Friday 26th July
Despite going to bed late I was awake by 8am and had a nice long chat to Jennifer which was nice as it's been a while since I've had much chance to have a proper conversation with people apart from Shelley.
Liam didn't stir until 10.15 and that's about the time we got moving, made breakfast and packed up before walking to the train station. We went back onto the double decker train and up on the top level this time which was a novelty. Check-in was fairly straight forward and easy, and we were left with about 50 minutes spare which we spent over a beer and a wine spritzer.
The flight was fine, no entertainment so reading and and naps were done instead. When we arrived in Cairns we had to get a taxi to the hotel, which was about 15 minutes away. It's nice here, it's got a holiday feel to it and is surrounded by rainforest areas.
The hotel room is nice, big and less basic than the last one with a little ensuite and wifi. After settling in a bit I had an impromptu Skype session with Shelley and lizzie which made my day because its been so long. We were talking for over an hour, by the time I pulled myself away it was about 8.30 and we still hadn't eaten. We went out to look for somewhere, it was raining a little but Liam really liked it. We went into an Indian restaurant and ate a lovely meal in there before returning to the hotel.
Liam was stressing out a bit because he was researching diving and feels we made a mistake not researching first because we could have booked onto a 2 day trip with a overnight stay on the boat and little things like that. I'm sure whatever we end up doing we will have a great time.
Saturday 27th July
Liam booked onto a dive this morning, just got to hope I can do the dive when the time comes. We also spent a lot of the morning looking at tours to the rainforest and after a long time looking at different ones we decided against it because of the amount of money. Also it looked kind of average and we know we will get to see rainforest stuff in costa rica so don't feel we are missing out.
We took the bus into the city and had a late breakfast before wandering around. It's a really nice place, very holiday ish and kind of backpacker ish and laid back. Lots of people walking around barefoot without a care in the world. We walked to the esplanade which has a lovely man made lagoon which basically a swimming pool with some sand and decking around it but fairly big and right by the beach. There was also a Saturday market on which we wandered around and browsed.
We walked down the esplanade and admired the sea views, and walked the 4km to the botanic gardens in the sun. We were a bit pooped once we got there so stopped for a drink in a cafe before having a short walk around. The gardens were great because it was all rainforest plants and lots we hadn't seen before, plus an area with the carnivorous plants. We also did a boardwalk through a section of rainforest which was great, but I got bitten a few times by Mosquitos! We also saw lots of very big spiders with their big horrible webs.
We walked back and sat on the boardwalk for a while, we also sat and had a drink at a restaurant before taking the bus back. We would stay out longer but it involves spending more money to do do and we are happy having quiet nights in order to do more activities. When we got off the bus we were stopped by a very odd aboriginal man who seemed either drunk or high or both, saying something we couldn't understand. We crossed the road and he ran after us and was blabbering something about the bus then wanted money off us, we tried to reason but it didnt work, and we ended up saying sorry we have to catch the lights and running across before we missed our chance and would be stuck with him for longer. Liam was a bit nervous about going straight back to the hotelier case he watched or followed but it was all ok!
We spent the evening in the hotel room eating food we had bought from the shop for tea and trying to sort out our stay in LA which was very stressful as we'd left it very late! We did it eventually though and could sleep easy.
Sunday 28th July
Woke up with dread today, 1 year on since Oliver passed away. Spent the day not really in the mood to do anything which was lucky really as we had dedicated the day to go and lounge around the lagoon we saw yesterday.
After sorting a few bits out and catching a late bus we were in our patch of grass by 11.30 and didn't budge until 4.15 pm. It was a nice day really, Liam was out and about looking at car rentals whilst I just lay around listening to live bands playing and people watching, reading and napping.
We had to leave to go pick up our car which we are using to get to our dive place tomorrow and keeping for the day after too to go out of cairns and look around. After picking it up we drove to a beach to walk down it and for Liam to get used to the car, before stopping off at Pizza Hut ( there was a deal on) to get a pizza and eat it in the hotel room.
In the evening we just watched tv, tried to clear my ears a bit more, booked a few things that needed doing and read up on diving stuff for the day after. There's not that much more to say about the day really, not much has been written because we didn't do much but it was a nice day.
