Australia Adventure: Crazy in Cairns!

Flying into Cairns was like landing in the middle of a Paleozoic Paradise.  Green mountains surrounded the town, giving life to the notion that it was hosting a slew of prehistoric creatures.  I stepped off the plane and was stunned by a wave of heat.  Northern Queensland was much warmer than Southern Australia.

I made my way to Asylum (the hostel where Eli, Anne and Alex were staying) and secured myself a three-bed dorm for only $120 for the week.  This was a steal!  I hadn’t seen a dorm price like that anywhere along my travels in Australia.

I saw Eli first, but it didn’t take long to spot the other two girls.  They’ve been enjoying their time in Cairns and were gearing up for another night of partying. It doesn’t take any convincing to get me to tag along.  The rest of the night was spent in good old party fashion, rum and coke in hand, and several games of Ring of Fire.  I met the rest of the German crew they were chilling with and we partied the night away at the famous Gilligans!  We returned to the hostel at 4am, the traditional McDonalds occupying our stomachs.

The next night took me once again to Gilligans, but this time I was surprised to see a classmate of mine from high school back in Thunder Bay, Tanis!  It was cool seeing a familiar face and we arranged to meet up the next night.

Da Lagoon!

From my short time in Cairns, I had deduced a few things.  This was definitely a party town.  Backpackers came here to drink and dance at night, and be zombies during the day.  It’s hard to find work up here in the tourist season so many backpackers work for accommodation or just float by due to the cheap rates.  If you’re not careful, Cairns could suck you in for months.  It would be easy to repeat the cycle of party and sleep, party and sleep for months on end. And if you weren’t sleeping during the day, you were lounging at the lagoon by the downtown. 

The bay surrounding Cairns is filled with venomous creatures, including the box jellyfish, and as such is off limits to swimmers and beachgoers.  So the city built a lagoon (swimming pool-ish) for everyone to enjoy.  So that is where I spent my day, taking in the sun.

I meet up with Tanis and her friend Kayla (also from TBay) at their hostel and began predrinks.  We ventured off to the Woolshed later, a bar where the tables are made for dancing as long as you keep the drinks coming.

And then it was Canada Day. 

July 1st had come out of nowhere and I was excited to spend the day with other Canadians in Cairns.  It also happened to be a Mad Monday, an event that Asylum put on every week where $15 got you a personalized t-shirt and a ton of drinks. 

We headed to the lagoon, where we held a BBQ in celebration of our national day.  We were joined by throngs of Canadians, each sporting red and white attire or face paint.   After an evening of burgers and boozing, we returned to the hostel where the real party begun.

I believe it was the King’s Cup filled with goon and rum that erased my memory of the night, and created the ridiculous stories of that Canada Day.

Waking up the next morning, I realized that I had hit a tipping point in my relationship with Cairns.  I needed to do something other than drink my nights away so I booked myself on a Great Barrier Reef tour! 

I made my way to the wharf for 7:30am Wednesday morning where I boarded a Compass Cruise ship.  A cute French girl checked me in and geared me up with a wet suit, flippers and snorkel.  Her name was Meryl, and it turned out that she would be my diving guide. 

After an hour boat ride, we reached the first of the reefs.  The reef was visible as a submerged faint brown mass spanning in all directions.  We got off here for our first snorkel, plunging into the cold water.  I had rented an underwater camera and was looking forward to putting it to good use.

I swam through the waters, letting my flippers propel me around the reef.  Colours of the visible spectrum surrounded me, penetrating the darkness of the depths.  The reef itself was beautiful, sheltering schools of fish from the stronger currents.  I dove down, holding my breath as I captured the intense colours of the coral and the motions of the fish on my camera.

I returned to the boat, excited from the snorkel and anxious to go on my first dive.  The boat started up again and we made it to the next location.  Meryl called us over and we geared up.  They fitted us with a weight belt and slipped our tanks on.  We slid into the water, holding onto a rope as Meryl adjusted our buoyancy. 

We started off linking arms, but Meryl deemed me fit enough to go off on my own.  She signalled to me to not go too deep or too far away.  Scuba diving was a phenomenal experience.  I propelled myself through the water, inhaling the oxygen from my tank and snapping away with my camera.  The reef looked even more beautiful from the depths and I was enthralled with the discovery of its secrets.  So distracted was I, that I almost missed the sea turtle swimming towards us!  It came so close, brushing by as I moved my body out of its way. 

Unfortunately, I had managed to tick Meryl off.  I had begun swimming a little too far away from the group and with a slight reproach, she linked me back into the group and we carried on.  I surfaced, ecstatic about my experience. 

Back on board, I gave Meryl an apology before returning to the top deck.  Now, for the past few hours there had been a guy and a girl (slightly younger than me) that had been looking in my direction.  So when I was close enough I decided to engage them in conversation. 

After a few minutes, they said to me, “So you really don’t remember us do you?”  It turned out that we had partied together during the night of Canada Day!!  Due to that King’s Cup (and the many drinks that followed) I had no memory of us meeting.  Then they told me that they had picture evidence!  The girl, Lottie, whipped out her phone and showed pictures of us all at the hostel!

After catching up with them, I decided to go diving a second time.  Such a rush!

Back at the hostel, I made my goodbyes to my German travel mates.  Eli had left the day before, hitching a ride down to Brisbane, and it seemed like Alex would do the same.  Anne had made arrangements to return to Germany, as her wisdom teeth were coming out and she was annoyed with the pain.

Darkness fell soon after and with that the party started.  Another night lost to Cairns and the dance floors of the Woolshed and Gilligans.

I woke the next morning, tired of the Cairns cycle.  I decided to look on Gumtree for travel partners for the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation north of the town.  I saw an ad placed by two Germans and arranged to meet them at the lagoon.  Their names were Anka and Philip, and they seemed like good candidates for traveling with.  We sussed each other out, trading stories and some good laughs.  And with that, a deal was struck.  The three of us, along with another German girl named Anni, would rent a van from Juicy rentals and take five days to do the rainforest and the waterfall circuit. 

I met all three of my travel companions at the Coles supermarket the next day where we stocked up on food for our travels.  The shopping took far too long and we didn’t end up leaving till 5:30pm.  Our ride was a bright green and purple Juicy campervan.  It had enough space inside for the four of us and our bags, and also featured a sink and fridge at the rear.  On top of the van was the penthouse, a compartment that could be propped up to sleep two.  We drove a short distance before stopping at Port Douglas to cook dinner by the beach.

The next day we continued towards the Daintree Rainforest, stopping at Mossman gorge along the way.  Here we were witness to large insects and wild turkeys!  After a [very] short ferry, we arrived in the Daintree!  Our first stop was Myall beach where we had breakfast.  We embarked on a rainforest walk there, marvelling at the tropical plants.

We drove on to Cape Tribulation, a long stretch of beach that was graced by warm sunlight and light blue waters.  We had to walk through the rainforest to get there, stumbling out of the trees and onto the sand.  Looking back, it was easy to see that the tours were all vindicated by proclaiming this to be the place where the rainforest meets the beach!

The afternoon was spent exploring the beach, taking in the sun and drawing in the sand.

Over the next two days, we made our way back down south, taking an alternate route to visit the waterfalls around Northern Queensland.  There were some spectacular sights, even though the weather soured on us and began to rain.  We also stopped by Innot Hot springs and dunked our legs in the hot stream.

Wednesday morning fell upon us and we began driving back to Cairns.  I had enjoyed the sights of the last five days, but I was glad to be leaving my German travel mates.  We had remained cordial and friendly towards each other during the trip but we had not clicked as well as I had hoped.

Back in Cairns, I feared I would fall into the cycle again.  But I truly enjoyed that first night back, signalling a shift in my Cairns experience.  Over the next few days my attention turned towards my blog.  I began writing out my journey, a task I had sorely neglected.

I woke one morning and slipped on my iPod headphones, selecting one of my favourite songs ‘Ghosts and Stuff’ by Deadmau5.  As I stepped into the sunlight, a remarkable feeling engulfed my body.  I started feeling light and euphoric.  I was stunned by the sudden change and couldn’t stay still so I decided to go for my first run in months.  I stuck Deadmau5 on replay and kept on moving.  I made it all the way to the waterfront before the feeling began to ebb.  I wanted to bottle this sensation. I wanted to have it at my beck and call, on demand and in full force.  I would search for this feeling again.

And it was that night that I made my future travel arrangements.  Two Quebecois, Guillaume and Jean-Michel, had been at the hostel for the last several nights and we had been partying it up.  So over a few cups of goon, I managed to convince the two of them to rent a car with me and travel down the coast of Queensland.  We would leave Wednesday!

And so my time in Cairns came to an end.  My next journey was in front of me and I had two mates along for the ride.  The next two weeks were going to be awesome!



Check out Australia Adventure: Phase I!
                 Australia Adventure: Phase II!
                 Australia Adventure: Phase III!
                 Australia Adventure: West Coast Story Pt 1
                 Australia Adventure: West Coast Story Pt 2
                 Australia Adventure: To the Top End!
                 Australia Adventure: Darwin and Kakadu National Park
                 Australia Adventure: Down the Track and to the Rock! 
                 Australia Adventure: Onwards to Adelaide!
                 Australia Adventure: Once Upon a Time in Adelaide


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