Cairns 18th to the 20th

Having made my flight by the skin of my teeth and after about three straight days on the road: across a train; a bus; a ferry; a bus; a bike; a few jogs and queues; then a plane; and then another bus – I had arrived! Where? Australia! Home of kangaroos, bogans and unusual vowel sounds – we’ve made it. Continent number 3, not that I’m counting.

Now I’ve spoken about this big rush I was in to get here, which was driven by the fact I had some friends to meet up with. Primarily, a friend of my brother’s ALex. Prior to leaving the UK we’d discussed our plans; I was heading east and he was heading west – so we agreed to meet in the middle around August time. And we fucking smashed it. 10,000s of kilometres away and months since – that loose plan came together beautifully.

Alex had also been joined by his friend from uni, Rachel. They’d arrived in Aus a day or two before me but spent that in Sydney before we all rendezvoused in tropical Cairns.

I got the bus from the airport and went straight to the hostel to have an urgently needed shower (again 3 stressful days on the road racing across Indonesia). After that I headed out to find my new travelling companions who were having dinner.

I find the place and then eventually find their table, I walk up say hi and give them a wave. They return confused and blank expressions before, a good few seconds later, Alex’s clocks that I’m not a waiter he gets up for a quick hug. I find them having just finished their chicken parmies – which as I quickly discovered they had had several times already since being in Aus. Apparently it’s a bit of a specialty down under. From what I observed it’s a layered dish, from top to bottom: chips, a fried flattened chicken fillet (think schnitzel), with a marinara sauce topped with a heap of melted parmesan and just to round out the dish nutritionally – a small side salad. 

Anyway… My first line of inquiry was who booked the hostel. It was a full on party hostel which I wasn’t expecting. Rachel confessed and explained she was equally surprised – she was taken in by the nice pool which was nice but surrounded by hordes of 20 somethings drinking and having a good time – who wants that? That evening Alex and Rachel bev it up, and I head to bed. A bit of a wet wipe move but I was knackered. The second day we had one big bit of admin to do. To collect the campervan we had booked as our home for the next 2.5 weeks.

We went down to the rental place and after a pretty huge amount of paperwork which we left Alex to do – she was ours! A sizable toyota hi-ace with a roof extension. She was big, she was beautiful, and she was the least covert campervan ever. “Travellers autobarn” plastered on every side with orange decals to match. That evening Alex and Rachel were intent on seshing it again – this time I joined but didn’t drink, feeling a bit ‘unstable’. And the party was on at Gilligans (the hostel), there was even a queue for people to join (who weren’t staying at the hostel). A and R were veterans of the night here, so said don’t even bother with the ‘main’ bar pumping out typical club music, instead we headed to the back. An outdoor decked area, with a huge bar, loads of tables and a stage. The three piece middle aged band came out and blasted cheesy classics all night – with my particular highlight being their cover of Zombie. 

And despite being on the alcohol free beer I had a great night – boogie-ing the night away. I did head to bed somewhat early primarily out of excitement for the following day’s plan. 

In the morning we packed our bags into the van and hit the road. The first leg, a strenuous 1km to another part of Cairns.

Once parked, we headed to the dock, and got our tickets. The day trip to the Great Barrier Reef was on!!!

I was so excited. This one dive cost more than my 3 day certification in Thailand (which included 5 days of accommodation, breakfasts, lunch and tea / biccies) but alas it’s the Great Barrier Reef!

We boarded the pretty vast catamaran, found some seats and started the, again considerable, paperwork. However, this paperwork was made incredibly palatable by the free tea and muffins on offer. I started with the chocolate chip one, followed by a second, then for variety’s sake tried a blueberry one which was surprisingly way nicer. There is a lesson there somewhere…

We set sail for open seas, and once out of the bay we encountered quite a lot of chop. There were a few minutes where I regretted my third muffin but I stabilised and was pretty okay. A and R were not in such good ways. Both looking a bit pale and were being very quiet. However after about 45 minutes and a short safety briefing later we arrived at the first dive site.

Our dive wasn’t until later so we all donned stinger suits and masks and hopped off the back for a snorkel. The reef was beautiful as you can imagine. Lots of colourful coral but also a lot of dead bleached coral which is a sad sign of the times. I felt very at home swimming around with all the fishes, but fuck me it was cold. Thankfully once back on-board there were hot shower heads on the dive platform. So I stuck that under the collar of my stinger suit and let that warm me back up. We all de-stinger suited and enjoyed the journey to the next site – sharing stories of the fishes we saw.

Dive site 2 was our baby. Rachel and I re-donned the stinger suits and then were given a springy (a short wetsuit) which went over the stinger suit (as the water is noticeably colder 15m below). We were on a ‘try dive’ so naturally R and the other girl hadn’t dived before, and the instructor assumed the same for me. He went to put the weight belt on me, so I bent over and strapped it on myself. He was clearly a touch shocked, and immediately asked if I was certified which I confirmed while trying to play it cool. I got the rest of my gear on while he helped the other two. He then came back to me and said, you can dive solo but just stay either in front of me or to my side or beneath me – not behind as I can’t see you there. I happily agreed.

Once in the water, the group went through our basic skills (the whole voiding water from the goggles process etc). Then we dove. Down there it was incredible, and the freedom to just swim around was fantastic. The instructor linked arms with the two girls and basically gave them a guided tour of the reef (although without any audio obviously). I was just in my own little world swimming and exploring the coral. Every so often I would hear a tap of the instructor’s carabiner on his air tank, the sign that he wanted to sign something to me. Mostly to tell me which way to go. About 20 minutes in he placed two fingers on his palm and pointed at me (asking for my air pressure). I checked and placed one hand perpendicular to the other (the signal for 100 bar or about half a tank) followed by two fingers on my palm (the signal for 20 – so in total 120).

We didn’t see any real A-list fish. We did see some huge angel fish which are stunning, and again huge rainbow parrot fish (which are basically pigeons of the tropical seas but much prettier). The highlight though was the towering coral. And perhaps the schools of fish – which to see from within is really cool.

Oh and the springy did wonders to keep me warm down there.

When we resurfaced I once again gave myself a warm shower – again lovely. It was then lunch time where I overdid it again. I just can’t stop at a free buffet. Obviously I also had about four more teas as well.

We did one final snorkel at site three. Having kept my wetsuit I now I wasn’t chilly and I really enjoyed it – swimming out as far as they would let us in all directions. At one point I was swimming along looking down at the coral that was perhaps only 2 feet below me. I see a huge shadow and I suddenly looked up and the biggest dark fish shaped fish was there. So big I almost mistook it for a wall. Thankfully I avoided a collision with the unknown monster but it was a reminder to look where you’re swimming and not at the coral.

With the diving over we headed back to port. The catamaran zipped across the waves on our return. I saw one guy go to the front deck and I had to join him. Just soaking in the views of Aus as we sailed – while holding on for dear life as we tackled the waves.

After our fantastic excursion we headed back to the van and hit the road for the first time. Our rental gave us 2.5 weeks to drive it from Cairns down to Brisbane – so a big distance due SE ahead of us. Our first move was to drive a good 100kms NW to Douglas. We found a lovely layby vista and deployed the picnic table and chairs for a lovely cuppa.

By this point we had also named our van – Big Liz.

That night I think we camped on the side of the road somewhere. The van technically slept five although that would have been very tight. Behind the driving compartment was a table and two sofas which converted to a double bed (with a galley kitchen in the back) – A and R shared the bottom bed. My bed was then above them in the roof extension, three planks of wood came out and with some cushions on top I slept in the attic basically. Which was great as I had loads of space but less good if I needed the loo as I would need to climb down over the other guys heads.

It was my first taste of van life, and I could already see the appeal.