Day 2: Cairns
Nov. 24th, 2010 11:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
galadriel1010Had to get up far too early to catch the bus. Alarm went off at 7 and I was out of the building at half past. Whilst I waited for the bus to turn up I booked my hostels for the journey as far as Brisbane and chatted with the lady at the Mad booking office.
The bus, when it came, was a different bus. The On The Wallaby tour was cancelled, so the Uncle Brian tour came for me instead, with Cousin Rohan and Gus the Bus. There was supposed to be someone else getting on at the same spot as me, but we hung around for ages – and Gus and Rohan were already late – and no one showed. The expected person at the next stop failed to show up as well.
We headed off out of town, joining in with the 'Life on the Bright side of the road' theology, spreading a bit of happiness by waving at the highway workers at the side of the road. Going through Babinda, the wettest town on the Tully River (4.5m of rain per year!) we waved to everyone we saw. It's a cute town, but very very wet.
The Wet Tropics is a lowland rainforest area, nothing higher than 1600m above sea level, which was invisible in the clouds. The main crops are sugar cane and bananas.
Cousin Rohan – everyone with the company is named 'cousin', as are all guests – is properly brilliant. He has so many stories and so much really interesting knowledge. He got us being silly very quickly playing the Wally Game, which involves passing the Wally (a Polo mint) from one person to the next on match sticks held in our mouths. Everyone joined in very enthusiastically. The whole group were great, really.
The first stop was the Babinda Boulders, which is a famous boulder formation over waterfalls in gorgeous rainforest. The falls were in full spate, and it was raining so much that I didn't need to go in the river to get soaked through to the skin. After a breakfast of fruit juice and fruit cake I got changed into my swimming costume.
The second stop was the Josephine Falls, where we would have slid down the natural water slide and into the plunge pool were it not for the huge volume of water. The rocks we needed to walk over were completely submerged, and it was far too dangerous.
After the Josephine Falls came lunch. We stopped at the Waterfall Café for chicken and rice followed by chocolate pudding, and I got chatting to one of the girls from the tour. I mentioned John Barrowman, she said she loved him, especially as Captain Jack. She's hoping to come to the Hub!
The fourth stop was Waterfall swim at the Millaa Millaa waterfall (water water waterfall). The water was warm and lovely, and we all did a Timotea moment in front of the waterfall. It's one of the most photographed waterfalls in Australia, because it's beautiful and really easy to get to, and it was actually the location for a Peter Andre music video. Swimming under the waterfall was quite scary, because there's huge pressure falling on you, and the spray means that you can't see as you swim up to it. I tried to get a game of tig going, but it didn't work.
Eachim lake was our fifth spot and final swimming spot. It's a huge crater lake with no in-flow or out-flow rivers, so it's really warm, even after a day of rain and grey, but the rainforest surrounding it filters the water and keeps it circulating like rivers would. It's warmer than most swimming pools, and inhabited by nine varieties of fish, plus turtles. Swimming with fish, surrounded by lush tropical rainforest, just beautiful. We saw a pair of turtles swimming just around the corner from where we'd been swimming. Before we got on the bus to our penultimate stop we had hot chocolate and muffin to warm up, not that we really needed it.
Everyone says that duck billed platypus are really shy. I'm not sure I can agree. We went down to a narrow beck with a path alongside it and found the platypus. It was amazing seeing such a rare and elusive creature, and we wandered across a turtle in the water as well when we tried to follow the platypus up the river. Once we found it again, though, the platypus stared at us and did a little dance. Well, it was scratching its ear, but it did look like it was grinning at us and dancing. They are a lot smaller than you probably imagine, and just as cute.
Our final stop was the On the Wallaby hostel to drop off a couple of overnighters and pick up some others. We swapped emails and dried ourselves off in front of the fire. Outside, having said goodbye to Zoe, Mike and Joey we found ourselves being bombed by what I thought were seagulls until they got closer. They were the giant fruit bats, flying foxes, and they are massive.
On the way home there was singing, dancing and a generally awesome time, except for the two girls at the front who we picked up at On The Wallaby, who were grumpy and reluctant. We did all sorts of choreographed dancing. When he dropped us off, Rohan gave out free hugs.
If you're in Cairns, you /must/ do the Uncle Brian's tour.
After that, I went to bed.
Next entry
Photos to follow when I have the time to upload them,
The bus, when it came, was a different bus. The On The Wallaby tour was cancelled, so the Uncle Brian tour came for me instead, with Cousin Rohan and Gus the Bus. There was supposed to be someone else getting on at the same spot as me, but we hung around for ages – and Gus and Rohan were already late – and no one showed. The expected person at the next stop failed to show up as well.
We headed off out of town, joining in with the 'Life on the Bright side of the road' theology, spreading a bit of happiness by waving at the highway workers at the side of the road. Going through Babinda, the wettest town on the Tully River (4.5m of rain per year!) we waved to everyone we saw. It's a cute town, but very very wet.
The Wet Tropics is a lowland rainforest area, nothing higher than 1600m above sea level, which was invisible in the clouds. The main crops are sugar cane and bananas.
Cousin Rohan – everyone with the company is named 'cousin', as are all guests – is properly brilliant. He has so many stories and so much really interesting knowledge. He got us being silly very quickly playing the Wally Game, which involves passing the Wally (a Polo mint) from one person to the next on match sticks held in our mouths. Everyone joined in very enthusiastically. The whole group were great, really.
The first stop was the Babinda Boulders, which is a famous boulder formation over waterfalls in gorgeous rainforest. The falls were in full spate, and it was raining so much that I didn't need to go in the river to get soaked through to the skin. After a breakfast of fruit juice and fruit cake I got changed into my swimming costume.
The second stop was the Josephine Falls, where we would have slid down the natural water slide and into the plunge pool were it not for the huge volume of water. The rocks we needed to walk over were completely submerged, and it was far too dangerous.
After the Josephine Falls came lunch. We stopped at the Waterfall Café for chicken and rice followed by chocolate pudding, and I got chatting to one of the girls from the tour. I mentioned John Barrowman, she said she loved him, especially as Captain Jack. She's hoping to come to the Hub!
The fourth stop was Waterfall swim at the Millaa Millaa waterfall (water water waterfall). The water was warm and lovely, and we all did a Timotea moment in front of the waterfall. It's one of the most photographed waterfalls in Australia, because it's beautiful and really easy to get to, and it was actually the location for a Peter Andre music video. Swimming under the waterfall was quite scary, because there's huge pressure falling on you, and the spray means that you can't see as you swim up to it. I tried to get a game of tig going, but it didn't work.
Eachim lake was our fifth spot and final swimming spot. It's a huge crater lake with no in-flow or out-flow rivers, so it's really warm, even after a day of rain and grey, but the rainforest surrounding it filters the water and keeps it circulating like rivers would. It's warmer than most swimming pools, and inhabited by nine varieties of fish, plus turtles. Swimming with fish, surrounded by lush tropical rainforest, just beautiful. We saw a pair of turtles swimming just around the corner from where we'd been swimming. Before we got on the bus to our penultimate stop we had hot chocolate and muffin to warm up, not that we really needed it.
Everyone says that duck billed platypus are really shy. I'm not sure I can agree. We went down to a narrow beck with a path alongside it and found the platypus. It was amazing seeing such a rare and elusive creature, and we wandered across a turtle in the water as well when we tried to follow the platypus up the river. Once we found it again, though, the platypus stared at us and did a little dance. Well, it was scratching its ear, but it did look like it was grinning at us and dancing. They are a lot smaller than you probably imagine, and just as cute.
Our final stop was the On the Wallaby hostel to drop off a couple of overnighters and pick up some others. We swapped emails and dried ourselves off in front of the fire. Outside, having said goodbye to Zoe, Mike and Joey we found ourselves being bombed by what I thought were seagulls until they got closer. They were the giant fruit bats, flying foxes, and they are massive.
On the way home there was singing, dancing and a generally awesome time, except for the two girls at the front who we picked up at On The Wallaby, who were grumpy and reluctant. We did all sorts of choreographed dancing. When he dropped us off, Rohan gave out free hugs.
If you're in Cairns, you /must/ do the Uncle Brian's tour.
After that, I went to bed.
Next entry
Photos to follow when I have the time to upload them,
Awesome
Date: 2010-11-25 04:27 am (UTC)Sounds like you are really enjoying the north.
Keep enjoying yourself - looking forward to your pics.
Cheers, Ruthy. Torchwood Aust.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-25 11:06 am (UTC)So glad you're having such a great time =)