We checked into the Koala in Cairns mid-afternoon, which was to be our home for the next four days. It was a horrible feeling to have to pack our bags again and go back to living in a hostel. We were sorry to see the van go as it had begun to feel like home and we weren’t looking forward to not having any wheels. I was relieved to see that they didn’t spot the small chip that had appeared in the windscreen.
Within a few days we found a room in a shared house for a measly $60 each a week. The house is fine, nothing fancy but all that we need. We also have the bonus of having our own pool!
We’ve now been in Cairns for about 6 weeks, which has completely flown by. The weather has generally been good. It’s starting to get colder down south but is still about 25-30 Celsius up here. We rented bikes for the month to give us a quicker way of getting around and have been on a few rides around the local area. We also rented a car for the day to see some of the stuff that’s a bit further out the city. In the morning we visited Crystal Cascades, a scenic part of the Barron River with a number of swimming holes. We went to the northern beaches stopping at Ellis beach for lunch. In the afternoon we went to Hartley’s Crocodile Farm. We went on a short boat trip where they feed the crocs. We also saw a crocodile show where they entice the crocodile into demonstrating what’s known as the death roll etc. The thud you hear when there jaws snap together certainly makes you realise that you wouldn’t want to be caught between them!
During our time here we’ve been on two trips out to the Great Barrier Reef. We originally went on a day trip on a boat called Compass and enjoyed it so much that we decided to book a 2nd trip. Prior to going we went to an educational thing in town called Reef Teach where a marine biologist tells you a bit about the reef and the marine life it sustains. It was good to get an understanding of what it was we were going to be looking at and some tips on how to find certain things.
The 2nd trip was an overnight with 2 days out on the reef. We were aboard a sailing boat called the Rum Runner. The boat can accommodate up to 16 people but we’d had a freak week so there was only 1 other person on our trip. I’m surprised they still ran it! It was almost like having our own private charter. On the first day we did an introductory dive. Whilst onboard the dive master showed us the basics like how to equalise your ears, clear your mask underwater, blow water out the regulator if it comes out your mouth etc. It was then time to kit up and jump in. Once in the water he took Jenn and I down one at a time making sure we could do the things he’d showed us on the boat. Once he was happy we’d both got the hang of it he took us for a dive for about 20 minutes. We were probably never more than about 10 meters down so it wasn’t really that scary and was cool to get a view of the reef from beneath the surface. For the rest of the trip we just snorkelled as the reefs were only about 3 meters below the surface so you could just duck dive down if you wanted to get a closer view of anything. We saw lots of tropical fish, including Nemos (as in the one in the movie Finding Nemo) and some Parrot fish almost as big as me. We found some friendly turtles but the reef sharks eluded us although I’m still not sure if I wanted to see one or not!
We’re flying down to Melbourne on Saturday where we’ll be for 4/5 days before travelling back up to Sydney to fly to NZ on the 3rd June.
