Final days in Oz
26th January 2007
Having completed our diving adventures on the reef we headed out with the rest of the group for a night on the lash in Cairns to celebrate. The group was a good mix of people from all over the place, and we had a good laugh, we were treated to some rock ‘n’ roll dancing courtesy of Kurt and Kelly from Texas (Yes Sir / Maam, y’all know those Texans can dance!) and as the night wore on and the shots were downed some interesting sides of peoples characters were revealed! Charlotte and I (for once) managed not to disgrace ourselves and we watched in interest as all the singles from the trip began to kop off / attempt to kop off with each other. The most funny story of the night though was definitely the 2 lads who decided upon their return to the hostel, to ‘brand’ themselves in some drunken self mutilation ritual with an Iron…..we saw them the next day hobbling through town with a nurse, with Iron shaped raw flesh wounds on their calves….nice!
The next day we went up to Kuranda in the rainforest via the skytrain from Cairns. Basically this is an hour long cable car ride, and a bit of a tourist gimmick, but not a bad way to pass the day when a bit hungover. Passing over the top of the rainforest canopy affords a great view of the dense, lush vegetation below, all this with views out over the reef in the background and it is easy to see why this is a world heritage listed area!
Kuranda was nice, the Bowman falls probably the highlight, although we also visited some mad ‘bat lady’ women who ran a centre for injured fruit bats (the places you end up when they advertise ‘free admission’!). It was surprisingly good, she even manages to get the bats to recognise their own names and come over when she calls them, it did get a bit weird though when she started referring to them as her babies, so at that point we made a hasty exit!
After a more social evening and a meal out with Kurt and Kelly on our return to Cairns, the next day we headed north to Port Douglas. Port Douglas is a small, picturesque town, much more chilled out than Cairns, and with the added bonus of a beach (rather than the mud flats down at Cairns). We spent a day taking in the town, saw a nice little church, and even a Python resting up in a tree! The next day we headed out on an organised trip to the Daintree river, for a croc spotting cruise. Despite not being the best time of year for spotting crocs (its nesting season!), we did see 3 in total, of which one was certainly big enough to have human on the menu! Next stop was the scenic Mossman gorge, and a walk through the rainforest. Unfortunately we didn’t see any of the rare wild Cassowary birds that inhabit the area, although we did learn that when it rains in the rainforest, it absolutely pi$$es it down!
And that was just about it for Australia! The next morning we headed back down the Captain Cook Highway to Cairns for our flight out to Singapore. We have had a great stint in Oz, and enjoyed spending time with old friends and new. In the five months we have spent here, we have enjoyed every minute (except the cricket), even the working lifestyle in Sydney! The country is so diverse, with some really nice cities, the barren isolation of the red centre and the relaxed tropics! We would have loved to have made it over to the West coast, but unfortunately we ran out of time, but at least we have the perfect reason to come back!
Tags: Australia
Chris and Charl
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