I arrived in Cairns having no actual accomodation to go on to; the first time I've done that all trip. I was expecting a big coach station, this being the final destination on my Sydney-Cairns Greyhound coach pass. What I got was a bus stop in the middle of a car park. Okay great, now what? Thankfully there was a shuttle bus to Serpent's Bar and Hostel; the guy said there should be beds available so I hopped in. Serpent's was a little way out of town but they run regular buses to and from the city. I actually had a voucher given to me from Wicked Travel when I booked my Fraser / Whitsundays package, so I got my own room with big double bed, one night for $40. The hostel was actually really nice and similar in design to Coffs Harbour YHa, purpose-built and like a hotel. The internet area was actually a built-in Global Gossip cafe, it was a Nomads hostel which is a similar company to YHA and it had it's own tour desk and decent bar with bistro. You get a voucher to use for a very small entree-sized evening meal with upgrade option. Immediately after I dropped my stuff into my small my clean and pleasant room I went straight onto the net to sort a few things out. I booked my flight back to Sydney from Cairns for Tuesday 6th May, flying with Virgin Blue for $165. That's about £83; not too bad considering this is a late booking and the flight takes 3 hours. Yep; three hours back to Sydney. You can see just how much distance I've covered on my 13 Greyhound bus journeys.
The next thing I booked was my next few days accomodation. My grandparents stayed in a resort called Cairns Colonial Club several years ago, and they are keen for me to experience it. So keen in fact they are helping me to pay for it which is amazing, especially as this is no hostel; it is a premium resort. I book a standard room (there are several options), which just for the basics still costs $146 a night. Ouch! You can add breakfast options to that but the cheapest is about $46. Thanks but no thanks, I'll just have tea and a banana.
I make the booking online and then phone up to find out how to get there. Turns out there is a courtesy bus that picks up from the Transit Mall on Lake Street; nice.
Fully booked I get the free hostel bus to, conveniently enough, Lake Street, allowing me to conduct a reconnaisance mission to find the stop for tomorrow. It is literally one minute up the road from where the hostel bus drops me off which is great. I head over to Subway for a late and very much needed lunch and then walk around exploring the Lake Street mall. I quite like this road, it is lined with palm trees which from what I can tell Cairns is absolutely covered in, and there is a huge abundance of shopping centres, restaurants, shops and bars along this stretch and down many side roads. There is quite a large Asian presence a bit like Sydney, with lots of Chinese, Japanese and Korean supermarkets and restaurants.
Mission accomplished I get the shuttle bus back, watch a couple of episodes of Fawlty Towers and Bottom on my laptop and then head downstairs for my free meal. Still stuffed from my foot-long Italian BMT, I don't bother with the upgrade and just accept the freebie. There are two options and I go with salad and vegetable samosas. I'm given a small bowl with lettuce, a slice of tomato and four very small party-sized samosas but it's nice and does the job. I spend the rest of the evening in the bar chatting to a middle-aged Mancunian who I keep seeing on the Greyhound and his friends, a mid-thirties couple from Chester, of which the girlfriend bizarrely used to work for my last company and also knows of the arts college I went to. Madness.
The next day I check out of my hostel at the standard time of 10am and then get the delayed courtesy bus to Lake Street. I've missed the free bus to the hotel and am probably too early for checking in so I head to a really nice cafe on Hides Corner which does about 12 different international breakfasts. I of course go for a full English as I'm dead hungry; it wasn't actually too big but had the usual ingredients and did the job.
Heading back to Bus Stop D, I have a half hour wait and then the big colourful Cairns Colonial Club courtesy bus arrives. I hope this bus is free as they ask people for their room numbers; I'm going to be using it a fair bit and don't want a nasty surprise when I come to check out. The journey takes just a couple of minutes and I arrive at the Club, which has a big sweeping driveway and fairly sizeable semi-open air foyer. I can tell already this is one swanky place. There are dedicated separate desks for checking in and then checking out, and the tour desk is in its own spacious office. I check in and get two magnetic cards, one as my key and one to fit in the holder near the door to activate the lights. I also get a form to fill in to arrange my (hopefully) free taxi to the airport. Opposite the tour desk I notice the resort shop, at the end of the foyer is a large very well decorated restaurant, and round the corner is the guest lounge and net cafe. I take a quick look at the menu; all the main meals have a fixed price of $30. Again, ouch. Thankfully there is also a Poolside Cafe with more budget-sized meals (although still pretty damn expensive, maybe a tiny bit more than Wetherspoon prices). The menu of the main restaurant looks quite nice though, and they also have a build-your-own salad option for $20. I think I should have at least one meal here before my stay is over, might as well. There is one more restaurant called Jardines but the hotel is undergoing some renovation at the moment and either because of that or due to occupancy levels it is currently closed until July.
I walked out of the reception and followed the map I was given to my room. The resort is outdoor but has lots of winding well-signposted covered walkways, surrounded by lots of tropical shrubbery. The swimming pools are adorned with rocks and mini waterfalls. There is a free fitness centre that opens by room keycard, a playground for kids and two poolside bars. This is a really nice place.
For a standard room, this is one of the best hotel rooms I as a solo traveller have stayed in. The room is modern, clean and stylish, the big 32" widescreen Sony Bravia LCD TV dominating in the centre of the room, right above a big wooden writing / computer desk. There are two power sockets and two ethernet network ports. I asked at the reception if I could borrow an ethernet cable; apparently the wired network is not ready yet and is one of the things that they are installing into each room during the renovations. There is both a big ceiling fan with triple speed control as well as a separate air-con unit that is the fastest working air-con I've ever seen, it can chill the room in just a couple of minutes. The double bed is more like a king size and there are separate power sockets and bedside lighting either side. I notice in my room there is an internal door connecting my room with the one adjacent on the right hand side; good I imagine for families. My door of course can only be open by me as there is no handle the other side. At the far end of the room is a wardrobe with quite a sizeable electronic safe and iron and ironing board. Next to that is the fridge, which has little pots of milk that are fully restocked daily. Above that is the kettle and a huge amount of tea, coffee and milk sachets. The bathroom next door is also really nice, fairly small but the shower is a walk-in and is massive. On the TV you have the usual selection of the analogue networks, along with a new Channel 7 Holiday channel, which at the moment is exclusive to Cairns hotels and mostly mentions the places you can visit in and around Cairns. Apparently they are trialling it here because there is so much to do here in the Tropical North, but if successful will start launching it in New South Wales and elsewhere. There are also movies on-demand that cost $15 and are easy to buy with the remote control. When you turn the TV on your own name is flashed up on screen, a nice touch. Don't sit too close though, none of the channels are high def and so you'll get tons of artefacts on the 720P Bravia as the pixels are interpolated.
After a cup of tea and an episode of "Spicks and Specks", Australia's answer to Never Mind The Buzzcocks (complete with a quite funny appearance by Brit comic Stephen K. Amos), I went back to the reception to drop off my departure form and to visit the tour desk. I have limited options now, I kind of wanted to see Port Douglas and Cape Trib / Daintree but after South Molle and Dunk Island I need to choose my tours artfully. I daresay I may come back to Cairns; it seems like a great jumping off point for lots of amazing places and I think that this is where the real action happens in Queensland. From Brisbane to Cairns it was good but now it starts to get really interesting. With my Whitsundays trip I never felt that I really got to experience the Great Barrier Reef (partly my own fault and partly because the trip was really just an excuse to get a lot of backpackers drunk and nick all their money). From going from hostel to hostel I've constantly seen a brochure for a company called Reef Magic. I like what they're selling; it's pricey for a daytrip at $175 and all the really cool things like dives and helicopter rides are really expensive extras but they feed and look after you and it's blatantly the one to go for, taking place as it does on "Marine World" their own stable platform on a privately owned section called Moore Reef. There are other cheaper options, but most of these take place on little cays and atolls which is great but if it's hot there is no shade and you basically burn for several hours. Likewise, if it rains you're equally screwed although in a lot less pain. After being on two tropical islands (3 if you count Fraser) I really can't be bothered and the Marine World stable platform sounds like just the ticket. Also they have prescription masks, meaning I can finally snorkel the reef and actually see things!
The second trip I book up is to go to the village of Kuranda, a small arty village up in the rainforest. You actually get the world's longest cable car ride up there, and then you have over 3 hours to explore the town and also go to several zoos and museums, one of which is Australia Venom Zoo, with apparently a live venom extraction from snakes and spiders! There are also boardwalks you can go on to explore the rainforest. Reading about the town, it sounds like a bit more upmarket Nimbin, but we will see. You come back to Cairns by scenic railway, with lots of good photo opportunities. Also, because I'm going on a Sunday I get to experience the town's Sunday markets. I choose the late option for this one; I have to get up at 7 for Reef Magic so for Kuranda I can have a bit of a lie-in, starting as it does at 10.15am.
I book my trips and head to the resort shop to get some provisions. It's bloody expensive in here; bananas alone are $1.50 each! I get a couple and a pot noodle and big bottle of water. After going back to my room for a while, I eventually go to the Poolside Cafe for dinner and get a really nice Mexican Tortilla for a reasonable $10.50.

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I stayed there in September 2003. There are nothing much around the hotel, but they do provide free shuttle get you to downtown.

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Well its my last day in Cairns today and tonight I'm out on a backpacker pub crawl. After nearly a week here I think I've got a feel of the place now. Cairns is the backpacker party capital of Australia. Travllers come here to relax and for a good time. The weather here is brilliant lots of sun although there is no beach so you have to make do with a large artifical lagoon. I've enjoyed my time here and could easily spend another week relaxing and partying. But its onwards to Noosa now for Dougs wedding, then down to the Gold Coast for Marks bucks party on saturday. Its going to be a busy one.

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Great Barrier Reef day! A whole day to spend at the Great Barrier Reef and I was not disappointed.

We parked on the streets in the city, cos it was free on Sunday. Then all we had to do was walk over to the ferry terminal, which would have been about 5-10min. Instead, we followed small groups of people who we thought knew where they were going. Instead we walked a whole lap around a huge building and ended up walking for about 1/2hr til we got to the terminal. I thought we were going to be late, but once we checked in (and got name stickers!) and got to the dock of our boat, we were the first ones there.

The boat was really nice and provided food and drinks. The boat was about 1/2 full, with about 20-25 people on board. We departed at about 10am to arrive at the special floating dock for our days adventure. On the way there, we were asked if we wanted to try scuba diving or go for a helicopter ride. I signed up for the scuba diving, as there was a try before you buy offer. Which I needed, as once we got there, I put on the bright red! lycra suit for scuba diving. Along with my dad, youngest sister (Isy) and brother (Josh), we tried to 'breathe' underwater. I gave up within 5 min of the trial period as I felt too claustraphobic and had a fear of not being able to breathe once I got down there. My dad also gave up, which left my brother and sister to scuba dive down in the Great Barrier Reef! I am so not jealous...

Instead, I joined my other sister (Cass) to go snorkelling. It was amazing. The area they gave us to swim in was quite big. There was so much to see. The coral was within my reach, so were the fish...and the life under the water seemed so colourful. I wish I had an underwater camera! But I don't think I'll be forgetting it any time soon. They provided a photographer for the whole day, and I had my photo taken with a gigantic fish. His name's Wally and I got to pat him! One of the only fish that will stay still to be patted. Fish feel weird...I guess it has to do something with being underwater and their scales...hahaha...

After awhile my own skin started to get weird from being in water for too long, so I got out and later watched them feed the fish. I also got in some sun bathing on the top deck. I didn't go in the submarine tour which was provided. My mum went at first and she came back feeling really sick. She said that it smells really bad in the submarine and it's really rocky, so it's not good if you get sea sick easily! (like me...) Anyway...lunch was provided and it was alright. Breads, cheese, meats, noodles, salads, sushi...with tea, coffee and water provided. Spent the last hour lazing about. We all got back on the boat at about 3pm to be brought back to land. I don't think anyone took the helicopter back...

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I don't mind long car drives. We drove along the Bruce Hwy and made a pit stop at a small petrol station. We bought a few packets of dried fruit and later when I tasted it I fell in love! They were gone within the next few hours and I would have to wait until we were driving back to Townsville to buy more.

We checked into our holiday cabin at a holiday caravan park in Cairns. I felt that it was a lot more relaxing than Townsville. Except the bugs in all of the rooms was annoying. Especially in our bedrooms and the kitchens. Our beds were sprayed with the aerogard quite alot over the next few days. And any left over food that we forgot to properly pack was later discovered (usually the next morning) to be inhabited by bugs...so our food supply would occasionally take a noise dive on some days. Luckily there was a Woolies a street down from where we were staying.

In the late afternoon we walked around the city area of Cairns, where we booked a Great Barrier Reef boat + snorkle for the next day. We visited the day and night market and had dinner in the open area next to it. The night market really consisted of a lot of tourist shops. Mainly there were Japanese/Chinese shop owners talking to me in their language cos they thought that I could understand. But I don't...just because I look Asian, does not mean I have to understand any Asian language...But I ended up buying a bracelet and earrings there anyway...

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One last run at fun
Great town and lots of fun
White water rafting the highlight

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zurueck in Australien und zurueck in der Waerme!

nachdem ich die Nacht in Auckland am Fughafen verbracht habe mit noch 3 gleichgesinnten, die ebenfalls ihren Schlafsack ausgepackt haben, bin ich im Flieger direkt wieder eingeschlafen und habe noch nicht mal den Start geschweige denn das Fruehstueck mitbekommen. Welch eine Schande...zum Glueck gibt es aber nette Stewardessen, die einem noch ein Tablett mit Essen geben :) ALLES GUT.

Ankunft in Australien zurueck war dann auch noch mal spannend. Erst hat mich die Dame an der Immigration gefragt, ob ich hier jemanden kennen wuerde. Dann wurde ich weitergeleitet an eine weitere Dame, die hinter der Immigration stand und mich ausgequetscht hat, was ich so mache, wohin ich gehe, wann ich Australien wieder verlasse, was ich zu Hause mache (studieren und Diplomarbeit schreiben natuerlich ;)) und wie die weiteren Plaene sind. Die hat mich dann gehen lassen. Dann kam mir aber noch der Beagle in die Quere, der an meinem Rucksack was gewittert hat, seine Begleiterin hat mich dann freundlich gefragt ob ich etwas zu essen dabei haette und ob ich alle Fragen auf dem Einreiseformular verstanden haette! Die hat dann was auf den Zettel gekritzelt, so dass mich die naechste Dame vor dem X-Ray direkt zum Quarantaene Schalter geschickt hat. Der Kerl hat mir dann noch ein paar Standardfragen gestellt (Alles selber gepackt usw...) und wollte dann meinen Rucksack sehen. Er hat Toni's Fuesse fuer Reis gehalten!! Schweres Verbrechen. Ausserdem haben ihn meine Turnschuhe interessiert, die seiner Meinung nach SEHR SEHR SEHR sauber waren. Sind halt auch noch nicht gross zum Einsatz gekommen. Nach all dem,haben sie mich dann aber einreisen lassen...

somit bin ich nun in Cairns bei strahlendem Sonnenschein und wenn man dem Forecast glauben darf, bleibt das auch bis Montag noch so. So lange wollte ich wohl auch hier bleiben. Passt ja gut! Den Heli-flug ueber das Great Barrier Reef kann ich mir jetzt auch sparen, da ich das heute morgen aus dem Flugzeug schon bestaunen konnte. Morgen wird gechillt und dann gehts zum Tauchen fuer 3 Tage uebers Wochenende. Fotos von der Uebernachtung und dem Reef vor Cairns gibts spaeter.

uebrigens ist hier das Lied meines Australiens Urlaubs http://youtube.com/watch?v=MN7DGtBMCKU . laeuft an jeder ecke!

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Cairns with the great barrier reef is the number one location in the world for Scuba diving. That’s all down to the great barrier reef being on its doorstep. I went on a one day trip to the reef and its typical the day I choose to go the sea has a big swell and is that pleasant to travel on at all. I completed my introductory dive and snorkeling, saw Nemo struggling to survive on his anemone. The barrier reef is amazing and is great to swim in. The diversity and numbers of fish you see are amazing.

Tuesday was white water rafting day, it was good fun but less scary than I though it maybe. I think I’ve done so many dangerous things now its becoming more and more difficulty to get thrills and scares.

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Well I've made it Oz at last. I've only been here a few hours so its difficult to pass judgement on the place, but its hot humid and looks like America.

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Le temps s'est un peu amélioré, nous en profitons pour booker deux jours sur le Récif. Faut savoir que la Grande Barrière de Corail n'est pas accessible de la côte. Il faut donc prendre des tours organisés pour la rejoindre (40 à 60 km de la côte). Ca n'a pas le charme de l'Australie Occidentale où le corail était accessible à la nage mais le coté touristique est vite dépassé par la beauté du monde sous-marin qui s'offre à nous. A chaque fois c'est la découverte d'un autre univers peuplé de somptueux poissons, de tortues, requins etc. Nous en profitons pour faire quelques plongées dans ce magnifique environnement.

Ces jours sur la Grande Barrière sont déjà les derniers en compagnie des parents d'Aymeric. Ces deux semaines passées avec eux furent vraiment chouettes et sont évidement passées trop vite... Un grand merci à eux deux pour ces quelques jours!

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I bungeed in Cairns at the AJ Hackett site. It seemed like a good idea at the time...

I had to say to the guy at the top to push me if I didn't go after the countdown, but I toppled forward just after the 5-4-3-2-1-Bungy! Needless to say my form was bad! My fingers grazed the water at the bottom, I bounced around and was lowered down to the dingy on the pond. I managed not to swear because I was thinking about buying the video to take home - instead I shouted Oh My God, Oh My God the whole way down and up and down and up! But it wasn't great, so I just got the photos instead.

Next Day: We were supposed to be going out on a live-aboard dive boat for an overnight trip. We head down to the dive shop, and as we're going through the briefing my vision starts to fail, I can see flickering in the periphery of my right eye - I'm getting a migraine and there's nothing I can do about it. When the guys say, everyone OK to go, I have to say no. We head back to the hostel, the owner was very helpful and asked if I needed a doctor and moved us to a quad room so it was just us and another set of bunks - think it was a Dutch couple who thankfully were out the whole day! I spent the day alternating between lying in bed and bolting for the bathroom, canon-balling of walls as I went because I couldn't see properly. My travelling companion was very sweet - I'd asked for some mints to taste my mouth and he came back with soft mints, boiled mints and gum, as well as a cuddly kookaburra because I was feeling so bad! We had to go to the doctor around 3pm - into a taxi with a plastic bag, of course I was sick straight away - doctor was really good and saw me straight away. I had a pethadine shot into my rear end as well as an anti-emetic, and went back to the hostel to sleep it all off. Still kept being sick, felt better then next day and we went diving two days late.

Moral of the Story: If you get migraines I don't recommend bungee jumping. It really rattles your brain around!

My AJ Hackett blog is in my Australia & Thailand 2001 blog click here to read it.

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I was determined to bungy in Oz and Cairns seemed like the best place. The person I was travelling with had bungy'd in Las Vegas so I wanted to try it. So jumping off a 50 metre/ 164 foot high tower seemed like a good idea. When we arrived on the Bungy Bus which picked us up from our hostel, I watched a safety/ instructional video, was weighed (the depressing bit!) and your weight in kilograms is written on your hand - different cords are used for people of different weights so the guys at the top need to know which one you need. They can alter the length so if you want to go full body into the water or not go anywhere near it they'll arrange it. The climb to the top of the tower was when I started getting nervous. I'm not scared of heights in the slightest, but knowing you're shortly going to be plummeting head first towards the ground with a length of knicker elastic around your ankles could make anyone tremble! At the top, I was harnessed in with a towel wrapped around my ankles, then the cord. Trussed up like a turkey I was apparently ready to go. After a souvenir photo, the staffer said "We'll count down 5-4-3-2-1-Bungy! - Go on Bungy." OK says I...then I had to say to him if I don't go by Bungy give me a shove! Unfortunately they aren't allowed to, so I sort of fell forward in slow motion, not at all gracefully and fell the 45m in a crouch position, screaming Oh My God the whole way (I didn't swear because I was thinking of buying the video!). When I bounced back up I instinctively grabbed the cord at my ankles which I got into BIG trouble for afterwards - apparently I could have dislocated my shoulder or broken my arm. So that was a lesson learned! After bouncing about for what felt like an eternity, I was lowered down to the dingy in the pond, released from my elasticated hell and paddled to the side of the pool, ankles still bound in a towel. Needless to say I was delighted to be back on dry land! It was an absolutely exhilarating experience and I was glad I'd done it, but I was shaking like a leaf! The video wasn't so good so I bought the photos and a polo shirt and we headed back into the city. Next Day: Horrendous migraine, projectile vomiting and a trip to the doctor for a pethedine injection in the butt. He said people prone to migraines often get a very bad attack after bungying because it rattles your brain and makes the blood vessels swell, causing a migraine. So I'll never do it again, but can highly recommend it, so long as you don't get migraines - although you might after this experience!!

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The train ride to Karunda is an event not to be missed, the old steam train takes you along a very scenic route which includes going over a long curved bridge, this is interesting because you can look out the windows and watch the back half of the train going around the curve and over the bridge, as there is quite a drop down to the bottom it is rather beath taking. The town of Karunda was really cute and a pleasant place to visit, when we arrived there seemed to be pretty flowers growing everywhere, the flowers are my best impression of Karunda township. I enjoyed my train ride very much, possably because steam trains are a novelty now days.

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We accidently stumbled onto Leo's Retreat backpackers accommadation in Cairns, when we arrived by train they were one of the first places we saw with accommadation still available. We don't usually stay at backpackers as we are rather older than most backpackers, but we took a double room that was exactly the same as a motel unit at a fraction of the cost. We even had air conditioning! There is a swimming pool available and the internet, but what surprised us was that the evening meal and breakfast was thrown in for free. Sure the evening meal was pretty basic, but it was very filling, a big baked potatoe filled with baked beans, we bought some other things to add to it and made a delicious meal. Leo's is quite close to the city, just a short walk. We were so impressed with this establishment that we returned for another night at the end of our holiday, the rental car firm was just up the road so it was very convenient.

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We are now in Cairns, this is just a small barrier reef blog to add the diving photo's to, we'll be adding more later when we get our underwater camera processed...should be some beauty's of reef sharks (hopefully). We did 3 dives at the great barrier reef today, the boat was amazing, the staff were amazing, the food was amazing and the equipment was amazing (which we weren't used to being in Asia so long) ....an amazing day all round.

We saw:  Reef Sharks (white tip & black tip), sting rays, Mouri Wrasse, trigger fish, stone fish, flowery cod, ghost shrimps, parrott fish, clown fish (nemo), clams. I'm holding a pineapple sea cucumber if you wondered what it was (felt squishy).

the reef was beautiful so colourful and as you can see above loads of fish to look at.

anyway...on to an 11 hour bus journey to Airlie beach tomorrow (whitsunday islands base) ....wooohooo  :(

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