Advertisement
Published: November 25th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Castle Hill
Looking at Magnetic Island Tuesday Said our goodbyes to the beautiful Airlie and headed to Townsville. Found a nice hostel with a cheap twin room, then went for a wonder around town. That night proved to have been a bad move on hostel choice. Backing right onto the side of the hostel we were in was a beer garden of a pub, this didn't quieten down until gone 2am.
Wednesday Lack of sleep and interest in Townsville made us decide not to stay, as we left we detoured to Castle hill, a 1.2km high mountain smack bang in the middle of the city. We were able to see 360 degrees around from the lookout including out to Magnetic Island (named by Captain Cook as he sailed by and his compass went funny). Few photos and a read of info boards then it was off to Cairns. Arrived mid afternoon hit the TI and settled on a hostel called serpent, whats with all the snake names? This was a big place with parking (our main concern) restaurant/bar and swimming pool. Decided to have a couple days here then go to Cape Tribulation for the weekend and do a Rainforest Tour. We also had
to book our car in for a service before our long trek westwards.
Friday We left for Cape Trib to the north of Cairns going via Port Douglas and Mossman Gorge. Port was 1st, we stopped only for a couple hours just to look round buy some food for dinner and of course have a milkshake. I even bought a new book to read, shocking..... Mossman Gorge is an Aboriginal site with walking trails and a River running down from the mountains. So we had lunch quickly in the car and took a 3.4km walk around the rainforest to burn it off. Talk about humid, it wasn't exactly a hard walk but we were both dripping in sweat. We now had to take a short drive to Cape Trib, on route we needed to cross the Daintree river by cable barge. Just to make things more interesting one of the floodways on the road was over flowing, this is where we both said "thank god we got a 4x4" Wasn't all that hard to go through just had to go slow. Shortly after arriving at the hostel it started to rain, well we are in a rainforest..... Scouted
the area checking our the bar, important things first eh? Decided to make dinner then have a few drinks at the bar. Got talking to one of the girls in our dorm, English girl called Kate, during the convo it started to throw it down like nothing you have seen before in England, i mean really throw it down. And it didn't stop for hours. Luckily we took our waterproof jackets down with is. We all decided to go back up to the room so suited up ready to tackle the storm (apparently a cyclone is heading our way... gulp). The pathway leading down to the bar area had turned into a river about 2cm deep, it was so funny. While stood up near the room talking to neighbors a guy with a poncho waved to me and started to walk over. OMG it's happened again, it was Andrew my bike buddy from Myella and his girlfriend Nat. They were heading back to Cairns tomorrow and if the weather stayed like this then so were we. So i took his number and said i would ring if we went back to Cairns and we could hook up in the evening
to have a drink. Kate also said she would be staying at the Serpent so it was looking like it could be a good evening.
Saturday Seeing as it hasn't stopped raining and doesn't look like its going to, we decided not to hang around, as most of the activities to do involve being outside. We already had Monday night booked in the Serpent so we hoped they had room over the weekend. The route back was cool, the weather was nicer and there are many stop points on the way back to take piccies. As we approached Cairns, we discussed our lunch options, after working out neither of us could be bother to make something we stopped at Hungry Jacks (Burger King) i know i know but it was only $7 for a meal with a desert. Thankfully Serpent had space so we booked 2 more nights and had a rest. I had rung Andrew and arranged a meet up point/time. Kate joined me and Tag in the bar, Kate had a couple other friends meeting up with us, they turned up after we had food and we all started drinking. We caught the 9.30pm free shuttle
from the hostel into town. We met up with Andrew, but Nat had gone home apparently this wasn't her scene. The pub we were in was, different, to say the least. On the 1st floor where we were, was a guy with a mic auctioning off goldfish... i know, but bare with me. After they were all sold they then raced them down 2 tubes of water. Not exactly a real pub game but it was entertaining at least. Round after round was bought and come midnight i was beat. The next shuttle was at 12.35am so i finished up and said goodbye and waited outside. Tag joined me, she looked knackered too. I don't entirely recall getting back to the hostel but i woke up in my bed so i must of got it right.
Sunday Monged....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.108s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 9; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0381s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb