Day Ten – Cairns to Cape Tribulation – Dreamy Daintree, Romantic Rainforest

I woke up this morning extremely hungover and had to pack a lot of my stuff all up. I properly struggled but I managed it and went down to check out. I spent a good half an hour chatting to people and stuff before someone told me I had my stamp from the night before on my face. How embarrassing but oh well. It was nice cause Bill, Tom and Josh were on my trip so I knew some people and they’re so nice to me and really funny so I felt like I was just travelling with a few mates. We headed up north to the Daintree rainforest to Cape Tribulation.

On the way up there was a beautiful jungle/coastal drive which was so bizarre to have jungle meeting the ocean. It felt pretty incredible and also pretty sad because I’m sure many places on earth were like this before humans destroyed the areas. We went on a boat trip to see crocs and saw two at least 2.5m long which was pretty cool. After that we took a little walk in the rainforest. We didn’t see too much but it was still nice and just good to stretch the legs and have a chat. We then got taken to our accommodation. I stayed at the Cape Tribulation Beach House which was a hostel on the beach with dorms in little beach houses. It was pretty cool. We hung out by the pool for a while and went to the beach playing balls games.

We had heard that there was a lookout near but that we should instead go for a wander up some rocks. So Bill, Nadja, Carly, Ash, Danni and I all took a little hike down the beaches, through the rainforest and up some cliffs. When we got up there I was exhausted and sweaty and the hangover was taking its toll so I felt a little disappointed. But suddenly out of the blue (literally) we look down and see two turtles swimming together and then two little sharks appear with a bigger “mummy” shark in tow. It was so incredible. We were about 30m high but the water was so clear and fresh we could just see these animals cruising around.

The sun started to set so we headed back. I showered and changed quickly and decided to buy dinner as the hangover was making my tired and hazy. It was nice to sit by myself and have time to myself. I actually realised that although I am travelling alone I haven’t really been alone too much and I needed it. I didn’t even think cause I was too tired I just sat and relaxed. At around 9pm the hostel put on a beach BBQ down on the waterfront. I took a few beers and headed down.

It was pretty amazing. First we watched the moonrise which was so beautiful and something I’ve rarely seen. Then we just sat and chatted. There were two guys from Manchester, Harry and Jordan who worked and lived in the hostel. I got chatting to one of them and it just sounded so amazing. They really are living the dream, just living so remote with an incredible outdoor playground at their feet. It’s so hard not to view the rainforest through romantic eyes. It was a pretty breathtaking night and something I will remember for a long time.

Day Seven – Cairns – This is the Present we Live in

One more day of laziness. As I was leaving the hostel for the lagoon I met Jack on the stairs and he asked what I was up to and decided to join me at the lagoon. It was pretty nice to have some company particularly someone who properly converses with you. I’m a talker so we got on well and it was a nice day. The evening proceeded again with more goon room fun resulting in a a drunken bike ride around cairns.

While at lagoon with Jack we joked about those travellers you meet who say they’re ‘changed’ and they’ve ‘found themselves’ which in my mind is a load of BS but it did get me thinking. I don’t feel like I’ve found myself here and it’s not the place that’s don’t it to me but I do feel like I’ve suddenly hit that age where I know who I am. I was always told that you spend your teen years forming your character for who you’re going to be for the rest of you’re life. I feel like I’ve found out who I’m going to be for the rest of my life and I’ve been through the struggle but this is it. I’ve tried to conform to a whole load of stuff and it never made me happy. Like I said it’s not Cairns or travelling that’s done it to me but its definitely opened my eyes to help me realise it.