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Cairns is such a lovely place. We were so happy with be here. Maybe this was because we came from Darwin so because there's things to actually do here we thought it was great. The town has a big pedestrian area and full of greenery, quite pretty. The Esplanade/Espy (as Aussies are incapable of using 3 syllables) runs along the seafront, and although there isn't really a beach to speak of (who'd go i it if there was? what with crocs, stingers, and so on?!), there is a stunning, huge, freeform outdoor pool called 'The Lagoon', manned constantly by lifegaurds, right above the sea wall slap bang in the middle of the grass and faux beach areas....oh, and its bloody freezing. Can't have it all though.
What really suprised us about is how beautiful a setting Cairns has. it's surrounded on 3 sides by towering, lush green hills blanketed with forest, and on the forth is the Pacific Ocean and the Great Barrier Reef. So from almost anywhere in the city you can see these huge, beautiful hills, the sea, or both.
We flew here from Darwin, which was the cheapest possible way. Landing into Cairns we circled over the Reef, it looked amazing. We stayed at a hostel tha seemed to be real nice in the guide book a 'resort' with pool and bar, but despite the free minibus to the city and back it was far too far and such an inconvienience. So we moved to a hostel right in the middle of town. It seemed like a realy cool place;a former cinema, converted to a hostel but with loads of twins and doubles too. We went for a twin as it was the same price for 2 beds in one dorm, and it was nice, basic with aircon! However, all wasn't as rosy as it seemed - the walls were paper thin so every cough or sigh could be heard, and there seemed to be some of the rudest people on earth staying there, like playing football with a plastic bottle outside in the hallway at midnight.   Â
We'd been searching for jobs as our money had gotten perilously low. We rang a few places about farm work and fruit picking. Almost all were full for staff or just not hiring girls. How sexist is that! We also aplied to agencies, supermarkets, even cleaner jobs. But all to no avail. We thought about it and after speaking to Katie decided to not waste time and money just hanging around looking for work, so we decided to get on with things, and use the money left over to get us down the east coast back to Sydney.
We left Global Palace and picked up a rental car with a difference...It was from 'Older Car Rentals' and was indeed, um, older. At least 15, maybe 20 year oldFord Laser. for our $40 a day we were treated to this mushy pea-green old banger, with no air-con, no power steering and a lovely orange/red sheen of rust. We were ready to roll.
Our first destination was Daintree National Park and Cape Tribulation. It's one of the oldest (ie 200plus million years old) rainforests on earth, and is also the only place on earth where two World Heritage sites meet (the rainforest and the reef).
So our expectations were high and I'm glad to say we weren't dissapointed! The drive up from Cairns was very picturesque, passing through banana plantation and fields full of towering sugar cane plants, all framed with towering green hills.
We crossed the Daintree River on a Pulley-operated ferry, and from there on the drive got really special. Deep, dark forests hemmed us in on the narrow road from either side as we snaked up an down steep hills. occasionally we were treated to stunning of the pristine rainforest and the ocean behind.
Shortly we came to our destination for the night, Cow Bay. We went to the Bay for a walk along the beachat sunset watching out for crocs of course as they are quite likely to be found here. We headed back to our accommodation, which was built into the forest, right in the thick of it, as it were. Really lovely location, and a nice big seating area where we drank beer, ate a stir fry, and had a very competative game of uno (Katie beat me 20-19 gutted). Â Â Â
We continued next morning, and before long we came to a rainforest walk most of it on boardwalks to preserve the leaf matter on the floor which is vital to the beakdown and make up of the forests. Another rainforest walk was 2km ahead, and both of them was amazing; just how I thought a rainforest might be. It doesnt really transulate well into words, but it was just such a beautiful, quiet, cool location. Huge trees towered over us, tall strange plants bearing bright flowers leaned into us, many palms, streams, and mangroves with their soggy ground punctured by thousands of knobby roots. It was a magical place.
We had come as far as we could now, Cape Trib. We were nowhere near the top of the country, but beyond here are only dirt roads, 4x4 only, servicing the few communities further north. After walking along Cape Trib beach with its white sands and forest spilling onto the beach, and going up to the lookout it was time to go. Â
All the way back we went, almost to Cairns, before turning off and heading for the Atherton Tablelands, the area of highlands to the west of Cairns. First we came to Kurunda, the tourist capital of the reigon, which was as crass as you could expect. We checked out a nearby lookout which was stunning, a huge gorge with waterfalls shooting over the cliffs.
We passed through Mareeba and Atherton before coming to the 'Curtain fig tree', a huge, HUGE tree at least 500 years old. It's a strangler fig, of which we saw plenty in Angkor. It overgrew its host tree(s)Â and where one was there is just a tree shaped gap as the original died and rotted. It was massive, with hundreds of tendril like roots hanging down from the top into the soil. This gave the apearence of a curtain, hence the name. While gazing around Katie spotted two dark lumps in a nearby tree, which turned out to be tree kangaroos,. This was so cool, as they're very rare - only found in the little area, nowhere else in the world. Apparently they're great at climbing trees, but rubbish at getting back down! Sadly we didn't see them climbing down though.
We got to our hostel for the night, On the Wallaby, which was a nice place. We got a dorm room to ourselves again which is always a pleasure, and had a few beers before getting a early night.
Bright and early next morning we went on the 'lake circuit', visiting a number of lakes that were all formed by volcanic craters filled with water. I quickly realised that this is nothing like as exciting as it sounds.
The next 'circuit' was that of the waterfals. first up was Milla Milla, which had already achieved legendary status in my mind by being the location for the video of Peter Andre's Mysterious girl'. Can't get much more of a claim to fame then that!... Well, it was stunning, the most picturesque I've ever seen. Surrounded by tropical greenery, a wide sheet of ater plunged about 15metres into a small, roundish pool. the whole place was pretty perfect. The next two wern't amazing but quite impressive in their own right.
The drive back to cairns was lovely, along the wonderfully titled 'Bruce highwat'(!). This whole area is gorgeous. Next morning we tore ourselves away from the hot-rod , and began to look forward to our next trip - to the Great Barrier Reef.
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