Cairns consists of 3, maybe 4 blocks, of solid shops, bars, restaurants and of course, tourist offices trying to sell scuba dives on the Great Barrier Reef. There is a beach, but it’s not great, and with the dangers of stingers and sharks, there is a pool right on the beach. So, during the day, people either hang out here or go for a snorkel/scuba. At night, the espe (esplanade = promenade) comes alive, and there’s a bubbly atmos about the place.
Our hostel, Caravella 149, is a decent place, though not mega clean, and our room was awfully hot, so we’ll be sleeping in our silk sleeping bags here!! One bonus of being here is that you get a free “dinner” at the Woolshed, a backpacker’s bar. The bar is what you’d expect of a backpackers bar, a bit smelly, dark, and dinghy. We got seats out side (fresh air) and then got our free meals – a choice of chilli con carne or spag bol. At the hostel, we asked what was the best meal, and they said an upgrade (you can exchange the free meal for something off the main menu at a discounted price). We understood what they meant, when our meals came out – they tasted ok, but consisted of about 2 mouthfuls!!
Afterwards we headed off to a bar or two and had a few drinks. Before this though, we made a few phone calls home – It’s Carrie’s birthday today, so called to wish Happy Birthday and get some gos from home. Ev also called Ouma as we missed her at the end of our SA leg. Its good to hear from the family as we don’t get to call home as much as we would like ;(
On our way home, Marc needed a toilet stop, so nipped into a bar quick. This was a bit freaky though, as the urinal face the restaurant, and are glass!!! So whilst you pee, you can watch everyone having a meal and/or beer. To start, you don’t know for certain if this is one-way or two-way glass, so you’re not entirely sure if they’re watching you back!!! Weird!! We have our theories as to why they do this, and number one is so that you can check you’re missus isn’t chatting up the waiter whilst you’re gone ;)
We did various days out around Cairns, one being a trip out to Kurunda, and another being spent at the botanical gardens, which was a nice walk, seeing orchids, vines, bamboo and other exotic plants. We also caught a glimpse of the magnificent Ulysses butterfly, which is huge and a beautiful combination of blue and black, and is pretty rare. We also went on the rain forest walk, spotting a few tortoises and keeping our eyes open for crocs whilst having lunch. We weren’t the only things to have lunch though, as we got severely choued on by midges ;) We didn’t see any crocs, though we did see a massive Iguana climbing a tree, which was cool.
Cairns is a nice city, but a bit touristy for us. We loved the views along the Espe, where you can look across the ocean as the sunsets and see the mountains of rain forest, and as you walk the Espe to find somewhere for dinner, you can see flying foxes in the trees. 5 days here is more than enough, so its time to get moving and do more exploring of the
Sunshine State, Queensland.
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