Sunday was great. It was lazy and fun. I brought Bren to his first Korean BBQ experience and we drank a bunch of peach soju and ate delicious meats. Afterwards Bren treated to gelato and we walked home full and happy. By Monday morning I was quite as pleased with my choices. Jobin reminded me that I had to set up my GoPro for the Great Barrier Reef trip and so I ended up trying to get my pictures off to no avail and then charging everything. Managed to lay down for 3 hours before getting up and heading to the airport to catch a flight to Cairns (Pronounced as CANS).
Domestic flights are interesting. No one checked my ID and my boarding pass wasn’t checked until I got on the plane. The flight was packed and next to me was a young mother with her five year old son who refused to sit still and wanted to go to the bathroom every 30min. So every time I fell asleep on the flight she would wake me up and ask if they could get out (I had the aisle and the little boy had the window).
I didn’t realize Cairns is an hour behind Melbourne as well. By the time I got an uber and got to the city it was only 8:40am, plenty of time for me to get going. When I was researching this trip I noticed all the activities started and ended very early, so I was already getting a late start. I had gotten off at my hostel and decided to walk with all my things (packed in my 23L LL Bean hiking backpack) to try and catch the last scenic train to the rainforest. I thought I had tons of time so I stopped for brekkie but by the time I got to the train station and up the elevator to cross over to the right platform I got the honor of watching the last train slowly roll away promptly at 9:30am.
By this point I was dripping with sweat, the humidity making the moisture cling to my skin like a blanket of wet. I saw across the parking lot a shopping mall and as soon as I stepped into it let out a great sigh of relief as the cool air con wafted over my damp skin, staring to finally dry it. I wandered a bit around the mall as I used the WiFi to try and figure out what to do. I should mention that I had considered buying a tour package that included the train and rainforestation park and transport slash shopping in Karumba but I just couldn’t justify spending nearly $300AUD for something that didn’t actually require a guide. After all what was the guide going to do other than bring me to places I can get to myself.
The city itself was dead, filled with empty restaurants, surf shops, and tour sales companies. Even the mall was pretty dead. I thought at first I could do the Skyrail instead of the train or the Skyrail to Karumba and the train back but the site wouldn’t sell me a ticket and I had no idea how I was supposed to get to the town where it started. Finally I thought, let me see what the guidebook I purchased says. I never buy guidebooks for trips but my mom had gotten me a very heavy paper copy of one that I replaced with a digital copy, thinking it would be nice to have a single point of reference as a I planned my conquering of Australia. I was so glad I did too because the guidebook detailed another way to get there - by first come first serve bus.
While I sat and waited another hour and a half for the bus to arrive I thought maybe I should do a rental car instead. As much as I hate driving having your own car and not being beholden to someone else’s schedule is nice. Then again I hadn’t really slept and thought better of driving while nearly dead. I resigned myself to the bus, which arrived on time and was pretty good. The scenery from the bus wasn’t all that different from the advertised scenery from the train since they all more or less take the same winding route through the rainforest. The first stop was Karumba and I had about 20min to take in all the tourist souvenirs before getting back on and going to Rainforestation Park.
I got to the park with about four other people who had gotten on the bus with me in the city. I asked the ticket desk what I could do before 4pm, since the last bus back to town was scheduled for 4:15p and she said it was no problem doing all the things they had to offer. I started off in the petting zoo slash animal sanctuary looking at little kangaroos and dingos and crocs. There was also a gigantic alligator in there that scared me a bit. After the zoo it was off to a duck boat tour where they brought you through the jungle and pointed out all the flora and fauna. It started to rain on and off while on the tour but that didn’t really put much of a damper on things. After that it was right off to the final part - the aboriginal tour. There was a group of aboriginal men who did a bunch of ceremonial dances from their tribe and they even invited people to join and taught them the basic moves. Then we were split up into groups and taught how didgeridoos work and how they throw spears. The young guy we had was so good at the spear throwing it was amazing. Finally he brought us to what looked like a batting cage door that opened into the large open field and we all got to try throwing a boomerang. I was actually not bad at it, the guy told me if I flicked my wrist a bit more then it would have come all the way back.
By the time the tour was over I was beat so I decided to spend the last hour sitting outside waiting for the bus. A bunch of small buses came and picked up people and some people left in their cars. The final bus back was at 4:15 and it had started to rain again. At 4:13 a man came out and asked me what I was waiting for and if it was the Trans North Bus. I said yes and he told me I had to go wait out in the parking lot for it. He offered to get me an umbrella but I told him it was ok and put on my poncho to go wait in the middle of the parking lot. Two minutes later the guy comes back out and tells me no I have to wait on the side of the road because of the guy doesn’t see anyone then he doesn’t stop. Seems like a poor business model to me. How can you drop people off and not think to pull into the lot for a minute to see if you need to pick them back up? Also where were all the people that came with me? Did they take the 2:30pm bus back? Did they stowaway on one of the other buses? Did they disappear into thin air??
These were all questions that ran through my mind as I stood there in the pouring rain waiting for my uber. I knew I had missed the bus by the time it was 4:20 and nothing had shown up. The manager had come back out to give me a cab number and I told him it was ok I already had an uber on the way and he said good cause that’s probably cheaper. The uber had to come all the way from the city to get me and cost $46AUD, nearly the same cost as the rest of the day’s activities had been. Thankfully the driver I had was very nice and had some great stories so I wasn’t quite as miserable anymore.
I got back to the hostel in one piece and was able to check in. Since I have two more 5am mornings ahead of me I splurged and treated myself to a private room so I could relax and do whatever I want without bothering anyone else. I figured I’m worth the extra $100AUD. As Bren would say, “that’s like $20 in real money.” After cooling off in the air con and growing accustomed to the blaring music from the outdoor bar just outside and down the hall from my room I thought it would be a good idea to find dinner.
The supposedly famous and wonderful Night Market here was reflective of everything else in this podunk city - a few good things in a generally mediocre atmosphere. There were basically only gross all you can eat fried Asian foods and then one cool seafood restaurant. In the middle was the shopping area where again it was underwhelmingly generic souvenirs shops and then one live glass blowing shop and a cool jewelry shop. I opted for an odd dinner from Woolie’s that I ate in the awkwardly antisocial kitchen slash common room of my hostel. Even the bar where they were playing cards felt awkward. I decided to call it an early evening and retreat to my sanctuary where I await tomorrow’s 5am wake up call for the Great Barrier Reef boat tour and snorkel experience. Hopefully it goes a bit better logistically then today did.
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