AUSTRALIA - Cairns (1)

1/2/06 - Arrived in Cairns around 10.00am after a whole day of travelling. Very excited but so exhausted. Oh yeah and the airline lost my luggage!Wasnt to bothered was so happy to be here! Got a cab into Cairns city centre and its such a beautiful place so green, palm trees everywhere, very clean and lovely and sunny. They have this beautiful man-made lagoon in the city centre for swimming and a small beach. There are BBQ's there you can sunbath, swim, play sports its so cool. At the moment in Cairns its their rainy season, but since we've been here its been lovely and sunny around 35 degrees everyday. Its not so busy either because its the off season. First two nights we stayed in a hostel called the Bellview. A very clean friendly place, we had our own room with en-suite, fridge, kettle and fan. The first day we arrived we went exploring round the town centre, its mainly shops and restaurants and they have this enormous shopping mall two blocks long. I bought a few bits because my luggage still hadn't arrived and the airline gave me $100 compensation. Pretty good huh!. Our second day in Cairns we spent the whole day looking for some cheap campervan rentals. The very last place we went to gave us the best deal $68 a day (32 pounds). It does seem quite alot but it was the cheapest we found by far. The following day we collected our camper it was soooo exciting! Went shopping straight away for all the food and bits we needed. That night we stayed at campsite in Cairns, it was so hot all night and we had to leave all the doors and windows open. I was so scared all the creatures would come in! In the morning I woke up with these really itchy bites on my hand they were so painful.
4/2/06 - Today woke up nice and early to the birds singing and went to the man-made laggon in Cairns and stayed there for a few hours swiming in the pool and sunbathing on the grass. In the afternoon we left Cairns and headed north to Port Douglas a small fishing village which took around and hour and a half. Theres not much going on here but they have a lovely beach. We went swimming in the sea and it was like going into a warm bath and this was around 5.00pm. You can only swim in the netted area in the sea otherwise you can get stung by the jelly fish. This time of year its stinger season and if you get stung it can be fatal. That night stayed in a lovely campsite. It was still so hot at night so left the back door open and woke up with loads of bites! I still have the bites on my hand so need to go to the chemist its so sore. Our plan for today was to head north to Cape Tribulation a rainforest but we have to go back to Cairns to get a mosquito net and fan for the camper. We booked a trip today for two dives at the great barrier reef so excited and we got a real bargin it cost $100which is so cheap. After went to the chemist and got some anti-histamines for my hand then went back to the campsite and was completely knocked out from the tablets, i slept for hours. That evening we met two guys on the campsite one who actually lived on the site and the other who was travelling round Oz for a year.
6/2/06 - Today went back to the campervan shop as our lights in the van werent working, then went to find a decent hairdressers my hair looks minging and its gets really damaged from the sea and sun.
Eventually found a half decent one and you get 30% off if your a backpacker. The rest of the day went to the lagoon. That evening we were invited for dinner with Paul and Mark the two guys we met in the campsite last night. Mark is 19 and been travelling round Oz for 7 months and Paul is very strange but really sweet! He must be around 60 and lives on the camspite, hes partially deaf and all he seems to do is read, play back gammon and smoke drugs. Paul cooked us apricot chicken, rice and veg. It was the yummyest dinner we've had since being here. After dinner Paul taught us his favourite game backgammon, we had a great laugh.
7/2/06 - Woke up early today as we have our trip on the great barrier reef. The boat leaves at 7.30 and we just got there in time! The first dive site was off a beach and there were jelly fish everywhere, so we decided it was best to wear wet suits. But apparently those jelly fish where not harmful. We didnt see many fish because the visiblity was quite bad, but the next dive site was in the middle of the ocean and was really amazing! I could not believe how stunning the coral and fish were! The colours were amazing and we saw so many different types of beautiful fish. Diving on the great barrier reef is really as beautiful as people say, me and weeny were both completely shocked and just had the best time. Met some really cool people on the boat and had a really lovely day out. That night we had been invited to BBQ by a couple Ray and Colin who lived on our campsite. We had the most gorgeous food, meat,pumkin, sweet potatoes, onions. We bought round some wine and beers and had a really fun evening. They were the lovelyest couple so so kind and freindly. Colin is English and he met his girlfriend Ray (shes australian) 8 years ago while travelling. They now have a child together and just recently moved to Cairns from Melborne.
8/2/06 - Got up early toady and had my hair appoinment. The guy did a pretty good job and even curled it with straightners and it looked lovely. After my hair was done we said our goodbyes to Cairns and started heading down south of the east coast. After driving for around 4 hours we started getting really low on petrol and all the garages were shut so we ended up having to stop and stay in a campsite untill morning. The camspite was stunning it had a lake and the facilties were so clean it was really posh.