Doing the Cairns-Cairns

My flight into Cairns arrived at 4.30am... it’s a four hour flight and you lose two hours during the flight, so i officially left at 10pm Perth time.  There was a seat open next to me on the flight but that did not help in the sleep department, so when i arrived into Cairns, i was slightly sleep deprived. I decided not to go anywhere, so i curled up on their nice comfy seats and tried to doze...zzzz... it didn’t work but i did feel rested and by 6.30am it was light and i decided to walk the 5km into town – saving myself $12 in the process...  After about 5mins a kindly taxi driver stopped to offer me a ‘free-of-charge’ lift, taking me the first 3km of my journey before he headed in a different direction.  I accepted graciously, and he proceeded to inform me that there were crocs along the first 3km stretch, so it was probably not a good idea to walk it – he was not having me on either!!  I saw the croc signs as we drove past!  No crocs, just signs... So that made me even more grateful for the lift!

The first backpackers that i came across was to be my home for the next 4 nights.  It is called ‘The Asylum’.  It looks like an asylum and the toilet paper is so thin, it disintegrates on contact!  I tried to get some cleaning work in lieu of my board, but was unlucky, so i just coughed up the 18 bucks a night – which included free breakfast and dinner as well as internet...  So in theory i wouldn’t have to spend more money than that in a day.  The dinners are at a restaurant in town, so a bus comes to collect us and drops us off, and there we are shepherded into the Woolshed, and get to choose from about 4 meals what we would like to eat.  You could also use the meal ticket as a 50% voucher on other meals... but that is too gimmicky, so i just stuck with the free dinner – keep it simple!  But i did add cheese to my spaghetti for an extra 50c...

Breakfast consists of a small bowl of cornflakes... yup that is it, the whole of the breakfast menue...

After catching up on sleep the first day, I walked around town and decided to check out all the tours and diving trips that are on offer...

My first full day in town i decided to do a self-tour to Kuranda, which is a nearby little village. I took the local bus – the other option is the skytrain(cable cars) or the normal train – both very picturesque options, but obviously more costly!  I had an idea of what attractions they had in the village, but only really decided what i was going to do when i got there.  They have a few places offering the same thing, so if you are not careful (on a budget, care is a necessity) you end up repeating things without even meaning to.  So i decided to spend sometime in the butterfly enclosure, which is costly ($17 or $15.30 with a 10% discount), as they have the most stunning butterfly there!!!  The Ulysses butterfly is indigenous to the Australian rainforest area, and is the most beautiful butterfly. They live for only two weeks before moving on to greener pastures, so with so little time to live they tend to flit around quite a bit, which means taking a pic is not the easiest of tasks!

 I had intended to go down to the rainforestation, which is this adventure park in the rainforest, but i had to decide to see that rainforest or the Daintree, so i chose to do the Daintree the following day and skip the Rainforestation in Kuranda. I then took a walk around town, and found a river walk – this is where i found a tree giving off these big blue berries – totally cool, as the blue is just so amazing! 

From there i went onto the jungle walk, which is a paved pathway through a bit of trees – not even a spider in sight!  I then followed the main road to Barron falls, which was a waterfall...mmm...it was about 60meters down, but there was not an abundance of water, so not that impressive.  I then walked back to the village to take the bus back into town so that i could book my trips for the next couple of days...