Officially upside down in the land of Oz: N.E. Australia

After only 6 days here I can confirm that this country is unfit for human habitation: EVERYTHING (including the vegetation) is out to scare our species away...we had contemplated spiders and snakes, had forgotten about the crocs, jellyfish and stingrays, but were completely naive to the fact that even the trees (stinging variety) like to have a go: this is a dangerous place!!! Despite the tough conditions we are still alive and are enjoying the drier climate (gladly left the 80% humidity in Asia) and beautiful landscapes...

15/12/06
Checked out of the family home in Singapore and wondered around Chinatown, trying to figure out how to fill our time (are flight wasn't until 10.30pm). We walked into a coffee shop and through what can only be described as a bizarre coincidence bumped into Thanh and Blanche (a couple from London who we'd met briefly in Krabi, Thailand and then again in Georgetown, Malaysia). We therefore spent the afternoon playing 'James Bond' style poker with little packets of sugar under the watchful eye of the coffee shops two employees (Thanh VERY discretely 'borrowed' the coffee shops entire sugar supply...they didn't seem too impressed.)

Got to the airport early and found out that Qantas had transferred us onto their 'ryan air' style JET airline - very, very sneaky as this meant ridiculously slow check in (2 desks open), no in-flight entertainment and very limited leg room. We were not impressed – if they were going to tamper with out flight they could have at least upgraded us! If the next flight is on JET I’m going to moan to Qantas – in the hope of being flown first class from LA back to London…wishful thinking?? In contrast, Singapore airport was luxurious…free internet booths and foot massage chairs, a cinema, spa and gym. We were reluctant to leave but the 4.5 hour flight to Darwin was painless. After a quick security check in Darwin at 4.30am we popped back on the plane for another 3 hours (stunning views) and landed in Cairns around 8.30am. With no sleep for the last 24 hours we were a little p*ssed off when we arrived at the hostel to find that our pre-booked room wouldn’t be ready until about 1pm.

Cairns city centre is nothing special…pretty bland and spread out (hostel = 45 minute walk to the centre). It doesn’t embrace the high-rise city landscape of most famous cities and therefore looks like any other town-centre. The best feature is the ‘lagoon’: a free public swimming pool, located on the waterfront.

16/12/06
The hostel is sooooooooooooooooooooo annoying!!! As soon as our pre-paid nights are up we’re moving out of here: they have an irritating speaker system (which they obviously think is high-tech modernism) installed into the guest rooms. Whenever they want to make an announcement (even to specific people), i.e. “Sarah Black your taxi’s arrived and waiting for you out the front” EVERYONE in the hostel gets the announcement blasted into their rooms (day and night!). It’s like being on Big Brother – I keep checking for cameras.

Anyway, today we made a dramatic change of plans: instead of catching the greyhound bus down the East Coast we have decided to hire out a campervan (decision made primarily because of 2 main facts: there are thousands of free camp sites in Australia – National Parks etc. and the accommodation in this country is a rip-off compared to Asia – our budget is spent after paying for a night in a hostel and one meal a day.) Only problem with hiring out this campervan is that it is x’mas time and the campers are VERY popular. The first one available isn’t arriving in Cairns until the 30th December, so we will not be on the move until New Years Eve. We now have to think of things to do in this not-so happening town??? Fortunately the area around Cairns is meant to be stunning so we will try and do lots of trips out of town…

17/12/06
Up early to sort out money probs with the campervan hire, then took a taxi ($30!) to Cairns Skyrail Terminal. Jumped into a car and took a ride on one of the longest skyrails over the canopy of the Barron Gorge National Park (7.5km cableway, towers lifted into place by helicopter.) Bit of a tourist trap (100’s of Koreans posing for each others cameras!) and completely blew our budget, but thought it was a worthwhile trip – the views were amazing. Stopped at 2 stations enroute to Kuranda: Red Peak, which had a boardwalk through the rainforest, and Barron Falls, which had numerous lookout points over the Falls, but there wasn’t much to look at since it’s the middle of summer here!

Kuranda is a pretty village in the rainforest – again another tourist destination, with numerous market stalls selling didgeridoos, boomerangs and kangaroo skin souvenirs. Visited ‘Venom Zoo,’ which breeds venomous animals for medical research purposes: supply venom in the hope that new drugs can be developed. Saw the most poisonous spider, snake and centipede in the world! Instead of catching the ‘Scenic Railway’ back to Cairns we opted for the $2 bus ride.

18/12/06
Checked out of the Big Brother style hostel and headed up the Captain Cook Highway (single lane each side – nothing like the M1!) in our Hyundai hire car. Beautiful coastal road: Great Barrier Reef to our right, rainforest to our left. First stop: Mossman Gorge, a freshwater swimming spot complete with huge boulders for sunbathing on. Unfortunately, being the budding photographer that he has now become, Wayne got a bit too into his snapping and accidentally slipped jumping from one boulder to another. He balanced on his back: both arms stretched out - one holding is his camera, the other with his camera case. Luckily he flipped himself upright and neither camera nor case got wet, although he was a little damp!

Second stop was taken when we realised we’d ‘seen it all before’ and had evidently taken a wrong turning ending up looping around Daintree Village a couple of times?!? Following a shopkeepers directions we backtracked 11km and found Daintree River Crossing (rope pulled ferry contraption). We then continued north through the stunning Daintree National Park, reaching Cape Tribulation later that afternoon. Found the cheapest accommodation available in this isolated town: a tent! But this was no normal tent. It had proper beds, a light and even a fan! There were cooking facilities and hot showers, so it actually seemed better than a lot of Asian guesthouses. Perfect location: right next to the beach. Only problem is the fact that you can’t swim in the sea due to the presence of crocodiles, stingrays and jellyfish. This is a cruel strike of nature as the beach is stunning: fine white sand and in swimming distance to a coral reef! To cool down we had to walk up to Masons Store (extortionate prices as it has sales monopoly) and swam in the freshwater swimming hole in the forest next to the store. Pretty cool place full of fish and supposedly turtles (although we didn’t spot any). Later that evening we walked down Myall Beach in search of the resident croc (who attacked a Danish guy a few weeks ago because he WALKED INTO THE WATER in the hope of getting a better picture! What an idiot!) Unfortunately/Fortunately we didn’t see him, but we did notice loads of stingray swimming in the shallow waters.

Days are great, but evenings are getting pretty dull because we can’t afford to do anything! We are hoping that fellow travelers will be residing on various camp sites along the east coast, otherwise we are going to be going to bed around 8pm every night. Whilst discussing this predicament we were mucking around with our cameras and Wayne accidentally deleted ALL of his photos! This isn’t as bad as it seems as he uploaded most of them onto the computer, but all of the last few days have been lost (aghhhh!!!!) You therefore haven’t got any illustrations of the basketball match, Kurunda or Mossman (although I think I took a few pics).

19/12/06
Ever wondered why people don’t lie in when staying on a camp site?? Because you cook to death if you stay in the tent past 7am! It was scorching when we woke up this morning! After breakfast we went in search of the local croc again, but this proved fruitless, so on the way back we diverted down Dubuji Boardwalk: a 1.8km circuit through rainforest and mangroves (giant crabs and massive fan palm canopies = highlight). In the afternoon we attended an ‘Exotic Fruit Tasting’ session at a local organic farm, which turned out to be excellent. Digby (the farmer) and his wife used to be a Biology teachers, but had enough of teaching (in Melbourne, Darwin and in an Aboriginal school in the middle of the outback: school = a caravan) so decided to purchase 9 hectarres of land in Cape Trib. They lived in another caravan for a few years whilst building their home and planted a variety of fruit trees to see what would prosper in this tropical environment. Their philosophy has been to let things grow that want to grow and let the others die off – no chemicals used. The problem with this is that they can’t produce enough of one thing for it to be commercially viable and therefore rely on these fruit tasting sessions as their main source of income (popular: 20+ people there). Many of the fruits are simply not suitable for mass market, mainly because their shelf life is just one day. We tried 10 different fruits, including an ‘abiu’ which was a very sweet, (almost condensed milk like flavour) fleshy fruit with a latex rim (had to be careful how you ate it!); ‘soursop’ an ugly looking chewy, fibrous, fruit-salad flavoured fruit that you couldn’t really chew – you just had to swallow and a ‘Davidson plum’, which was incredibly sour but after eating a ‘miracle berry’ (which kills your sour taste buds temporarily) the plum tasted like jam! Very odd. We were also given a tour around their garden and orchards. It is an amazing place because everything that grows possesses edible parts, whether it be the foliage, flowers or roots. They grew coffee, peanuts, all spice, pineapples and even chocolate pudding fruits (no calories but same texture as mousse – just add cocoa!)

That evening when we were having a wash, Wayne was joined by a humungous Huntsman Spider (regarded as one of the largest and most frightening spiders in existence, but fortunately harmless). It was bigger than my hand! In fact all the insects here seem to be five times the size of ours back home – I told you this place is dangerous (especially if you are living in a tent!)

20/12/06
Another search for the croc proved futile so we packed up and headed to Port Douglas which is a very up market holiday destination (boutique shops, art galleries etc) and also where the late Steve Irwin died. It is far too expensive for us backpackers, and yet again we found our budget merely stretching to a two-man tent. The tent was located at a backpacker hostel, so we had access to the bar and kitchens etc. After a few hours lazing on 4-mile beach we spent the evening playing cards again!

21/12/06
Headed back to the beach. The water is very choppy, a real contrast to Thailand’s calm waters. I was reluctant to go in the sea (due to the deadly stingrays and jellyfish – quite justifiable reluctance!) but Wayne spent most of the morning riding the waves strictly in the confines of the stinger nets. After lunch we made our way back to Cairns, where it was pouring down with rain (we are lied to in the UK – Australian weather isn’t all sunshine!) and found that we were returning our car a day early?? See what happens when your life doesn’t revolve around a working week! You loose all sense of time! We were advised by the hire guy to spend the afternoon at Crystal Cascades (another swimming hole in the rainforest) but it was pouring when we got there so we turned around and came back. Pleased with our new residence as the hostel provides free breakfast and dinner – result!

Right that’s us up to date – hope everyone has a brilliant Christmas. We have booked ourselves into a bit more ‘up market’ establishment for x’mas eve, x’mas day and boxing day so I doubt we’ll have much more to report in a few days time. In Cairns until the 31st so our blog entry next time will be much shorter as we won’t have done much! E x