Tag Archives: Rainforest

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

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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.

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

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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 Four – Cairns – Living the Rainforest Dream

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I woke up at hourly intervals all the night before and that combined with a hangover wasn’t well welcomed by an early morning start but the others seemed to be having a tougher time than I so I sucked it up and got ready.

I went down to meet my group to go to the Uncle Brian’s tablelands tour. We hopped onto the bus and got going with a rather enthusiastic guide. It was nice because it got everyone involved and introduced. We played games, sang songs and it was pretty fun making me feel like a child again.

This whole day I was barefooted, ‘going native’ as they say and it was so nice. Donna turned to me and said she could feel the electricity from the earth through her feet and I kind of know what she means. There’s a certain warmth you feel from feeling bare feet on bare ground.

The first place we went was a river with boulders in it where we jumped off the rocks into the river it was so lovely and so natural. After that we went to a natural rock slide in Josephine Falls where we were able to climb up and slide down the rocks. Next we went to lunch which was pretty nice lasagne.

After lunch we headed to Millaa Millaa Falls which is the place where they filmed Peter Andre’s mysterious girl video so we all had a go doing the famous Peter Andre hair flick. This was pretty hilarious because our guide, Sid, a really cute, slightly overweight, middle-aged guy properly briefed us on how to flick our hair.

After capturing the perfect hair flick picture we swam in the falls for a bit before heading on to see the curtain fig tree. It’s a pretty cool tree which plants it’s seed in another tree then as it’s vines grow around the other tree it pushes it over and kills it before moving onto another tree creating a curtain effect with its vines.

After the fig tree we headed to a section of the river popular with platypuses. I’d been there before and not seen one so it was pretty exciting when we saw one pop it’s head out of the water a few times. After this the day was coming to an end and we headed home. We stopped at a hostel for toilet breaks and such. It had a really nice garden where we all played table tennis and it was so nice to see the bus all getting on so well. I felt that if we spent more time together it would have been really nice. This has got me pretty excited for the kiwi experience which involves a lot of bus journeys with the same people.

After this I came upstairs to drink with the boys again. There were so many people in the room and also a lot of goon. The room has now been christened the goon room and ha become famous. Hannah from England and Donna from Mexico, two girls from the trip today joined us and we had pre drinks. As soon as we went downstairs into the club I lost Hannah. About 15mins later after looking for her I saw her come onto the stage as the pole dancing competition starts. She had the support of the whole goon room behind her and of course she won the show giving her 50 dollars on her car tab. The rest of the night was pretty blurry but I can safely say it was fun. We move onto the Woolshed and spent the rest of the night dancing away on the tables. It’s days like today that I know I’m not wasting my life away.