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Chapter One
After 3 months of being together and at the last stop of the East Coast, Luc decided she'd had enough and went on a mini lovers holiday with Ben (Luc's other half if your unsure!) for 5 days. This left me to my own devices in Cairns! Luckily the lovely Becky, who we'd met on Surf Camp and had seen and shared a few days and nights out up the coast, was around to look after me (she did try to save me from running across the road at the wrong time, thank you!!). So I still had a little buddy and guide for the delights of Cairns!
For the first few days in Cairns I have to admit I didn't do too much, after spending a few days here and few days there I was glad to be able to just chill out. Unfortunately Cairns doesnt have a beach you can swim in so everyone generally sits around the Lagoon. Like Airlie Beach, its essentially a big swimming pool next to the coast but it has grass around it, some nice sunbathing decks next to the pool and barbeque things to use everywhere. So
obviously thats where I spent a few days, topping up my tan and getting to know some other people in our hostel. It was quite strange being on my own at the time and the first time I went out with Becky and a group of people in our hostel I felt a bit odd and I really missed all my friends at home and I had a few nostalgic thoughts about some of the fun days and nights out! I did quickly discover everyone was really cool and we had a good laugh over the next few days!
On my first weekend as a solo traveller I took a day trip on my own to Cape Tribulation which was really good! So beautiful!!! We went up the Daintree River where you're meant to see big crocodiles, I got a one year old! As you can see in the picture it was quite small but at least I can say I've seen a crocodile in the wild! After the river cruise I picked up a random bunch of bananas from a stall next to our bus and we went to Cape Tribulation for lunch. Cape Tribulation is apparently the
only area in the world where the rainforest meets the reef, so we did a boardwalk through the rainforest, had lunch and then we got time to go out to the beach and see the reef. It was amazing, and looked a little bit like Mission Beach but on a much bigger scale! After lunch we headed to Mossman Gorge for a swim. This was really pretty aswell and you can get in, swim up and let the current take you back down, bloody freezing though! After Mossman gorge we headed to a look out point where I saw from a distance the place where Steve Irwin died which was quite bizarre (it's just a sand island in case your wondering and I think its called Low Isles. Then we went to an ice cream place and ate rather random flavours like 'Wattleseed'. After Ice Cream it was down to Port Douglas for our last stop before heading back to Cairns. Port Douglas is a really nice place, a little bit like Noosa for its fancy seaside shops and there's a nice port to look out on. We didnt manage to see the beach thats here unfortunately. It was a
really good day trip overall, got talking to some randoms on the bus which was nice, although one guy was rather too chatty and never stopped talking for the whole trip home! The tour guide was quite nice, got the impression he may have been chatting me up but if you know me fairly well you'll know I'm fairly partial to the aussie accent so I wasn't complaining!
Following the day trip to Cape Trib, I generally continued the rest time, me and Becky went rollerblading on the Esplanade one day which was hilarious! I can say I am not very good at this sport and saw a few kids doing a better job than I did! It was hard work! The track was 3KM and we did it there and back. I will admit I fell once and somehow managed to wind myself! oh dear! you can imagine the state I was in! But I got up and carried on and luckily had no more fallings. Becky did a much better job than me, I think she may have lied in saying she hadn't done it for years! lol. It was fun though, reminded me of when I
had them when I was younger!
Chapter Two
After 5 days it appeared Luc had had enough of the couple life and returned to carry on the trip! On her first day back the lucky thing got to see more familiar faces and met up with her brother, felt quite jealous at the time and made me miss by big sis. This night got quite amusing as we ended up sitting next to Eskimo Joe! This is quite a big Oz band, pretty good song called New York out over here at the mo, so if they come to England you'll have heard them here first!
Anyway back to the rest of Cairns! Well after Luc returned we went on the Barrier Reef trip we'd been planning! I was fairly excited about this as Becky and a few others had said how good it was. The day we went we did experience a rather bad amount of sea sickness, Luc unfortunately got the worst of it not being a good motion traveller, but it was a bit torturing with the trip out to the reef being nearly 2 hours! The sights, however, made up for the sea
sickness! We got to go in a semi submersible boat to see parts of the reef. Then we had an intro scuba dive which was slightly scary! They tell you the basics and then you pretty much drop yourself into a rather choppy sea! It took a few breaths to get used to breathing from a tank but once you get into breathing that way it was pretty cool. I got to go about 5 metres down which isnt too far but I definately got a bit of a taste for it so we're thinking of doing a PADI course in Thailand!
After the reef trip we had a few nights out and carried on discovering Cairns! Overall I thought it was a nice place, it seems to be a place busy all year round with tourists and backpackers. The only downside is the lack of a beach, when the tide goes out the shore is a bit ugly to look at and there are a million creepy crabs covering the sand/clay bed.
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