CAIRNS & CAPE TRIBULATION

In my previous post about my Australia travel I finished the report with John's Birthday bash in Airlie Beach. I also mentioned that we skipped Magnetic Island as the weather was not good at all and we decided to go further north. First of all, we stopped over in Cairns where we met our two lovely German friends again.

We met Alex and Jens in the afternoon at the visitor centre in down town Cairns to discuss opportunities for snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef, sometime in the next few days. We came to the conclusion that the best place would be off the north coast of Cairns, an area called Cape Tribulation.

It is supposed to be less crowded and less spoiled then off the coast of Cairns. That's what we believed so we went to book a one day boat trip with RUMRUNNER. (I have tried to link you to the Rumrunner website but it looks like they have gone bust as their website is not accessible).

Alex and Jens offered us to drive up to Cape Tribulation with them in their car which we happily accepted as another bus trip would have cost us a small fortune. We arranged with the backpackers to store our big backpacks and just take small ones for those 3 days, until we come back.

The next day A and J picked us up we headed north. On the way to the Daintree National park we stopped in Port Douglas for lunch and groceries shopping.

We also spent some time at the Mossmann Gorge which is a very beautiful place to visit. It was very hot and humid and the mosquitoes attacked us as soon as we stepped out of the car. During the wet season they seem to be particularly aggressive.

On the way to our camp ground John and I went for a one hour boat ride on the Daintree River, the home of hundreds of crocodiles. We spotted 3 crocs and a big Python snake, rolled up on a tree branch. Nice one!

In a discussion about Australias wildlife, Alex mentioned how nice it would be to see a Cassowary (big birds, similar to Emus) but the chances are small as there are only 65 of them left. But guess what - two Cassowaries, the father and a chick crossed the road, just a few minutes after my friend had mentioned them! We were so lucky to see them at all!!!

Later on we checked in at the camp ground and cooked dinner together with Alex and Jens. I love barbecue's and Australia's camp grounds all have BBQ facilities. Bliss!

The next morning we were picked up from our camp site by a shuttle bus who took us to the beach where we went on our boat, the RUMRUNNER for our snorkel trip. We sailed out to the McKay reef and got briefed about the reef, Marine life etc. John was getting ready for snorkelling and I decided to go scuba diving.

This was the first time in 4 years I went scuba diving again. It was a bit scary after such a long time but I was desperate to dive the Great Barrier Reef (finally). I had a great time! The corals were fantastic but the diversity of fish was not that impressive. John was not very impressed with the marine life either. I guess the reef is not as active as it used to be. A lot of corals were dead, unfortunately.

We were suppose to sail to another reef after lunch but the weather was not ideal and the wind picked up so we had to stay where we were to avoid strong currents in the water.

Our trip ended around 5pm and we were dropped off at the camp site. The weather totally changed and it rained like crazy during the whole 2 nights we were there.

It was almost impossible to walk around in this rain and therefore we had to cancel our plans to do a night walk in the rain forest. Originally, we have planned to stay 3 nights but it rained constantly so we changed our plan and returned to Cairns a day earlier. The best time to visit Cape Tribulation is from June to October.

The last 3 days John and I spent in Cairns. We were not doing much, just relaxed, checked our e-mails and got organised to fly to Perth on the 24th of January. The flight to Perth had been booked in advance so we had to hang out in Cairns until our departure. I was not utterly impressed with Cairns. It is a good place from where you can do trips to the Great Barrier Reef but other than that it was just another party town, very commercial.

The hostel was very nice and the kitchen was surprisingly clean, which is an unusual case as the majority of backpackers we stayed at the East Coast would have never passed the health, safety and hygiene regulations in Scotland.

My next posts about travelling Australia will cover our 4 weeks in Western Australia, my absolute favourite place in the world. I love Perth and the whole of Western Australia is simply the most amazing place on earth.  So watch this space!

--> More photos of Cairns & Cape Tribulation