Escape from Cairns

I'm on a boat

Port Douglas Yacht Club

Mossman Gorge

Palm Cove Beach

Palm Cove

Port Douglas

Trinity Beach


Last Tuesday we rented a car and took a little side trip a couple hours north to Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation. We stopped at a few beaches along the way to get some sun. It was surprising everything was so close because things in Australia are usually absurd distances away from one another. We stopped at Trinity Beach first and laid around there for awhile. Next we stopped at Palm Cove, which I really liked. It was kind of like a small resort town with nice beaches and good restaurants. It would be a nice place to go back to sometime for a vacation…and when I have more money. Our last stop before Port Douglas was Mossman Gorge which was pretty much just a wide river with some boulders in it and a small swimming hole. We ate at a really good Thai restaurant when we got to Port Douglas and then found where we were staying for the night.

The next day we walked around the town. It was a lot like Palm Cove with the nice resorts and restaurants and made me equally depressed that I couldn’t stay/eat at them. I finally bought some aboriginal art there though. I liked a lot of stuff that this one particular gallery but finally narrowed it down. The lady who worked there was actually really helpful as opposed to some galleries where they can be pretty snobby. She encouraged me to buy what I liked the most as opposed to something either by a more famous artist or that would go up a lot in value. I’m not planning on selling it so that doesn’t really matter to me. What I ended up buying was something I really liked that was still in my price range so I’m really happy with it.

We went down to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. At around 5 we went over to the local Yacht Club because every Wednesday, some of the members take whoever shows up there out on their yachts for free. So that was pretty nice…we went out for about an hour and got back right as it was getting dark. After that, we drove the rest of the way up to Cape Tribulation to go hang out in the rainforest for a couple days.

Scuba Trip

The Lagoon

I’m over a week behind on this thing…oops.

Last Monday we went on our dive trip. You book ahead for one dive and then you can buy additional dives once you’re on the boat. Katy, Jamie, Matt and I were all in a group with one instructor. They went over everything we needed to know down there and it was all simple enough. They showed us the underwater hand signals for “ok” and “problem” and go this way or that way. The only hand signal I ended up using in the short time I was down there was “problem.” There’s a bar a couple meters under the water that you hold onto as a group to practice some of the skills before you go all the way down and when we were doing that, I couldn’t catch my breath at all. The instructor kept signaling for me to take slow, deep breaths but I never felt like I was getting enough air. Problem. He went up to the surface with me and told me to try this or that to make it better. I went under and grabbed the bar again. Panic attack…problem. After that I decided I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to have some sort of weird hyperventilating episode when I was really deep and then not be able to make it to the surface. Getting eaten by a shark is at least a cool underwater death…drowning even though you have a tank full of air strapped to your back is not.

So I snorkeled the rest of the day, which was actually really good. The reef is so close to the surface that you really don’t even need to dive…or at least that’s what I tell myself. The reef is SO big. But I guess that’s why they added the word “great” in front of the barrier reef part. There was so much to look at and so many different fish that I’d never seen before. Everyone else I was with loved diving, of course, and went for a second dive in the afternoon. So I snorkeled some more by myself and got a chance to use my waterproof video camera. There were some really huge schools of fish that swam by me which was really cool. I didn’t see any sharks, unfortunately.

I haven’t completely given up on diving. I’m going to try it again when Jess is here in July and we go to the Whitsundays. Until then, I will be taking long, deep breaths in and out of my mouth.

Cairns

We’re in Cairns and I got my wish: it’s hot here. It’s not even really hot though, it’s more of a tropical-breezy-warm. Our hostel has a pool but the pool only gets sun in the mornings and I’m not awake in the mornings, so I’ll probably just admire it as I walk to and from my room. No one wants to swim in a shaded pool.

The town is pretty small; everything is in walking distance. It’s definitely not a “city.” There’s a man-made lagoon with a fake beach that people lay out at. There isn’t a beach in town, but you can’t swim by the shore here because saltwater crocodiles will jump out of the water and eat you. The beaches are a 15 minute bus ride away but I don’t think you’re allowed to go in the water there either.

Our friend Matt who we lived with in Sydney is up here so we see him every once in awhile. He’s going diving with us on Monday. You don’t have to be certified to dive here because the reef isn’t so deep as to require a certification. And, getting certified is super expensive. We’re taking a day trip out to the reef which includes up to three dives and unlimited snorkeling.

Jamie got here on Tuesday. We’ve just been hanging out at the fake lagoon and walking around the shops. The fake lagoon is nice, but crowded, and there are lots of bratty kids running around. Too bad my flip flops broke in Melbourne because they have the best selection of Havaianas here that I’ve ever seen.

Last night we walked around the Night Markets and then went to see The Hangover. Today I did laundry and read my book most of the day. No solid plans until diving on Monday. And no pictures yet because we haven’t done anything eventful. I am enjoying the weather though.

When bad things happen to clean people

Yesterday something terrible happened. It was something that I had thought about late at night sometimes. What if it actually happens? What would I do? Would I be able to make it?

Yesterday…my flip flop broke…when we were away from home…far away from home. I knew this day was coming, I just didn’t know when, and I was hoping that when it did come, I would be about two sanitary steps away from another pair of shoes. Well, I wasn’t. The last time I had a flip flop malfunction I was on my way out the door to work and just grabbed another pair. Not this time. The ONE day in Melbourne when we actually venture out of the little bubble around our hostel. We were all the way down at the Docklands. I’m talking an entire tram ride away. We had just picked up our Indian visas (yay!) and all of sudden my shoe flip flopped right out from under me. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Being barefoot in a public place is very close to the top of my list of “things that would make me freak out.” Although, here in Australia and also in New Zealand I would fit in just fine being barefoot because it’s not uncommon to see a barefoot person at the grocery store or even at a gas station, which makes me think half the population has mental problems.

I tried holding the broken part between my toes and dragging the shoes part, but I just ended up tripping. Katy graciously offered me one of her socks to wear so my foot wouldn’t touch the dirty ground and I accepted since it was either that or contaminating my foot with public filth. The only thing is, Katy doesn’t wear normal socks. Katy’s socks always have a theme. Yesterday’s theme was Easter. So I got to hobble back to the tram, then back to our hostel wearing one flip flop and one of Katy’s goofy-ass socks. I guess I was lucky though. What if Katy had been wearing flip flips too, and thus had no sock to offer me? THEN what would I have done? I don’t even want to think about it.

Soo, yeah. Three paragraphs about the horror of my flip flop breaking because that’s basically the most exciting thing that’s happened since my last blog. The remainder of yesterday was spent shopping for new flip flops (obviously) and we don’t do anything at night except geek out and read our books until our 11:00 bedtime…so that’s that. Today we went to a couple of art museums…one contemporary, one regular. I think I’ve had enough contemporary art for awhile. “Oh yes, this display of plastic chairs is very thought provoking.”

And there seems to be some sort of freak convention in town who has based themselves at our hostel. Let’s see there’s the girl who wears the furry cat tail and ears, the guy in the all white suit and bright yellow bow tie, the girl who wears a long black cloak and spikes the top half of her hair all the way up (she doesn’t have short hair) and many others with various weird outfits. And they’re always in their big group. It’s like they would get beat up or something if they walked around by themselves. Weird.

Right now Katy is just sitting next to me making weird noises because she’s so bored. She finished her book.

Tomorrow we FINALLY go to Cairns. Our friend Matt who we lived with in Sydney is up there and Jamie is coming on Tuesday. The next few weeks will consist almost entirely of lying on the beach, eating tropical fruit and looking at colorful fish, which I will be sure to describe in great detail.

I complained a lot about Melbourne but it really is a nice city. Sorry Melbourne.

Pictures later again...

I'm cold and bored and want to go where it's sunny.

It’s still cold and boring here. Friday we ran/walked around the botanical gardens. But of course it’s winter so there aren’t any flowers to look at. Then we went to see I Love You, Man which was pretty good. It’s hard to find movies we want to see here since Star Trek and Angels & Demons have taken over all the theaters. Blah.

Saturday we walked over to Target where I bought a yoga mat to hopefully entertain myself with. That was it for that day.

Sunday was actually a pretty busy day for us. We got up at a decent hour (aka before 11) and took the bus over to St. Kilda to check out their weekend markets. St. Kilda is Melbourne’s beach area. I may be biased, but Bondi is much much better. The markets were nice. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of going to weekend markets because they’re all so different. The only downside is the stuff I want to buy is either huge, breakable or huge and breakable. Like this time there was a lady selling these really cool chests made out of tree trunks. But there’s no way I’m carrying a wooden chest around with me and I can’t afford to send it home. Too bad.

When we got back from St. Kilda, we noticed a large group of people chanting in the middle of a really busy intersection. Apparently some sort of protest was scheduled and it was in the middle of the way back to our hostel. We didn’t feel like fighting through the crowds, so we went to the casino instead. I won $30! The protest of was still going on when we got back, and actually continued through the night, so we went back anyway.

Monday we literally did nothing. I think I went to get coffee and that was it. Sooo yeah, 4 ½ more days here. Might go back to the casino, maybe see another movie…I don’t know, I don’t know if we’ll have time.

Missing pictures from last post

I couldn't get these to post in the last one AND they're on there twice. I'm too fed up with it to mess with it anymore.

Missing pictures from last post