Cairns seems very small to the visitor, but actually sprawls out surprisingly far and has a population of 130,000. Being the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and the start/end point for East Coast travellers, Cairns is extremely touristy, the centre being dominated by hotels, backpacker hostels, and tour agencies. Cairns is dramatically surrounded by rainforest coated mountains and with flying fox colonies and palm trees in abundance there is no mistaking the fact you're in the tropics. The highlight of the town itself is undoubtedly the public Esplanade Lagoon Pool. Whereas the sea water around Cairns is stagnant, muddy, and impossible to swim in, the Pool (which runs right up to the ocean) is blissfully clear and impossible not to swim in. It was here I spent much of my birthday, lounging in the gorgeously warm water and relaxing and throwing frisbee around it. Needless to say, it was a great day.
I had met up in Cairns with a couple of Canadian friends I worked with at Kangaroobie, and one of their brothers had since joined them, so it was really nice to have people to spend my birthday with. Furthermore, I even got an unexpected birthday present as they kindly bought me frozen yogurt! In the evening we were joined at the Northern Greenhouse hostel (the cheapest hostel I have stayed in, but probably the best as well) by a German, a Dutch, another Brit, and a box of goon for some birthday celebrations. Once enough cheap wine had been consumed, we hit the streets of Cairns to see what nightlife it had to offer on a Wednesday night. We ended up in Gilligan's, a hostel that has a giant bar/club on the ground floor. Wow, the place was trashy. When we arrived, a crowd had gathered around two girls who were prodding each other with inflatable stuff in an inflatable ring. I had no idea what was going on and luckily this tacky "entertainment" ended shortly after we arrived. The place felt like it had been dropped over here from Magaluf, but any bar is all about the people you are with and our group was a fun bunch so we had a good time there for a short while. After leaving Gilligan's and finding nowhere else we wanted to go, we strolled down to the Pool, which was very inviting, but unfortunately patrolled by a security guard so there was to be no late night dip. That was the end of the night and the end of a fantastic birthday.
***
There isn't much that could have gotten me out of bed at 6.40 the next morning, but I was off on a snorkelling tour of the Great Barrier Reef, so I skipped out of bed in a manner defying the minimal hours of sleep I had had. So far on this trip I haven't been on a single tour - I try to avoid them because they are costly and I prefer to create my own adventures - but with the Great Barrier Reef there is simply no other option. Immediately after the boat set off this attitude was reinforced by the unnecessarily long introductory speech. The man insisted on cramming his spiel with as many jokes as possible, while another crew member at his side kept butting in with further jokes in a manner that reminded me of David Brent in the Training Day episode of The Office. Call me grumpy, but I wasn't there for standup comedy and neither man came close to being funny. Just go through the safety procedures as quickly as you can, show me where the sick bags are located, then shut the hell up and let me enjoy the views. Worse, they insisted on going through that whole "Are you excited?" nonsense and making us repeat our chorus of "yes" when it wasn't deemed rambunctious enough. Seriously? We're en route to see one of the natural wonders of the world, of course we're excited and your crap isn't going to make us anymore so. Also, I turned 24 yesterday, not 6, you cretins.
Soon after the jibber jabber finally abated things started getting ugly. The boat had hit the high seas and was rocking up and down considerably. It will surely come as no surprise to you that this motion combined with the after effects of copious wine consumption are a perfect recipe for sickness. I managed to delay the inevitable for around 45 minutes, then the contents of my stomach were violently jettisoned into the boat toilet. I still felt awful after the Great Barrier Retch, but I told myself that all would be fine once the boat stopped and I was in the water. However, that didn't immediately turn out to be the case as I was struggling with my snorkel. I can't remember the last time, if ever, that I had used one of the mouthpieces, so as a result I just couldn't get to grips with the idea of breathing underwater and I was unable to break the habit of taking a huge breath before submerging my head. Gladly, this idiocy didn't last long - I calmed down, chastised myself for being so pathetic, adopted a steady breathing pattern, and the magic begun.
I won't bore you with too much flowery prose about The Reef, but it was mind-blowing. The coral was a dazzling variety of shapes and the zillion fish were colours that I'm not sure we've even invented names for yet. It was hard to realise that this was real life and hadn't been set up by man - I half expected to swim head first into a glass panel. Most surreal of all was when a reef shark swam directly beneath me, gliding just over the coral. After lunch, the boat was on the move again (I was feeling better by now, thankfully considering my recently refilled stomach). The second reef location we arrived at was even more stunning than the first. I felt guilty for every plastic bag I have ever used.
I should conclude by pointing out that the tour was actually really good. Although I have nothing to compare them to, both the reef locations they took us to were brilliant. Also, they gave us more than enough time to snorkel, the Aussie style BBQ lunch was excellent, and the crew were friendly and helpful, despite not being as funny as they thought they were.
Two days that will live long in the memory.
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| The Esplanade Lagoon Pool |
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