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Katie's Travels
Had an amazing time in Cairns and managed to pack a lot into my week there. On the way up from Mission Beach I got talking to a canadian girl on the bus - Michelle. She was telling me she'd just bought an old Ford Falcon stationwagon, which she was going to drive to Melbourne in in a little over a month's time. Anyway, she was saying that she was off to spend the day driving around the Atherton Tablelands on the Saturday and invited me to join her. So she picked me up from Gilligans (the posh backpacker hotel I was staying at) early on the Saturday and we set off. Spent a great day, visiting the Crater Lakes, where we went for a pleasant walk and finished off with a refreshing swim, the Cathedral Fig Tree, lunch at Malanda Falls, The Crater and Dinner Falls circuit - which was another nice walk - and finally the waterfall at Milla Milla - which was the prettiest of them all. Also went out to the Barrier Reef on a snorkelling day trip. It was on a smaller boat with a nice small group of people and was a really lovely days sailing. The actual snorkelling on the reef was out of this world! Spent about an hour swimming around the reef and saw just the most amazingly colourful fish and coral. HUGE starfish and giant clams - bigger than I could have ever imagined! It was nothing short of incredible! Then it was back on board for a lovely buffet lunch before going back in the warm water for another hour exploring the reef. I even spotted a reef shark! And a VERY playful humpback whale came right up to the boat to check us out and was slapping his tail on the water over and over again - fantastic! One of the days, I just took it easy and got up very early and headed to the Lagoon on the esplanade for around 8am where I had a lovely morning swim before it got busy. Had the whole thing to myself! Then just spent the day wandering around Cairns itself. Also sorted out my luggage and sent a big box of stuff home to the UK to lighten my load before my flight to Perth. On my final day, I went on a day trip to Cape Tribulation. On the way we visited Port Douglas and Mossman Gorge where we went on a pleasant walk through the rainforest. Our guide - Paul - was very knowledgeable and I learnt a heap of interesting facts throughout the day. After a boat cruise down the Daintree river where we spotted 6 crocodiles and some interesting birdlife, we headed off for a lovely bbq lunch in Cow Bay topped off with a selection of local tropical fruits. We then headed to Cape Tribulation where after a walk through the Daintree National Park, rainforest and mangroves, we were able to spend an hour on the beach. I didn't swim as I had suffered a slight case of sunburn during the reef trip, but I paddled in the water which was so warm - the warmest I've encountered on the whole of the east-coast. Then it was time to head back to Cairns, but not before a quick stop at the Daintree Ice-cream Company for some of their home-made DELICIOUS ice-cream, yum! We also stopped to admire the view from the Alexandra Lookout where you could just about see all the way back to Cairns - stunning! All in all, I was very impressed with far north Queensland, Cairns and around. Very beautiful part of the world no doubt about that. A wonderful 8 days and a great way to top of an unforgettable 6 weeks on the east-coast. I've just had the time of my life! x
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