Cairns 8th -21st August

We met Dee and Steve at Cairns airport. We were holding  two giant balloons that were unmissable-yes, they missed us!! It was a happy reunion and we quickly settled into our luxury B&B for a cold beer. Luxury is a bit of an understatement when you compare our new dwellings to the hostels we’ve been in. We have become accustomed to hostels and their strange ways, so moving into a B&B with a swimming pool and amazing breakfasts was a real treat.

We had 2 weeks to explore Cairns and its surroundings. We ventured off to Cape Tribulation, Daintree Valley and Mossman Gorge where Jonty and Steve went swimming in a watering hole that (by the looks on their faces) was very cold! At Cape Trib (where rainforest meets the sea) we spent the afternoon on the beach relaxing and enjoying the break in the clouds, when a Cassowary decided to join us. Now, cassowaries are birds bigger than an ostrich, with claws that look like they come out of an axe murdering film and a bone resembling a shark’s fin sticking out the top of their head. Other than this, they have a beautiful blue, turquoise and red colouring on the neck! We were delighted to see one as they are an endangered species. The trouble is that this one was a little aggressive and made a beeline straight for Steve. It was a close call, but the cassowary was scared off by Dee shouting at him! We were also lucky to find some platypuss in the nude in a creek in the Atherton Tablelands. It was great to see them popping up for air and then sticking their little bottoms up and disappearing again. Platypuss are a lot smaller than you think-we were looking for something the size of an otter, but it is more like a terrapin. We feel like we are turning into David Bellamy! We visited a crocodile farm and watched them jumping right out of the water for their ugly dinner of chicken heads. It was an impressive sight. The ranger was very informative and answered lots of questions that we thought of e.g. If you face a croc on land, run. (Like you would do anything else!) On Lou’s run the next morning she ran with only one earphone in around the saltwater creek, just in case! We visited the town of Kuranda which sits in the middle of the rainforest. We went there via a scenic railway and returned by cable car overlooking the rainforest-this gave us a totally different perspective. We thoroughly enjoyed the journeys.

In between these trips, we had relaxing days by the pool, watching Aussie rules and meandering round Cairns. We ate barbies in the true Aussie fashion and also made Dee and Steve honorary backpackers for a few nights too. We considered the best way to have a real local Saturday night out and decided that as their number one sport is gambling, to go to the dogs. We struggled to find anyone who knew where the track was, that should have been a giveaway in itself. But we arrived, couldn’t find the car park or the rest of the cars, so abandoned the car and entered. The attendance was a little shy of our expectations. There were about 20 people there, 15 of which either owned the dogs or were running the event! It was strange, but also quite funny. The commentator (yes, he was relaying the night’s events over the loud speaker system to the whole stadium!) showed us his commentary box and kept referring to us over the mike. It was slightly embarrassing as it was obvious from the lack of attendees who we were. But he then placed a bet on for us, which was a really nice gesture. It lost! It turned out to be a memorable night.

One of the main reason that people visit Cairns is to go to the Great Barrier Reef. The weather had not been particularly kind to us as the wind was stirring up the sea. We eventually took the plunge, and some sea sickness tablets, and ventured out to the reef. Lets just say that the journey was an adventure in itself and that we were the only family to retain the contents of our stomachs. When we arrived at the pontoon (1 1/2 hours from the mainland) we hit the snorkelling and were delighted. The visibility, warmth and calmness of the water was perfect for snorkelling. We saw lots of different variety of fish and coral that we had not seen anywhere else on our trip. We even got to touch ‘Wally’ the huge fish that was well over a metre long. (This is the same type of fish that had scared the bejeebers out of Jonts when we were in the Whitsundays.) We spent 4 hours at the reef, digested a nice lunch and went aboard a semisubmersible boat. All in all, it was an outstanding day. A great way to finish our holiday in Cairns.

We finally returned our hire car after 41 days of travelling up the east coast. And now we are off to the outback in search of a big red rock. We will miss our breakfasts, morning swims and company.

19th July – 7th August – Brisbane to Cairns

On route to Brisbane, we passed the concrete jungle that is the Gold Coast-so glad we didn’t stop there. We did however stop at DreamWorld- one of their theme parks (the Aussie equivalent of Alton Towers.) There were very few queues-so not quite like Alton Towers!! A few good rides, one that sent you from 0-60 m.p.h. in 2 seconds.

We spent five days in the quiet Moreton Bay area before a great night out in the city of Brisbane with Charlie Cank-on her birthday too! Whilst in the Bay we attended a jazz/blues music festival on the harbour which was a nice day and we also attempted to swim the 50m Olympic pool, but failed and reverted back to 25m! Two brilliant things happened while we were in Brisbane. 1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released and 2. We got a phone call from Ben to say that he was now the proud father to Harriet Beth. Great stuff!

Our next stop was Noosa, this is one of our favourite towns so far. Cracking beaches, good surf and funny little exercise machines along the shore that we attempted to give us a break from our running in the heat! It is now a lovely temperature and the Fiji tan is starting to reappear. Jonty had his first taste of body boarding in Oz, and we both had a taste of pineapple at the BIG pineapple! Well done Noosa.

 We ventured to Rainbow Beach which was our gateway to Fraser Island. Here we stayed at a hostel that ran self-drive 4×4 tours to the island. We were put into a group of 11 and had a fantastic time. Fraser island is made up entirely of sand and is one of the few places in the world where rainforest grows directly out of the sand, no soil at all. Driving on the dry, heavy duty sand was a bit of a mission, but also great fun when we got stuck and had 10 people and shovels digging and pushing to try and free us. We spent 2 nights, 3 days there. Camping on the beach and washing up in the sea made this memorable.  Our group and the other 11 Irish mad group that we spent our time with were heaps of fun. One of the highlights on Fraser is Lake McKenzie-it is your ideal blue lagoon, pituresque and hidden from view by sand dunes and forest-lovely. Whilst on the island we also witnessed a pod of 5 whales migrating past, a group of sharks swimming round the headland and a manta ray. We have been so lucky to see such a vast amount of wildlife since being away.  You can’t beat 4 wheel driving on sand-outstanding!

We rushed up the coast to Airlie Beach for our next outing to the Whitsundays. We were booked on a boat for another 3 day, 2 night adventure. This one was to be a little more relaxing from Fraser, but still awesome.  Jonty was in his element, pulling up the sails and learning knots, and also reading Harry Potter!! We tried our hand at a bit more snorkelling too, but the fish here were slightly larger than in Fiji, Jonts jumped in and soon popped back up gasping at the size of the fish right next to his nose, nearly 2 metres long! Life on board the boat was a totally different experience to those we have experienced so far. The food was delicious and plentiful, the sunsets were impressive, as was watching the stars come out (we saw Venus and Jupiter too-not that we could tell them apart!). The sleeping cabin was small but had porthole with the moon shining through and the gentle rock of the boat meant that you had a great night’s sleep. An unusually relaxing time amidst our hectic schedule to get up to Cairns.

Our final venture before embarking on Cairns and a 2 week stop over in one place-a real rareity- was Magnetic Island. A small place 20km off the mainland, but full of Australian wildlife. It was a chance to see Koalas and Kangaroos in the wild-much better than in a zoo. After a 5 hour walk, we had seen 1 koala and the heads of a few rock wallabies as they hopped away from us. Still, better than a kick in the shins! The hostel was not so great and stole 6 beers from us-we will not be staying in a X-BASE hostel again. The funny thing was, that on our final journey to Cairns, we stopped at a wetlands park for lunch and there were about 200 kangaroos sitting and hopping around the rugby pitch there. No walking required!

Onto Cairns to meet Lou’s mum and Steve.