Category: 2006 Trip

I didn’t think I would make it all the way up to Cairns.

Aside from the pure distance between Sydney and Cairns (which I didn’t fully understand until about 2 weeks into my time in the country), I wasn’t sure whether it made any sense to travel up to an area that had had such recent and dramatic encounters with cyclones. The road from Townsville to Cairns was actually closed for a few days, and some surrounding areas were without power for quite some time. Anyway, the government wanted to let travellers know that the state of Queensland was still OK to visit – just certain areas (such as Innisfeld, south of Cairns) were not really open for business.

So I caught an overnight bus from Airlie Beach to Cairns, arrived at 6:25 am, and got on another bus at 7:30 am to start my rainforest tour. Within a couple of hours, I was walking through Cape Tribulation and floating along the Daintree River. We saw one crocodile and one tree snake, and lots of rain (so far, it’s rained both times I’ve visited rainforests, and they always let us know that it’s actually just ‘liquid sunshine’ – I guess so we shouldn’t be disappointed).

I ended up really enjoying my time in Cairns. Lonely Planet had described it as being a “backpackers’ carnival” and the truth is that I found it a fun place to backpack in. The city centre (very touristy) is easy to get around, and they set up tour times to coincide with the morning arrivals of the overnight buses. The walk from the bus drop-off point to my hostel was fairly simple (I did lose my bearings a bit, but that probably had more to do with spending the night on a bus and waking up in an unfamiliar city in the rain). What was a little tricky for me is the way that Cairns has these shopping squares – you can walk around a block and not quite know whether or not you are supposed to turn. It’s very easy to lose track of how far you’ve gone.

The rainforest tour I signed up for was great. All the people on the bus seemed to be travelling alone (I love when this is the case – everyone is so much friendlier then). And it was a nice bus of people. Some of the girls I met wanted to meet for dinner the following night and we managed to make this happen. I also ended up signing up for the same Great Barrier Reef snorkelling trip as one of the other girls, and I was glad I had (it was a very small boat load of people, and much nicer trip already knowing someone there).

The weather wasn’t great, but it was worth it to finally see the Great Barrier Reef. The visibility was 10-12 (metres, I guess) and much better than it had been when I snorkelled at the Whitsunday Islands. I was suprised by how big the fish near the boat were – it’s creepy when you can see their jaws move. Speaking of jaws, I wasn’t quite sure what to do when I noticed that I was swimming directly above some sharks… The tour operators seem a bit frustrated when we panick, though (I got back on the boat fairly quickly) – since the sharks were only little reef sharks, apparently they have very little interest in humans.

My last night in Cairns I got to sample the backpacker nightlife. This involved going to ‘ladies night’ at the Rhinobar (free champagne – term used loosely to describe cheap sparkling wine with raspberry flavour thrown in to disguise the taste) and then accidentally stumbling into the Wool Shed (which my Lonely Planet had warned me about – they mentioned the nearly unavoidable dancing on tables and benches, and I really should have remembered about this before entering… I was thankful that I either missed the wet T-shirt contest or that there just wasn’t one that night). But I was glad that I was with the people I had met on the Cape Tribulation tour, and it was fun to see how a lot of backpackers spend most of their time in Australia. One place I had heard a lot about along the way was Byron Bay (roughly speaking, near Brisbane) – a lot of backpackers plan to be there 3 days and end up staying for a week or more. I didn’t go, and when someone at the Wool Shed exclaimed “This reminds me of Byron Bay!” I knew just what I’d been missing…

The next day I did some shopping around Cairns and met up with people from the tour again (for lunch). We said bye at the lagoon and I caught a taxi to the airport to head back to Sydney. I didn’t really feel ready to leave Australia but I was looking forward to finally reaching New Zealand.

I’d read a bit about Fraser Island before booking the 2-day tour I just went on, but I must admit that I didn’t really know much about what the tour would involve. Since I’d opted for the version with a guide, all I knew was that I wouldn’t be the one who would have to do any of the planning (or driving).

It ended up being a great two days! Fraser Island is an incredibly relaxing place, and I think all of us on the tour were happy just being there. The first day we went for a swim in Lake McKenzie – the water is warm and still and has a very low pH level (so it actually cleans you and any jewellery you happen to be wearing). It felt like being at a spa! I didn’t expect this. Normally, this lake is a clear blue but it was a very overcast day so the water was dark and grey instead. While we were swimming, we could actually see the rain approach us over some nearby hills – it was very neat, and fun when the light rain ended up reaching us (it was like a mist rolling in, then totally drenched us when it reached us). We were still swimming at the time and ended up getting out and trying to dry off while having the coffee and snacks the driver had prepared for us under a large tarp (nice to be taken care of!).

The rest of the tour around the island was beautiful. We walked through sub-tropical rainforest (which has no koalas or kangaroos – little to no animals, actually, which seems strange) and had some close encounters with dingos. My favourite part on the second day was when we stopped at Eli Creek. The creek is actually a freshwater spring that you can float down. I was so glad I decided to do this part! The water was extemely shallow – you’re just a few inches from the bottom and can just glide along, looking at the sky and the vegetation along the shore.

After arriving back at Hervey Bay last night, I caught an overnight bus to Airlie Beach. Thankfully, it turns out that I can sleep on the bus! I arrived at Airlie Beach this afternoon and go sailing around the Whitsunday Islands tomorrow. The weather seems quite nice at the moment, so hopefully that holds out…

Flew from Newcastle to Brisbane on Monday afternoon. I was lucky that the flight I booked wasn’t directly to Cairns (I hadn’t realized that a cyclone was heading towards northern Queensland). From what I’ve seen of Brisbane, the city is very pretty. I had wanted to walk around and visit the various parklands that are right in the city (or take a day tour to a rainforest and see waterfalls nearby) but instead I’ve just used the past day to get myself sorted for the next few days of travel. Today I catch a bus up to Hervey Bay and then tomorrow visit Fraser Island, which is supposed to have geography that is unlike anything I’ve seen before.

I arrived in Newcastle (a university town about 2 hrs north of Sydney) just in time to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! Reyna is at teachers college there and took me to the Bar on the Hill (campus pub) for a beer and then to Finnegan’s (Irish pub downtown that looked an awful lot like all the British pubs in Canada) to see the festivities. As I’ve found in Ottawa, people here are also very friendly on this particular night of the year (when else do you make friends with someone in line while waiting to go into the bar?). Earlier on in the day, we went to Blackbutt Reserve to see some koalas and kangaroos (my first in Australia!). Then the next day, we drove into the Hunter Valley to visit some of the local vineyards. On Sunday, we went to Nelson Bay to see dolphins – at first it didn’t seem like there were any around, then suddenly we were surrounded by them and they seemed to be diving around wanting our attention. It was really neat, and we had the perfect weather for being out on the water. Then we hiked up the hill in Tomaree National Park (I think I have the name right!). It didn’t take us long, but I think I managed to work up a sweat. We saw the sunset on our way down, and also stopped to look at some huge spiders… (I think Reyna was impressed that I didn’t seem to panick!)

Spent a full day in Sydney yesterday – toured the Opera House, took a long walk through the Royal Botanical Gardens, and walked from there along Macquarie to Hyde Park and over to George St. Felt like quite the tour! I was amazed at all the parks in the city. Sydney reminds me more of Boston than I would ever have expected. I decided to go to a show at the Sydney Opera House, so I ended up seeing The Rake’s Progress and then took a late train from Circular Quay to Jannelli Station. Apparently, locals aren’t too keen about taking this route that late at night! There were a lot of other people on the train then who seemed to be about my age, so I didn’t mind.

Now I’m off to see Reyna in Newcastle!