Cairns

So after arriving to Cairns and been told that luggage wasn’t going to arrive for the whole day, it was time for some serious shopping. The weather was unbelievably humid and so hot! I swear I was going to melt in my pants (and not in a good way you dirty sods). The only place that actually sells clothing here was Cairns Central-mall, which at 1^st sight looked like an American mall. My dreams of AA and Victoria’s secret vanished pretty soon… All the stores seemed to sell awful, awful cheap-looking grandma clothes. Who wears these??!  There were two stores selling basic surf brands like Billabong and Quiksilver so decided to stack up there.. Here’s the result.. I had to “slightly” modify my beloved Blair Waldorf-look J.

Is this how all ozzie sheilas dress up??

The hostel I’m staying at is NJoy! Travellers’ resort. For princess Alina, who has barely ever stayed at hostels, it was quite a shock to see the room. But, I’m getting used to it. There’s a nice lounge area and an outside garden to hang out. Staff is nice and there are basic services available (aka internet, can’t live without it ). First we were given a room where the temperature was closer to 40 but later that day Hanna and Make arrived and were smart enough to demand to change the room so we got a room with a proper air conditioning.

The town itself is honestly quite boring. There’s really not much to do and there’s no beach, either. There is “a lagoon” which turned out to be a 90 cm deep pool in the middle of a lawn. Also, I was expecting a beach walk with lots of bars but there seems to be just a few restaurants. Maybe the scene changes during night time. But as I was told by numerous locals, Cairns mostly acts as a gateway to the rainforest and the Great barrier Reef and the town itself is not an actual sight. So luckily plans were made to go see a jungle town of Kuranda  and go snorkeling to the Great Barrier Reef for one day. I don’t scuba-dive so will have to settle for snorkeling.

So it’s Christmas Eve today! They are organizing a barbeque party at the hostel so I guess it’s going to be a slightly different Xmas meal J Merry Xmas from the heat!

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On Boxing Day it was time for The Great Barrier Reef! We took a big boat from the marina that drove for about 2 hours off the coast to the 1^st snorkeling spot. On the way we saw some cute dolphins! Some of our crew did scuba-diving as well but I decided to settle with snorkeling. We also got to go with a glass-bottom boat where you could see the corals beautifully. The 2^nd spot we were taken to was awesome! There was Nemo, Nemo’s friend from the ocean (the yellow-black fish in the aquarium) and lots of lots of other fish! And the high point was…. (Jaws theme plays..tantan tantan tantaaaaa) I saw a shark!!!! It was awesome! It was about 1,5 m long and apparently a reef shark. So Mom, nothing to worry about, they don’t eat human (often). I started shouting “shark! Shark!” which scared some people (he he he, go figure..) but as I was told in the beginning, if you see something cool, don’t keep it to yourself! And I sure didn’t. A while later when I had already left the water someone said there was another shark swimming near the boat, so brave me, grabbed a snorkeling mask and jumped right into the water! This one was bigger and flatter, maybe a tiger-shark? Not quite sure. Anyway, was a very successful trip all in all, because I can tell my grandchildren one day that Mommy has seen a shark!

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On the last day before heading south from Cairns, decided to visit the rainforest village of Kuranda. One can visit it either by taking a Scenic Railway-trip or taking a Skyrail up to the village. The village itself is situated over 300m above from sea level. We decided to take the railway journey. The trip took about 2 h one-way and the panoramic views were just breathtaking! The higher we rose the better the view was. There was also some waterfalls along the way but due to the draught they weren’t that impressive. Unfortunately on the way up there was a lot of mist and clouds but luckily on the way back the weather had changed and got some amazing shots from high above.

Up in Kuranda there were lot of tourist attractions, Koala parks, butterfly gardens,  Venom parks, etc, as well as hippie-markets that sold everything from jewelry and beach gear to crocodile skin belts and kangaroo furs. It seemed actually that all authenticity of the village was long gone and the locals were running solely on tourism. However there were other cost-free activities to do, and we decided to do a jungle trek through the rainforest. The jungle trek turned out to be a little less wild than I had hoped for; they had an asphalt road paved through the jungle! Good exercise though, if nothing more. Here are some pics along the way up and down as well as from the jungle itself. After Kuranda it was time to say bye to Cairns and head down south to Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays islands. 12 h bus ride ahead with Greyhound, oh goody.

You can't really see it in this pic but the fall was huge...

The views were amazing on the way up to the rainforest village