Tuesday, April 6, 2010. Yes, I am that behind on my updates.. bah.
Went back to the hostel after our day in the GBR. The rain came back.. as expected. We went to Woolworths (the Australia equivalent of Safeway.. I believe it's owned by the same company) and bought pasta..wait I think I already mentioned that. Okay nvm.
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Arrived at hostel, dinnered, and checked the weather for tomorrow. Things weren't looking too great for us as tours were once again flooded out. We would know tomorrow if it would actually run.. The night was weird as I didn't really feel like consuming any beer for fear of deadly morning after-effects (even though I am not usually prone to hangovers) but these brothers from Minnesota were quite the characters. Ended up having a good 'ol fashioned fight over which country is better, USA or Canada. Suffice to say, I lost as other Americans decided to chime in.. S'alright though, met some cool English people who arrived with 16 others. Meanwhile, Taylor and French boy were playing cards. Heh.
Morning came, rain continued..and we were told our tour would run! Even though they warned us the river was probably still too high, but we wouldn't know for sure until we got there. We sprayed on 40% DEET insect repellent. This stuff is literally deadly. It chokes you but definitely helped. Our tour guide was.. I'm going to call him Tom.. and was interesting to say the least. He constantly said "No worries" in the most Australian accent. Hard to describe, but definitely something I took back from the tour as he would say it no matter what happened, good or bad. We went to one of the rainforests and walked through it. Water levels there were extremely high and the rivers looked deadly if you fell in. The currents were extremely fast.
We approached the creek that would determine if we could make it across to Cape Tribulation.. anddd........... no go. Too high. We got out and just stared at our failure. We soon learned our company was actually the only one that departed on this day.. A bit dodgy if you ask me as they probably knew we wouldn't get across and since we chose to go on it anyways, no refund. Ah well.. I guess it's their way of ripping us off and making a nice profit. We were sort of disappointed I guess.. but we did get to go into a wildlife sanctuary where we saw cassowaries, wallabies/kangaroos (I can't tell), birds, CROCODILES (there are no alligators in Australia, remember that), and a Golden Orb Spider which was scary as. Size of my hand.
The crocodiles were definitely scary. 'Tom' threw a rock into the water and the largest one in the sanctuary (I think he said it was 6 metres? long) would attack it as it was hidden beneath all the vegetation in the water. Taylor has a video, hopefully she'll post it. The rain was coming down pretty good on us but by now, I really didn't care. I accepted the fact I'd be wet the entire day. Such is life in Australia.
So, we were disconnected from civilization literally as there was no cell phone reception where we were. We stopped by an ice cream factory and had some decent freshly made cream of the ice. Oh right, there was also no 'electricity' that connected to Cairns. Every place had their own generators and such, sort of alarming as I was not used to this. So we were told instead of the original hostel we were going to be at (where it was between a beach/rainforest type thing..so choked) we'd be at Crocodylus. We had heard about this place from the brothers and they were spot on with their description of it: No locks. Must buy their food. Dingy. Right in the middle of the rainforest. I will say though, in retrospect, this was definitely one of the coolest places I've ever been in. Basically burned an entire day there (1pm onwards..). Happy Hour would start at 7pm.. and we were ALL looking forward to that.
The owners are a couple and they asked if any of us wanted a free dinner in exchange for a shift in the kitchen that night helping out. I jumped at it as did Taylor and we were basically the kitchen bitches for an hour. I washed dishes as they came (we weren't allowed near the food..) and basically washed for an hour. Whatever, I got a huge roast chicken meal out of it and I was satisfied. Nothing compared to what White Spot could be. Happy Hour was much welcomed and our group just chilled with Steve, Tobias, and this guy from LA. Certain people got progressively intoxicated as there was literally nothing else to do there. The lady owner also got crazily drunk.. She was screaming and talking nonsense once it was about 11pm? I don't even remember. We stayed up and talked (I don't remember what anymore) and called it a night when our bodies gave up.
I tried to spot for cane toads (as I want to kill one of those suckers..) but no luck. THe walk back to our cabin was freaky though. Picture a barely lit rocky path in the middle of a rainforest with 256 different noises of the nightlife going off.. I always walked really quickly. The ambiance the noise created was surprisingly manageable.
Woke up to SUNLIGHT. Oh bloody hell, it was sunny. I took pictures of the morning rainforest and it was great. We paid for a transfer to get across the river today (it finally subsided) and proceeded to go zip lining through the jungle! Jungle Surfing was definitely a new experience as we zip lined over the trees and learned about the different vegetation/history of the place. How they managed to build the entire thing was incredible as there is no solid ground/area for machinery. We were with a couple who was on their honeymoon, aw.
After jungle surfing we just walked around Cape Tribulation as we waited for our afternoon pickup from the company. Nothing much to do.. the internet was down everywhere as Sandy and I tried to find a place that had it. Saw a dead cane toad (yes!) and the heat got progressively worse. Finally got picked up, ate crackers/dip for lunch and went back to Crocodylus to get others. We went on a river cruise and spotted some wild crocs, snakes, and random birds. Our guide on the way back was Baz, he had a great sense of humour. Australians I find never run out of things to talk about..and it's all interesting too as they have a different take on life than North Americans.
I fell asleep as the tour went through the luxurious parts of Queensland where a night at some of the resorts could cost you $10 000+. Toook some nice pretty pics (many of which my camera decided to delete on its own..) and went back to Cairns. I decided to go to Airlie Beach (Whitsundays) this night alone as I didn't really want to waste another day in Cairns just doing nothing as the girls had skydiving the next morning.
I sort of wish I stayed in Cairns as a group of Canadians I met on the shuttle to the greyhound station were going out and we hit it off for our love of hockey. Ah well. The bus ride was ... interesting. I purposely sat on the outer seat and made myself as FAT as possible hoping no one would sit next to me. It worked :). I had an entire two seats to myself and the ride became instantly 10x more comfortable. Stopped numerous times during the 11 hour trip at random expensive pit stops. $4 candy bars, drinks, water... $13 sandwiches with bugs lurking around it.. Not the most appetising. Finally got to Airlie by noon and checked into the hostel. It was scorching hot here. Finally. I spent the day just chilling out by the lagoon and worked on my tan. It was great. I needed a day to myself and it was good to just get away from everything for a day.
Hostel room was a bit weird as the people there were all from a sailing trip so everyone sort of knew eachother and they were all going to their respective after-parties. I did meet a Scottish girl there and we went down to the bar later to watch some live music. Again, quiet night as I didn't know any of the people there and I was feeling a little tired.
Tomorrow would be the final adventure of this trip as I would go on a 2day/2night sailing trip! The weather called for perfect conditions so I was ecstatic..
Alright, post too long, continue soon. Need to write about Tasmania after this too..
The last day we had one more snorkelling session and then headed back to Airlie. The after party was great fun even though some had to leave early due to other travel plans, but it was still a night of great memories, many of which I've forgotten or will not divulge publically.