Well Cairns… been there, done that. I’m now in Townsville, about 5 hours south of Cairns. I’m here for a night before I head to magnetic Island. But before I enjoy that, let me tell you about Cairns.
I managed to do a snorkelling day trip on the Barrier Reef. Was an excellent time. While I didn’t find Nemo I didn’t manage to swim up to and pet Wally, a massive Maori Wrasse, which is a type of fish.
I also spent a night up at Cape Tribulation, whish is a couple hours north of Cairns and stayed in the middle of a rain forest. The whole area was spectacular, managed to do a couple short hikes in the middle of the forest. But I’ll have to say that one of the highlights came that night when we raced Horn Toads at the bar. Mine was called “Herman the German,” while he didn’t win me any free beer he did make it hard to catch him after the race was done. I had to crawl under a table to nab him. Stupid Herman.
While this is my first time travelling on my own, I’m trully enjoying it b/c I’m meeting so many more people then I did when I was travelling with friends. Last night a whole group of us from Cape Tribulation met up in a Cairns bar and I must say that it was one of the funnest nights I’ve had in a long time. Team Canada, England and Sweden were out in full force! There are SO many Swedes here!! But not that I’m complaining, they’re an attractive country, not that anything happened. But hopefully I’ll be meeting some of my new friends as I head down the coast.
Well as I said I’m in Townsville now and off to Magnetic Island tomorrow. Then I head down to Airlie Beach so that I can live on a boat on a three-day trip. I’ve heard lots of good things about this, so I’m excited.
small world case #32: I was talking around my hostel in Cairns and bumped into a girl I know from Sydney. I think she told me that she was gonna be there, but I totally forgot about it.
small world case #20: At an internet cafe in Cairns I bumped into a girl that lived in my residence floor in first year at Queen’s!! We’ve only been aquaintences during our undergrads but it’s still weird to see her out of the blue in my neck of the woods.
scary moment #33: I left my mobile phone the the bus on the way to Townsville. Scary when i realized how much I depend on it. but it all ended up ok, the bus driver passed it onto a bus coming back into the city who dropped it off at the station, where I was able to pick it up. PHEW!