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Goodbye Sydney.......Hello Cairns, Queensland!!!!
So it was farewell to Sydney for the last time!We had a long wait before heading to the airport so we packed our bags and got settled in our hostel's TV room, watched England win the ashes (blah) and watch some magician walk on water!Are you thinking the same thing we are....yes that is right people, their TV is just as bad as ours haha!It was eventually time to head to the airport and boarded our flight to take us up to Cairns. We would like to say here, and from obvious proof that we have posted this blog, that we were nowhere near those awful floods and we are all safe and sound!We were about four hours North of the floods.So back to the flight, which was a pretty smooth flight until Claire saw lightning bolts outside her window!!Kyle got told off for giving Claire the window seat as she freaked out!!! Does he listen to us....no hehe!Well we made it in one piece and so did our luggage!!! We made our way to the hostel, the Cairns Beach House and got settled in for the night.
The next day we decided to have a walk around Cairns to see what it had to offer.We were very surprised how small this place was, just a small town surrounded by gorgeous rainforest and mountains.It was very hot and humid so we didn't last too long wondering around so we headed back to our hostel where Claire and Kyle made use of the very cold pool....which was heaven cause we needed to cool off quickly.Later that night we met up with two of our contiki buddies, Zeb and Jenna who drove up to see us for a few drinks and headed into the night life of Cairns. It was a great night out!!!
The following day was spent chilling at the hostel and by the pool and packing for our rainforest adventure, so we are going to skip our nap stories and go straight onto our time up at Cape Tribulation.Monday was the start of our rainforest tour.It was an early start when we got picked up.We drove north stopping in at a wildlife habitat and got up close and personal with a koala, snake and saltwater crocs.The next stop was a walk through a section of the rainforest known as Mossman's Gorge where Kyle got to go for a dip in one of the rivers.We had a stop for lunch before heading on the boat to sail up the daintree river to look for some wild saltwater crocodiles.We were very lucky to see one fully grown croc swimming along the bank as well as a couple of younger baby crocs on the bank.Once we got back to land, we then got dropped off at our accommodation, the Cape Tribulation Beach House.This place was awesome.Little cabins in the middle of the rainforest with a secluded beach surrounded by rainforest, it was gorgeous.The only downside was that you weren't allowed to go into the water because of the jellyfish.Good thing that the place we were staying had a pool as it was so hot and sticky with the humidity.Now, it is at this point that we would like to make one point very, very clear!I am quoting Kyle as he speaks sense (for once haha)...these bugs, spiders, insects are huge, big, enormous...they deserve respect!!They are so big that you can trip over them...they are SO big that when a fly lands on you....you are weighed down!!!!!So what is there to do in a rainforest??Well when it rains (which it did, a lot!It is a rainforest after all) there is very little you can do, especially since we were in the middle of nowhere.We spent most of our time in the pool or in the bar/bistro playing the games that they provided!The only productive thing we did over the two days was walk 6km to the nearest ATM so we could fund the nights drinking....I told you, there isn't anything to do!!The latest night we had in the rainforest was a whopping 9.30pm!!
So we returned from the rainforest back to our hostel.It had been a long day and we arrived back quite late but that didn't stop Claire and Kyle deciding to take the hostel up on their offer of cheap drinks and free entry to a bar in the town!The following day, what did we do....well very little!We had a walk to the Cairns mall to go in search of waterproof cameras for our reef trip the next day!We had a quiet night in at our hostel, they provided free meals in the evening and a happy hour so we were quite happy just having a chilled night.It had to be a semi-early night as we had to be up at 7am for our Great Barrier Reef Experience.
It was the day we had all been waiting for, the Great Barrier Reef Experience Tour. We got picked up nice and early and we headed down to the docks and got issued our safety numbers which is what they referred to us on the boat.So we were safety numbers 22, 23 and 24.We were issued our snorkelling gear and wetsuits and headed inside.Since Kyle is our certified diver, he went out for a dive at the first reef we stopped at whereas Gillian did the introductory dive and aced it (so proud) and Claire went a snorkelled and kept up with the fishes...well kind of!Claire got a bit sea sick but managed to gulf down lunch which was lovely!At the second reef, all three of us signed up for the marine biology snorkel tour.We went out with the boats marine biologist who has permission to touch and pick up anything in the reef and she let us touch them too.She picked up a couple of sea cucumbers and she pointed out all the interesting fish like the nemo's (i.e. the clown fish)!We were also extremely lucky to see two sea turtles which was the highlight of the trip!It was a fantastic trip and a place we will never forget.
So we have reached our last full day in Cairns.We had a lovely stroll along the lagoon and ended back at the Cairns mall so Kyle could do some last minute souvenir shopping.Our time in Cairns and our little holiday from a holiday was coming to an end.We were heading back to Perth the following night which we couldn't wait for!Back to where our Aussie land adventure began.
Our flight back to Perth was very smooth and we even got to see Uluru (Ayres Rock) from the plane...which was fantastic, a big huge red rock in the middle of nowhere!Seems to be a theme in Australia, we seem to find ourselves in the middle of nowhere!So join us next time when we give details of Perth antics...and if it is anything last time...help us all haha!
Miss you all loads!
Claire and Gillian
xxx xxx
- comments
Nelette Hey guys, sounds like you had a fantastic time!!! Wish I'd been there with you!! Good luck in Perth! :)