heading further north... not really the original plan!

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was so glad to be leaving alice springs the day after i got back from the camping safari - don't think i could have spent another day there!!! my flight to cairns (this is tuesday) was bumpy. really really bumpy 😞 lindsey was not happy and lindsey felt rather queasy despite wearing rather good acupressure bands that usually work. so i managed to sleep for the duration of the flight, yay! all 2 and a half hours of it, which is quite impressive i think, considering there was the most annoying child sat behind me for the duration who thought it was super fun to kick my chair. ah well! like i say, it made little different, i think the camping and 24km of walking took it out of me a bit 😊

oooh, freaky - when i got on the plane i was sat next to a girl called jessica who is also travelling on her own, has been in oz the same length of time as me and is travelling for 3 months too. aaah, but it doesn't end there. we both get out the same book and discover that we are actually on the same page.... so there ya go, little bit scary!

got to cairns and i think the first thing that i noticed was that it smelt nice 😊 silly i know. it smelt of clean sea air. twas nice. it was lovely and warm too. i headed into central cairns, and walked down the esplanade. there were loads of big huge pelicans floating around in the sea which was kinda cool. and there are so so many little restaurants lining the esplanade. i went to the cairns night market, which was a little bit of a let down to be honest - everything was very touristy and samey and i was under the illusion that it would be outside, but it wasn't. the queen victoria market in melbourne was far far better!

the next day i headed back into central cairns. at some point i managed to acquire a strange man from tasmania who wanted me to go to kuranda with him for the day. i eventually managed to loose him (i'm not being harsh, he really was freaky and followed me around cairns for most of the morning!!) and spent the day by the swimming lagoon. the thing about cairns is that it doesn't have a beach. it just has mudflats. which means that the sea is a bit of a minging brown sort of colour. so they built a salt water swimming lagoon by the sea instead. tis really really nice, but whilst i was enjoying the lovely lovely sunshine i came to the realisation that i didn't actually like cairns and as nice as the swimming lagoon was i couldn't spend day after day just going there. cairns itself is very much geared towards tourists and reminded me very much of typical british holiday destinations in the med. quite honestly not what i had expected of queensland!! unless you were in to dance music and that sort of clubbing scene there was nothing to do in the evening either.

that evening i went to a public lecture called reef teach (geek!!) which was absolutely brilliant!!!!! this mad irish guy called paddy taught us all about the animals in the reef, the do's and don't's of diving and snorkelling and gave us a generally entertaining and hilarious 2 and a half hours. quality stuff - would recommend it to anyone who is actually going to go out on the reef, at least i don't feel quite so in the dark over it all now, and i could probably even name some of the fish out there. go me with my now superiour aquatic knowledge 😊

one thing that i've noticed about queensland is that they have parrots just flying around, sitting in all the palm trees! at about dusk, i'm not even lying, you can hardly hear yourself think for the sounds of birds chirping!!!!!! so so loud!

anyhoo, so after my 1 and a half oh so thrilling days in cairns, i got up the next morning, packed my bags, and, on the recommendation of claire (super nice lady from the camping trip) got the bus north, up to port douglas. its about 70km north of cairns and its lovely!!!!! apparently, once upon a yesteryear it was a small fishing village, which has now developed into the tiniest prettiest little town with a lovely beach! yay! its so humid and muggy here - hair straighteners are a total waste of time 😞 oooh, and evil bitey things flying around everywhere, my new scent of choice is eau de mosquito repellent. simply to prevent being eaten alive :s

i spent yesterday afternoon just wandering around the town and laying on the beach 😊 went for a quick paddle in the sea, but the weather turned and i didn't much fancy getting cold, wimp that i am!!!

oooh, almost forgot, saw real live crocodiles (2 of 'em!) in one of the rivers as we were driving into port douglas! (scary stuff :s)

last night, i went with a group of about 10 other people down to the beach where we had a barbeque - i had the nicest evening, and everyone was really lovely and friendly 😊 totally beats having dinner on your own!

spent the whole day at the beach today and actually went for a swim in the ocean - tis lovely and warm, not like your english seas!!

mum, you'll be pleased to know that i've finally done a wash load and have clean clothes (don't worry, i did actually make use of the washing machine at nick and rach's!!! this is since i've left there...!!) again!

which brings me upto date once again!
no photos for this entry i'm afraid - i'll get on with taking some for next time!!! hope you're all ok and i haven't totally bored you with all these entries at once!!!

lins
xx

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Comments

[Matt]

Am glad you are having a superb time. journal entries remind me how dull my life is about to become : )

[anonymous]

Hey babe Glad all is going well Sounds like you are having the best time. I am totally jealous, but you know I'd never be brave enough to do what you're doing. Look after yourself Lxx

[Lisa V]

Hiya Lins, I loved all the uluru (spelling) stuff, it looks fab, your photos are gorgeous.

[Lisa V]

And then I pressed enter before I had finished!! DOH! Keyboards are tricky things. Keep enjoying your time there, it sounds wonderful. It's currently grey and tipping it down with rain here. I'm off to Starbucks and will be thinking of u. xxx