discovered what it means to be jet-lagged! Awesome plane though, unlimited movies, and we were given a lot of goodies.. (all of which I 'borrowed')
Singapore airport was unbelieveable, it had a swimming pool! And a gym! And those moving walkways you get at disneyland! It was incredibly clean. They had these little foot massaging machines which I got addicted to. 😊
Hostel (Caravella 149!) seems clean, people are friendly, and it is located right on the Esplanade, just five minutes from town. There are croc signs everywhere, so we are terrified to hit the sandy beaches just yet. Lots of nice shops and the weather is nice and sunny. But not too hot.
Amy x
23rd June - Darned Jet Lag!!
Still jet lagged - um not much to report.....
Lucy
24th June - Got up close and personal with Harvey!!
After waking up at 4am in the morning on Monday we woke up at 12.30pm!! What
Rainforest Dome
View of Cairns coastline, from the top of the Rainforest Dome. Lucy also. a waste of a morning!
Our room mate Tracy is a hairdresser back home (Ireland) and so me, Amy and Elaine (our other roomy) all got our hair cut (for a small fee!). It was Elaine's first hair cut in over a year!
After lunch we decided to go on a walk around Cairns and came across The Rainforest Dome on the other side of town.
It was a rainforest experience on the top floor of a building - great views over town. As soon as we went in it was feeding time. They had a Water Dragon inside roaming free (argh!). It made me a bit jumpy - I felt a ladies camera strap brush up against me and jumped out of my skin! But all worth it when we met Harvey. I know that koalas are supposed to be quite fierce and would chase you down the street if you came across them in the wild but it was very hard to believe as Harvey loved cuddles and being stroked. He was soo soft!
There were lots of birds flying around free and they all seemed pretty tame and happy to perch on anyone!
Harvey..
..having a scratch! Later that night we went to The Woolshed in town - all backpackers go there as you get a free meal! You can't turn down free food when you're a back packer! Great pub, but very much like freshers week at the union when you're a student. You could identify the people on the Oz Experience tour, they were the ones that straight after dinner got up and danced on the tables...at least we waited for our food to go down before we joined them!
Got chatting to some other back packers too! Starting to settle in!
Lucy
25th June - Up Up and Away....
An early start as we had to catch the bus to the Skyrail.. the longest cable car journey in the World, 7.5km!! Lucy's phone alarm had failed to go off, but luckily I had woken up about 20 minutes before the bus arrived. So as you can imagine, it was a rush to get everything ready.. (especially considering the time Lucy takes to get ready in the bathroom!)
Once on the bus, we had a very odd tour guide. He told us it was illegal to eat on his
Skyrail View
Rainforest Canopy in the rain. bus, yet he answered his phone three times while driving! And once when going round a roundabout! We were fearing for our lives.. And he had no teeth, which kind of creeped me out a little..
The Skyrail had amazing views over the Rainforest Canopy. There were three stops - Red Peak, Barron Falls, and Kuranda.
At Red Peak there was a short walk through the Rainforest and a stop off at the toilets (I refused to go as it was just a big hole in the ground!) It was here where we saw the World's tallest tree!
Barron Falls was absolutely beautiful! But the weather was not ideal, as it was chucking it down with rain.. (but this added to the fun..)
Kuranda (the main stop) was really commerical, we did not really enjoy it that much. Instead, we went on an hours walk through the rainforest. Afterwards we stopped at 'Annabelles' Pie Shop. And both had a Kangaroo Pie each.. tasted a bit like lamb.. but a bit more tangy. Overall, a well worth while experience.
On the way back, we went on the 'Kuranda's Scenic Railway'. Which went through 15 tunnels, and past 4 waterfalls!
It was a pretty long journey, but the views were very good!
When we got back, we hit the pubs for a drink with Elaine, and her friends. Hoping for a early night, as we had the Cape Tribulation trip the next day. Although this did not go to plan. I had to beg Lucy to stay out!
Amy x
26th June - Bye Bye Civilisation and hello giant lizards....
Again the phone alarm failed me and it was a mad rush to get out of the hostel (Amy is telling me I have to say that it was my fault because I forgot my phone was a 24 hour clock - so the alarm went off at 8pm!).
We were met by a very happy tour guide (NOT!). He started off telling us that he was on sick leave today and not meant to be working and then went on to tell the whole bus about his divorce....he also cracked some awful jokes that were in very bad taste!
We were rushed off the bus at Mossman Gorge for half an hour look around at a freshwater creek. Very pretty. Got back to
Mossman Gorge
Beautiful clear water creek! Ideal for swimming in! the bus in good time as the tour guide didnt seem very organised and did admit he wasnt sure how many people were meant to be on the trip!!
Me and Amy think we saw a baby Cassowary (an endangered flightless bird that is very popular over here - everything is named after them).
Our next stop was the Daintree Wildlife Zoo. Very small outdoor zoo where we saw a real cassowary and lots of crocodiles, kangaroos etc.
We stopped off at a few viewing points on the way to Cape Tribulation as we wound deeper into the rainforest. It is one of the few places where rainforest reaches the beach - breathtaking!
We were staying at a fantastic hostel - totally would recommend to anyone - called PK's Village Hostel. There were lots of wooden lodges nestled in the rainforest but right next to the beach as well. Amy thought the fake lizard above our lodge was a nice touch!
PKs just had a great laid back atmosphere - very sad to only be staying one night so we well and truly made the most of it.
As soon as we arrived we
Best Beach EVER!
Myall Beach, Cape Tribulation went down to the beach with Ryan, a lovely canadian guy who was on our trip. We went for a paddle in the sea and went looking for coconuts. Ryan took about 15 minutes to crack one open (on a rock) but it was worth it - he made me and Amy a fruit salad with passionfruit and bananas in the coconut shell and brought it to our lodge as a surprise later that evening - aw!
We decided to face our fear of spiders full on, and had booked a Night Walk through the Rainforest. It was incredible to walk through the Rainforest at night. There were so many stars, and they were so bright. At one point, we stood around in a circle and turned off our torches. It was pitch black! Apart from the luminious, glowing fungus that attaches to the leaves. We saw a small green frog, very sweet! A few big spiders, and a Razorback Pig. We then were taken to a lake, to go Crocodile Spotting. The little tour guide, Hans, with his bushy beard (Me and Amy thought he looked like a very old santa on safari!) was rushing backwards and fowards
Ryan's Fruit Salad
Fruit salad made from the coconut Ryan opened earlier searching for this croc. We eventually saw two small glowing lights in the distance (these were apparently the crocs eyes - but everybody on the trip thought they were fake!)
Lucy
27th June - Sea Kayaking
Got up nice and early to have a leisurely kayak around the Cape Tribulation Coastline - but in true rainforest style it chucked it down with rain and the waves were pretty big....me and Amy just about managed to keep up with everyone but after an hour the trip was called off as the water was too rough to continue.
After the kayaking we went back to the hostel to change into dry clothes and were then picked up by bus to go to our next destination Port Douglas. There is not an awful lot in Port Douglas except for Four Mile beach - four miles of long sandy beach and some very groovy hostels! Amy even got us a discount at our hostel 'Dougies' by flashing a big photo of her boyfriend Darren with an owl on his shoulder!! Hm!!
That night we went to the Yacht Club for dinner and had the most amazing food, couldnt fault
Sid the Giant Lizard
Um I hate to tell Amy but that is definately a REAL lizard.... a thing! We then went down to the pier and listened to live rock music!
Tomorrow we are heading back to Cairns for a couple of nights as the sea was too rough for us to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef earlier this week.
Lucy
28th June - A Lazy Day
Today was a pretty lazy day, spent relaxing in the park after our very eventful past few days! In the evening, we went to eat our free meal at 'The Woolshed', met a few nice people! The guy pretty much definately convinced me to do a Skye Dive! 😊 On our way back to Caravella we took the short cut route, and decided to have some fun with the Jelly Baby statues outside Cairns Art Gallery!
Amy x
29th June - Snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef
Early start to catch the sailing boat which is just a short walk from our hostel. Our boat was very small and there were only 14 people on the boat which was great considering most of the boats are huge and take about 300 people! So we got a very friendly and personal service!
Sea Kayaking
Sea Kayaking in the pouring rain around Cape Tribulation Coastline! Fantastic! We anchored just outside of Green Island where the water was about 7 metres deep and 22 degrees! Very clear and you could see the bottom. We went snorkelling for about an hour before lunch and saw all sorts of beautifully coloured fish, giant clams, coral etc...
We had lunch on the boat and then got into a small speed boat and jetted over to Green Island for two hours of sun bathing, walking and paddling.
In the afternoon we went on a reef tour. A crew member took us out with our snorkelling gear and taught us about the reef, the types of fish and coral that we could see. I held a sea cucumber, felt very squidgy!
When we got back we decided that as it was our last evening in Cairns (sniff) we should finally make use of the free BBQs around Cairns on the Esplanade. I shoved a load of cutlery and crockery into my rucksack and we grabbed Canadian Ryan and went to the supermarket. Quite amusing as the cutlery kept falling through the bag - even in the supermarket a knife fell out and jammed in the automatic door (not
Funky Tree
Saw this great tree on the night walk that I'm clumsy or anything!).
We bought some cheap sausages, rissoles and reduced buns. Amy prepared the food, Ryan cooked it and I dashed to MacDonalds to get fries.
Dinner was pretty tasty although slightly burnt but the setting was lovely as it was the first night The Lagoon was open and it looked amazing...very jealous that Ryan gets to have a swim there tomorrow while we're stuck on a bus for four hours.
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Alison
non-member comment
Wow!
Well girls I have loved reading your blog. It sounds like you are having an amazing time and I am very very jealous. It's lovely to be able to keep track of what you are doing. Keep it up!! xx