Day Twelve – Cairns to Townsville – Family Reunions

I had yet another hangover this morning proving I’m only burning the candle at both ends. I had to be up early to make it down to the bus stop to catch my bus to Townsville. With pack on my back I walked down to the fleet terminal and waited for the 6hour bus ride.

Once on the bus I slept laying down for as long as possible until a guy had to take the seat next to me. So I spent the rest of the journey listening to music, looking out the window and thinking about the amazing times in Cairns. It’s just constant sadness here where you have to leave but you soon forget it and get over it. Then you realise that something else incredible is going to happen and you never know what to expect. It was s good journey and a good time to reflect.

I arrived in Townsville around 2pm and Emily (my sister-in-law) picked me up from the bus station. We ran a few errands before taking me back to the apartment. I waited on the sofa while she went to go collect Matt (my brother). I should probably say again that the main purpose of this trip is to come to Australia to surprise my brothers. So as I’m sat on the sofa I hear them coming in through the door. Matthew looks at me in sheer confusion not really recognising me and then runs at me and gives me a massive hug. It’s definitely a bigger reaction than I expected and it really touched me. It was so good to see family and a real familiar faces.

We got changed and went out for dinner in The City Lanes Townsville. We had some amazing Japanese food and some cocktails in quite a hipster area of town. Not a concept I thought existed in Australia but I loved it. It was damn hot and we were all tired especially me who was running a ten day hangover so we went home and I slept the best I had slept in a long time. Exhaustion mixed with contentment formed the perfect basis for sleep. Yet again I went to bed beaming from ear to ear.

Day Eleven – Cape Tribulation to Cairns – Last Night in Cairns

Woke up after an amazing night in the rainforest. Had a quick box of cereal for breakfast and then chilled by the pool for a couple of hours. I said goodbye to Jordan and the rainforest and then got picked up by the bus to leave.

We headed to get some rainforest ice cream before going to a cultural centre and getting a talk about native plants and medicines. We then went for a swim in a river which involved cliff jumping and I was in my element. After this we had a whistle stop tour round Port Douglas before heading back down into Cairns. We arrived in Cairns quite late so I quickly showered and got changed to meet Danni, Josh and Tom. There was a French guy (Anton) in my room who was so happy to meet me. He said I was a ‘fun girl’ because I was listening to music which made me laugh cause he must be meeting some really boring people. So I took his number and said I’d give him a call when I was out. I went down to meet Danni and while in the reception bummed into Jack, T, Tom, Cath, Dorinne, two guys from Townsville so we made a big plan to meet up later.

The guys from Townsville, Cath, Dorinne, Danni and I headed to the Jack for a 3 dollar meal including a free drink. It wasn’t bad, pork chop and rice, I wasn’t complaining. A beer pong completion started so Dorinne and I made up a team and we were first up to play two Canadian girls. We obviously lost, Canadians national sport is beer pong. But it was fun nonetheless. Josh and Tom won their first match but were knocked out on the second round. It was Tom’s birthday so even though I wasn’t supposed to go out I ended up getting pretty hectic.

We headed to Gilligan’s and met up with Jack, Tom, Cherie and Anton and his friends. It was so nice cause I could flit between groups of people and just felt so much like I had made so many good friends in Cairns and this is now home. As this was my last night in Cairns I just had such a good time with everyone celebrating at the woodshed and then got proper emotional to leave at the end of the night. I actually had a little cry in bed after! But as they say, don’t be sad it’s over, be happy it ever happened.