Hey everyone, hope you had a fantastic New Years, I know I did! We spent the night in Gilligan's in Cairns, all 11 of the people who had come down from the lodge, and had a great time. Spent New Years Day with a bit of a headache mind, but still managed to do stuff. After kicking around the hostel, trying to wake up, a few of us headed to Cairns lagoon, the outdoor public pool, where we got a nice big McDonald's for breakfast, just what a hangover needs! After that, someone bought a beachball, and we spent a good 4-5 hours in the lagoon just mucking around, until everyone was told to get out the pool. This was because of a storm on the way, and lightning and people in water don't mix very well.
We headed back to the hostel, where the general opinion was to go and see a movie, so whilst a couple of the girls went to see Little Fockers, all the boys went sci-fi and saw Tron. Good choice. It's such a good film, if you go to the cinema, make sure you watch it!! Absolutely awesome, I'm telling you!
After that, we headed back out to Gilligans for the night, and had yet another late one, going on until it closed, and went back to the rooms. When we woke up, it was time for one of the cars to go back to the lodge, but it left so quickly I didn't have time to say my goodbyes! Had to resort to texting and calling. The rest of us walked to Gilligans and waited for Johnny to bring the other car round, which took the best part of a couple of hours, due to him sleeping off the night. But when it finally came, I said my goodbyes to the rest of them and they drove off, with a questionnably sober driver! Wasn't able to check in to Gilligans for ages though, so just rested up on one of the couches unitl 2pm.
When I finally did check in, I got talking to a couple of English guys in my room who had just been in Melbourne for the cricket, and we decided to go and get dinner after a bit of a nap. It turned out to be a 3 hour nap though, which I desperately needed after the night before! So off we went for dinner and a few drinks, before I headed to bed for my early start to Cape Tribulation the next morning.
Got picked up at 7.15am for Cape Trib, and we had a great tour guide named Fraser, who took us to a wildlife park where we saw some koalas, crocodiles, and got to feed kangaroos and wallabies. Afterwards, we went up to a place called Mossman Gorge, and had a bit of a tour round some surrounding rainforest before going for a swim in the river, which we all needed due to the heat and humidity. Had a couple of swimming challenges set against the current, which was pretty strong, and then went off to Cape Trib itself, where I got settled into my room in a lodge. Had to grab some food from the supermarket first, which was bloody expensive, and then went for some dinner with the other 3 who were staying overnight. Managed to get a free pizza which was a stroke of luck, so that was me set for 2 meals!
In the morning, I went jungle surifng, which was a series of ziplines stretched across the trees in the Daintree Rainforest, and had some fantastic views, and some interesting experiences, most notably licking an ants backside. Yes you heard me right, I have in fact licked an ant's arse. Turns out, the green tree ants that you get in the tropics have pure ascorbic acid (vitamin c) in their bums, and it kind of tasted like lime. Something I never thought I'd do anyway!!
Spent the rest of the day in the lodge watching the cricket until the bus came and picked me up at 4pm to take me back to Cairns. Once back in Cairns, I went for my free meal, and then had to start doing some research about how the floods would affect my trip, and so plans have changed pretty drastically. Turns out I would miss half of my bus pass, which I'm not going to do, so the plan now is to fly out to Melbourne from the Whitsunday Islands in about a week and a halfs time, and then come back up when the waters cleared and restart.
Another early start this morning, was due to be at the pick up point for my bus down the coast at 7am, so what did I do? Woke up at 6:53. I had 7 minutes to throw on clothes, grab my stuff, check out and get to the bus point, which I managed to do with a minute to spare, and I have no idea how!! Sod's law, the bus was late, so I had some time to change the shirt I had been wearing yesterday and freshen myself up a little bit, before getting on the bus and heading down the coast, met some canadians and some other english people on there, and we had a pretty good time, stopping at a place called Babinda gorge, which was a beautiful river and rocks (I had to brush my teeth in the toilet beforehand though), and then moved on. The guide was pretty good, giving us some interesting facts, and we stopped off at a crocodile farm for a while, where we got to hold a baby croc, a carpet python and a black cockatoo before going to watch the crocs get fed. They were monstrous, and I've got some crazy footage of the keeper feeding them, its just insane! They were all over 4m long, one even reaching close to 5m!! Unbelieveable animals! We also got to feed more kangaroos, and pat a dingo (tame obviously, and on a lead) and then see some cassowaries (the most dangerous birds in the world, look them up) before getting back on the bus and heading to Mission Beach. I was the only one getting off at MB, the rest were going to Magnetic Island, and I'm now sitting in the hostel, about to go and cool off in the pool and lie in the sun!! I'll leave you with that thought to drive you crazy with jealousy, and I'll post next from Maggie where I'm going to in 2 days to do scuba diving. See you later! xxxxx
