14th – 17th November 

Jennifer was dropping the hire car off that morning, but swung by and dropped me off at the airport beforehand. Next stop, Cairns! 

First Impressions

Arriving in Cairns I got the hostel bus to Bounce hostel in the centre of the town. I didn’t fancy doing much, or spending much money, so I just had a potter round town, moving a couple of hundred metres I hit the first tour shop, where I was coaxed into buying my first trip – diving. It was expensive, but of course it was ‘a great deal’ and ‘the best place you can do it, less touristy and you see more’ and ‘I can only give you this deal if you book tonight’. The usual spiel, which I fell for 😒. They tried to add on other tours too, but I just stuck with the one for now. I soon discovered that this experience was not uncommon in Cairns, the whole place is filled with Brits standing outside tour shops selling you ‘the best deal & price’ on the various tours you can do in the area. Cairns is the main gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, plus loads of expensive adventure activities and outdoor places to visit in Queensland, however, the town itself is nothing to shout about, and I was there for 9 days…… Anyway, I still looked to make the most of it.

The first couple of days were all about chilling, saving money, cooking healthy food in the hostel kitchen, booking tours and discovering the gym we had free access to. And, for me anyway, the fruit bats flying overhead at dusk!!!🦇 I also went into a free museum about Aboriginal art and down to check out the esplanade, which was the only place close by you could swim as the sea was full of dangerous jellyfish at that time of year, plus the water straight off of Cairns was surprisingly murky & unpleasant. I did go out for a couple of free drinks and free food one night with a girl in my dorm. The free drink was the ultimate ‘goon’ = cheap wine in from a box or bag. The free food was only brought out once inside a bar/ nightclub, which was not really my scene, so I ate the food and left 😂. I started panicking about booking tours for me & Tom, as we had quite limited timing to squeeze them in and it was going to be quite close to Christmas. So when the Greyhound tour office offered me one free Fraser Island tour if I booked the other and the Whitsundays through them, I went for it (even though they’re tours were more expensive, I figured it would balance out in our favour).

Getting Tips a Day too Late

On the Friday I met Steffi over breakfast, a German girl who had just arrived and was waiting to check in. We got on straight away and it looked like we would be in Port Douglas at the same time this weekend, so I asked to join her and her friends in their hire car up to Cape Tribulation 👍. Steffi has been studying in Melbourne and had some inside knowledge – she reminded me of a discount tour website for Australia (which I had heard of before but had completely forgotten about), I was then pretty peed off with myself when I realised we could get really cheap Whitsundays and Fraser Island tours on here!! Still, I tried not to look at them and focussed on what else I could do whilst in Cairns. So I booked a tour to see the Atherton Tablelands, which involved lots of lakes and swimming opportunities! Perfect, as Cairns was also ridiculously hot.

BIG TIP: If you’re looking for activities and tours in Australia use bookme.com.au!!!! You will save loads of money, especially if you’re flexible!! Don’t get dragged into the tour shops and pay full price!!!

Atherton Tablelands Tour

Saturday I went off on my tour to see the Atherton Tablelands. It was a full day with an early morning pick up. The guy leading the tour, Matt, was kiwi and he’d brought along his 6 year old son Dillan, they were a right entertaining pair! He’s such a charismatic person and ideal for that kind of tour. He made the whole day fun and had all of us laughing and the group chatting to each other from start to finish. He was also very knowledgeable. 

Swimming Swimming & more Swimming

We first went to Josephine Falls and went down to have a swim in the natural pools and slide down the natural water slide created on one of the boulders. On return to the bus Matt and Dillan had set up a huge morning tea for us, with tea & coffee, lots of fresh yummy fruit and different cakes, and of course Tim tams (the well known Australian biscuit, which look like penguins but taste way better!). We then hopped back on the bus and on to the next stop, Milaa Milaa Falls, where we climbed up boulders to stand underneath the waterfall, refreshing to say the least! We then scrambled through a load of rocks, which was fun. The third stop was Barron waterfall, where we had our next swim of the day, before a gigantic lunch (very well fed on this trip!).

Curtain Fig Tree & Crater Lakes National Park 

After lunch we went to see the famous 500 year old fig tree, a gigantic structure that was at least a couple of trees merged. A parasitic plant entwines itself round the trunk of a tree, causing it to become so heavy that it falls over into the next tree and the parasite takes over that too! It was amazing to see towering above us!

Our final stop was at Crater Lake Eacham, we’d stopped in the way to grab a couple of beers from a town that looked like it was stuck in the 1950’s. At this point in the day the sun was going down, the temperature was ideal and the water was beautiful. In fact the whole area was beautiful, I could have stayed there all day drinking beer! Whilst enjoying this moment, more Tim tams arrived and topped off an awesome day!! 

The journey back was very scenic for part of the way, but my favourite site was seeing literally hundreds, if not thousands, of fruit bats overhead!!! There were so so many of them! Just LOVE IT!!!