Tropical Cairns

The next morning, after our night of partying in Sydney, was quite a shock to the system... we missed our alarm clock and overslept... not too clever considering that our plane departed at 9am. We awoke at 7.15 and leaped out of bed, stuffed our rucksacks and ran for a taxi. We made the 8am check-in deadline but found that we were in the wrong terminal – for some reason Qantas' flight to Cairns left from the international terminal. But they assured us it would be ok and we boarded our flight. A couple of hours later we found ourselves staring forlornly at the baggage carousel waiting for our bags to turn up. They didn't. So we were stuck in the blistering heat of tropical Cairns (around 34 degrees and humid) in our hiking boots, jeans, now sweaty t-shirts and quite p-d off at Qantas who, we have decided, are pretty useless if they can lose two bags on a two hour domestic flight. Al had ripped jeans and smelled like a hobo from the night before - luckily no one was sitting next to us on the flight!

Anyway spirits still high we booked our hostel from the airport and awaited our free airport transfer. We waited and waited but it didn't come. Of course we realised much later that Qantas had delivered us to Cairns international terminal and our transfer had presumed we would be at the domestic terminal – ahhh! So we coughed up $17 for a taxi instead. The hostel is really nice, we have a fridge in the room and A/C which is pretty vital. There is also a pool, but the water is a kind of murkey blue and you can see bits of loo roll floating around in it, plus I saw one charming guy blow his nose into it... I suspect that some guys use it as an alternative to a shower in the morning – so I haven't been in... Al did but then saw a piece of loo roll floating towards him and ran to the shower. Cairns has a very nice public swimming pool on the esplanade though, it's such a good idea to have something like this for everyone:

So we went shopping for some new clothes, as cheap as we could find, so we didn't have to endure the heat in our winter clothes. That evening we treated ourselves to a meal out – we shared a plate of crocodile – it tastes really good!!! And I had barramundi fish – an Australian fish, a bit like cod. Cairns is a touristy town and so quite pricey so unfortunately we can't really eat out anymore here.

That evening, at 11pm, we finally got our first bag back – the other was still in Sydney. Unfortunately it was the rucksack with all our winter clothes in and the other rucksack with our toiletries and summer clothes was still missing. The next day we finally got our bag back at 2pm but Qantas refused to pay us any compensation for the new clothes, shoes and toiletries we had had to buy, even though we waited over 24 hours for our bags.

But apart from the bag drama our time in Cairns has been really relaxing. The town is situated amid mountains covered in rainforest and mangrove swamps. We've strolled along the waterfront watching out for crocodiles - Al got unlucky and has lost a leg:
and watching the fruit bats in the trees (they have them here too!), sunbathing a bit and generally chilling out which is great. There isn't a beach here but the waterfront looks pretty cool when the tide is out. Last night there was a huge tropical thunder storm. We had heard that this part of Australia is one of the most hit by lightning and we can see why – the lightning was constant, every second huge flashes and strikes of lightening! We ran outside at midnight to the beachfront to watch the storm over the mountains which was amazing and we watched the fruit bats flying around too, lit up by the lightning – spooky! And in the morning the thunder was so loud that it woke me up at 5am!

This morning Al is off doing his PADI Open Water course and I am taking time to chill, do the blog etc and tomorrow will be taking a day tour to Cape Tribulation - where the rainforest meets the beach. In a couple of days we'll be on a boat to the reef to see one of the seven wonders of the natural world - can't wait!