Cairns Continued

Since working for Peter Pans for a little over three weeks Sabrina and I had enough hours banked to go on a few adventures. First on the list was bungy jumping! I have been raving about the experience ever since New Zealand and Sabrina had her mind made up about doing a jump since we left Sydney. Lucky for us Cairns is the home of the second AJ Hackett Bungy Jump in Oceania, the first was in Queenstown.

Late one Wednesday afternoon we hopped on a shuttle with eight other anxious jumpers and made the winding drive up to the tower. The Cairns bungy stands at a mere 43m high, and after the 134m I jumped in New Zealand the tower didn't exactly evoke the same kind of butterflies. Nontheless I was really excited to try some more creative jumps. There's about fifteen different ways that one can jump from the bungy tower, one of which includes riding a bike off the roof. Since we opted for two jumps we had to do a dive for our first for safety reasons, but the second jump was up to us. After getting unintentionally dunked in the pond underneath the tower I was ready to try something a little more daring and I had every intention of doing it backwards. The guy on the tower backed me up to the edge until just my toes where left hanging on. Holding on to my harness he hung me out over the drop and pretended to let go about ten times, after sufficiently screwing with my head he let me fall. I have to say doing it backwards was awesome and almost easier. To end the day we did what they call the Minjin Jungle Swing. The giant swing gave us a gorgeous panorama of  Cairns just as the sun was setting.

Our next activity was an overnight tour up to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Rainforest. It may be less of an adrenaline rush but it was just as fun as the bungy. On our trip up to the cape we had a few scenic stops before we checked into our accomodation. The first was a crocodile spotting boat ride up the Daintree River. We didn't get to see the four meter monster named Scar who patrolled that particular strip of water. Instead we saw some hatchlings, a two year old, and learned some facts about Crocodillions. For example Crocs have retractable penises and can stay under water for hours at a time! Next we headed up a very windy road that partially follows ancient aboriginal walking trails. The tour guide also told us to be on the lookout for prehistoric looking birds called Cassowaries. We stopped for a quick walk through the forest and found out some interesting facts about Mangrove trees. They are able to flourish in salt water because of a neat little adaptation they've made over time. They filter the water through their roots and channel all of the salt to a select few leaves on the tree. These are called "sacraficial leaves", they turn yellow and die while the rest of the tree keeps growing.

We finally made it to our destination, Ferntrees Lodge, around two o'clock. We were in a picture taking moode so we headed to the nearby bushwalk to take in more of the beautiful rainforest. An hour, and one hundred pictures, later we found ourselves on our first beach in over a month. We jumped at probably our last chance to sun ourselves on Australian sand and set up our towels. Five minutes later the clouds had come in and we were shivering. Oh well it was nice while it lasted!

The little town of Cape Tribulation is little more than a convenience store, a pub and a flying fox sanctuary. Seeing as it was a Monday nothing was especially busy but we decided to head down the road for a meal at the pub. It was pitch black outside and absolutely every rustle in the bushes sounded like a bear coming to attack us. Thankfully there are no bears in Australia and our very kind roomate lent us her torch for the freaky walk. After dinner we hit the hay so we would be ready for our seven o'clock saddle date the next morning.

We got picked up by an older, and very rugged looking version of Daniel Craig, Steve would be our guide for the day. We met our horses and the rest of the group, both of which were very ecclectic. One very enthusiastic woman looked like she was ready for the jungle, or rather had came out of it. Dressed head to toe in leopard print and jingling with about a pound of bangles, I was excited to see where the day would lead.  My horse Ringer looked a little worse for wear but I was told he was lots of "fun", I would later find out what that meant. We wandered through bush, trotted through pastures, stumbled through creeks and got to canter down the beach. But before Ringer I got a chance to feel the wind in my hair Ringer decided to get ornery. I hopped off and Steve put him through the paces before Ringer let me run him. We stopped for a snack and a swim and got regailed with stories from a horse whisperer. Steve knew every horse and their mannerisms and had stories to boot. All we needed was a campfire and it would've been a western movie.

Three hours, and a sore ass, later Sabrina and I mosied back to the lodge. We got picked up by our bus and enjoyed another scenic drive home. We stopped at some amazing vantage points for photo ops and made our way to Mossman Gorge for another swim. We stopped in the cute little resort town of Port Douglas and looked around at some funky shops. The day could not have been more perfect!

Our final excursion was a day out at a ranch quad biking. Before making it to the farm our driver got pulled over for doing an illegal U-turn, the day was off to a good start. The quads reminded me lawnmowers but having only gone quading once before I was kind of relieved. It all started out pretty slow doing some laps around a practice course before splitting up and heading into the bush. At a substantially faster clip I was white knuckling the entire ride. There were so many times I thought the quad was going to flip I was so relieved when we rode up to the barn three hours later. Of all the ground we had covered we brought back about half of it with us. We only got a little dirty...

After our crazy day we decided to unwind in the usual fashion on our last night together in Cairns. Sabrina and I had a Mexican feast at our favourite funky spot the Green Ant Cantina. Then we met up with some friends for some pool and some cider at our favourite bar the Bluesky Brewery. Everything about the day was a great last hoorah to end the trip with! I'll miss the people I've met in my travels and all of the places I've seen. But I'm glad to be coming home with an amazing friend who I can share these memories with for the rest of our lives! Awwwe :).

Thank you all for reading about my travels, this blog has been a really fun way to document it all. I'll be seeing you all soon!

Lots of Love,

Eva

xoxoxo

Final Destination

The beginning of May is the beginning of winter in Australia. Lucky for us going up the coast means that the temperature is still hovering in the high twenties and the wet season is coming to a close. Since we arrived in Cairns five weeks ago we have been enjoying nothing but sun seven days a week! Besides the wonderful weather Cairns itself has been amazing. This is the first place that we have settled into for such a long time and it's felt like home since the very first day.

Speaking of homes, getting one was the first item on our list of priorities. We opted for a sharehouse seeing as there are so many options in Cairns and we had heard good things about them. We checked out a couple and ended up moving into our twin room the next day. No more bunk beds and dirty hostel kitchens. Our new house was just a 10 minute walk away from the CBD and felt like a girls dorm with our six other roomies (only one of which was a boy).

Next on the list was finding jobs. After applying all over town and not hearing anything promising we went to a travel agency called Peter Pans. They were looking for floor managers and promo people, probably the two easiest jobs in the world! We talked to the manager and started the next day. The only downfall was that we weren't working for actual cash, but instead being reimbursed with travel dollars. But there is so much to do in Cairns so we have saved money in the end.

The Great Barrier Reef is what Cairns is famous for. So many people come here looking to become certified scuba divers and to work on the boats that go out to the Reef on a daily basis. Sabrina and I were lucky enough to win a free day trip out to the reef at one of the clubs in town. We hopped on the Osprey V bright and early one Saturday morning and spent the whole day in the water and laying out on the big boat. We rented an underwater camera and snorkelled around all day chasing brightly coloured fish and taking awe inspiring pictures of the gorgeous reef. We spontaneously decided to try a scuba dive while we were there as well. Being under the water for twenty minutes without having to surface for a breath was amazing. I think I could quite easily live underwater. It's a whole different world with amazing animals I've never seen other than on the discovery channel. While we were down under we saw a sea turtle, a morray eel, giant clams, Nemo, and we even got to handle a jellyfish!

When we got back to shore we were nothing more than elated. The day had quite easily topped anything we have done on this trip so far. We also had to laugh at our tan lines. Seeing as we were face down in the water all day our entire back half was a bright red, save from the white of our bikini straps!

The three hundred and eighty pictures we had taken had to get put on a CD that would be ready in about an hour. So we headed down to the Peir for some drinks and a feed to kill time. While we were there we sat down with a bunch of people that worked on one of the boats. We got to talking and found out that a couple of the guys were heading to the reef the next day to do some work. They offered to take us out on the private boat and take us for a scuba dive once they were done working! How could we say no!

At the ungodly hour of five am we headed back to the marina and all five of us boarded the Seastar. By the time we were out of the harbour the sun was just beginning to rise and painting the sky a brillian gold. Sabrina and I spent the day on our own private boat sunning ourselves on the roof and then snorkelling in what felt like our own private ocean. There were no other boats for miles and without thirty other people splashing around the fish were swimming lazily. Everything about the day was so calm and surreal.

When the guys finally resurfaced it was about five o'clock and the sun was quickly approaching the skyline. We got suited up and hopped into the dingy for a quick dive. We rolled into the water and started descending into what felt like a different world. The water was getting darker and everything seemed to be adopting an eerie calm. After finding some giant clams we were swimming along and out of the corner of my eye I saw something bigger than the other fish we had been seeing. To my left about two meters away was a Black Tipped Reef Shark! Once it noticed us it swam away without another thought. I cannot believe I stayed so calm in the ocean under the setting sun with a shark swimming right next to me. After all that I'm now seriously considering becoming a certified diver.

It feels like an understatement, but this weekend has been the most amazing time of my life that I will undoubtedly remember forever.