Those Who Cairns and Those who Cairnt...

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The last couple of days have been a blur on the memory. There are some things that stand out though. It's hard to know what to make of Cairns at first. The city is fairly small and there don't seem to be too many locals but it is a city geared to the backpacker. My guidebook describes Cairns as Australia's Ibitha. Having never visited said Mediterranean island it is a comparison that I cannot comment on. I will say this though, it is a city where the experience is made by the people and not the place.

Nowhere is this more true than for the lonely traveller, to be on your own, with no direction home. It is the friendships that you make and the stories you share and the games you play that make Cairns and not the bars, clubs or tourist shops. To this end I give you the following case.




The fine fellows with whom I share an 8 bed dorm are laid back and easy going. In the evening we drink goon and play cards on the balcony. In the room on the floor above to our right, their balcony is adjacent to ours, are a bunch of rowdy and raucous drunkards, the best Britain has to offer. At any hour of the day you can hear obscenities being hurled across the courtyard to another room. My point is that had I being staying in a room with those kind of hard partying liver destroying people, this entry would have a very different tone.

As for the actual City, there's a couple of Malls and pleasant pedestrian area and a fair few bars. with Easter coinciding with my stay here, the opening hours are erratic and no one really knows when anything is going on, which is fine because I have lost all concept of time. Only this morning I was woken by a member of the Gilligan staff who said that I needed to check out and if I wanted to stay on I'd need to do that "toot sweet". So I stumbled out of bed, the clock in reception was moving toward midday as I paid for another couple of days slumber. Cairns holds a feeling of transience about it, no one stays for more than a week and there's always some kind of tour going on to lure you out of the city.

Well, its pushing on for 3pm now. Time for some brekkie.

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Photos

Danish Pyramid of Death
Think I'm bluffing? Drink up mate.

A few fine fellows
from left to right: Brad, Dave, Tim, James and Jennifer.