Croc's, Cassaway's & Waterholes

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CAIRNS & CAPE TRIBULATION

CAIRNS
Well we arrive after a couple of hours on the bus where Liam had to endure the film “Meet the Parents”, which had both Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, (the best he can wish either of hem is leprosy!) poor Charlotte! Having to listen to him ranting! We get dropped at the Greyhound stop by the Marina with no idea where to stay and no lonely planet! Off and away to the nearest free Wi-Fi spot, me thinks! After a couple of hours messing around trying to find a hostel, we plump for the cheapest, which is also the closest! The Nomad Esplanade! We head over and meet Josh who checks us in!

Oh no, we have been given a double under a single with the thinnest mattress ever, along with a noisy air con unit! Noooooo! We pop back and see Josh who lets us know that he has only just taken over this hostel and has not seen all of the rooms, he gives us the key fore another room and Liam goes and checks it out, knowing Charlotte as he does he moved rooms without asking. (Brave or stupid!) which to her delight not only had just one double bed in it, with a decent mattress, but also a quite air con unit and a fan! Joy!

As Liam is moving the bags over Charlotte is picking Josh’s brain about trips to do, we take that info and discuss it over an nice cold Sprite in McDonalds! We decide on the overnight Cape Tribulation trip to depart in the morning, along with Ocean Freedom boat to the Great Barrier Reef for a bit of snorkelling the following day. So we went back to Josh and booked it and after Charlotte screwing him to the bone we got the cheapest price along with a free nights accommodation there in the same room! Yeah!

We grab our free dinner ticket and head down to the Vibe bar to find out it is just an entrée sized curried sausage with rice, okay I suppose, as it was free! We popped over to Woolworths on the way home as again we have been warned that the food is a bit expensive and as we have just paid for two expensive trips, we thought it best!

CAPE TRIBULATION
We are up at the real crack of dawn to get this tour with picks up outside our hostel. We chat to a couple of people who are doing the day tour and Tom pick’s them up, we get Deb’s who arrives as the others are loading in. Once we are loaded and we have picked up a couple more Debs introduces herself and explains what we are up to on this tour. En route she tells us much about the history of the area and has many exciting stories to tell. Her passion for her job and the area really shines through, but the phrase ‘organised chaos’ leaps o mind.

We stop off at Port Douglas to pick up Ingrid who we met in Brisbane, he girl with loads of tattoos and a couple of brandings from San Francisco. We carry on through to our first stop at a road house. Luckily we have Muffins and Orange juice for breakfast in the bag! We get to watch a scary DVD about all of the dangerous animals such as Jellyfish, snakes, spiders and Crocodiles in Australia. Deb’s then goes on to tell us that the Stinger nets are not that safe either as someone found both an Iracante jellyfish and a huge Croc in one the other day, bugger!

Next up is the Crocodile hunting boat trip, on which we get to see lots of the local Daintree River and mangroves. Charlotte spot’s a baby croc and shouts so everyone get’s to see in. Unfortunately it is the only Croc of the trip! But it is nice and cool cruising along the river. Deb’s sees us in on the other side and we are soon off and away. We slow down at a Cassowary sign that a local passionate lad amended. She told us a story about it and how the local council kept taking it down, only to find that the next morning it had been amended again! Eventually they gave in (as it was such a tourist attraction) and added the original to it.

We carry on to our first board walk where we get to see loads of wild life that Deb’s tells us about on the way around. We get to our hostel at lunch time and are given a nice little bungalow room and settle in. We take a walk down to the beach and look onto the Cape, but it is so hot and humid and there is no one on the beach, so we head back. It was a bit funny seeing reef on the beach like that. We head down to the pool and soak in there for a while, enjoying the cool waters. Then treat ourselves to supper from the bar. Charlotte has a chicken Schnitzel and chips and Liam dig’s into a Prawn Thai Green curry

We get up, check out and hang out at the pool all morning. Unfortunately that is about all there is to do here! Someone forgot to tell us that although this is the “Party Hostel” it is also the quiet season, so there are only about 10-15 guests! We jump back onto the bus at lunchtime and meet the day trippers from that day. We have a quick stop off at Alexandria Point to take a couple of shots of the view before getting back on the bus before the highlight of the day “Mossman Gorge” (where Peter Andre filmed mysterious girl!). It was all that we thought it would be! We had a short walk from the car park up and down various steps, they are in the process of redeveloping the path to make it one flat pathway to the gorge. We get there, ripp our clothes off and slowly tip toe in! It is FREEZING! It is so pretty though! We persevere and are soon swimming to the waterfall bit, climbing the rocks and jumping in, so the current can drag us along. Great fun to be repeated many times before we get dragged back to the bus.

As we walk back to the bus, drying off as we go, we stop off for an ice cream and the lady behind the counter proclaims that Charlotte has the “Best breasts that I have ever seen and I have worked here for 7 years!” Hmm! Back on the bus and after crossing the Daintree river on the ferry we stop off in Port Douglas.

We have a wonder along the high road. We spend ages in an Indian shop full of nick knacks that we want to buy. Then on to a sunglasses and hat shop where the owners tell us there life story of how when there daughter got breast cancer they decided to not keep putting off their dream and left Tasmania on a boat that they had brought with the proceeds of the sale of their house and sailed all the way up to Cairns. They decided that they really liked it there, so stayed. When a friend needed some help in a shop in Port Douglas, they came to there aid. We decided as we were going to the reef tomorrow we should buy a waterproof camera. We had a quick look around, but Cole’s had sold out and the chemist’s were over priced.

CAIRNS
We soon get dropped of to our hostel but when we are given the key for our room and go up, we find another couple in there, surprise, surprise! Josh quickly gives us keys to another room, while he sorts out why someone is in our room. However it turns out to have an even better mattress, so we tell him not to bother, we are fine in that room for the night. Well it is a freebie, so we are quite happy.

We look over to the lagoon lovingly but head on out to the Vibe bar for free supper, only to find out that hey don’t do it at the weekend! Bugger. Well, we go over and get the waterproof camera from Woolworths, then grab some supper from the food market. We gobble down an all you can eat Chinese at the food hall and then head off for a look around the night market. We finish up with a couple of 2-4-1cheap drinks at the Woolshed before turning in for the night.

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