December 2019
Congratulations you’re the 1,000,000th visitor to our site” bulls**te from the days of dubious popups.
Katy dropped me off on the side of the road nearish to where we believed our hostel to be. The camper van we used in our journey to Cairns had to be brought back to the garage within the next 10 minutes for it to be on time! Left to myself, I had all of our gear and no idea how to get it moved. A few minutes of staring with no great thoughts I decided to just try and pick stuff up starting with the heavy bits.
In a few minutes I had managed to become quite the pack mule, with 50+ kilos of bags strapped to me in all sorts of unusual combinations. I stumbled over to the hostel which thankfully was very close at around 150 metres away. I walked up the stairs to reception and was given a look of bewilderment as to why I seemingly have carried al my possessions with me. I explained that it was in fact for two of us and we had a booking for two nights at the hostel. I was asked what we were planning to do in Cairns and mentioned about our trip to the Great Barrier Reef. Some exciting chat about this but also mentioned that we hadn’t really made any plans for our second day. I was asked for details and entered into a lottery to win a travel deal from their associated travel agent. I got given a tour go the hostel and told the venue was a BYO (Bring Your Own) with regards to booze….Result!
Katy wasn’t too much longer behind me and joined me on their patio garden area. I had mentioned that I noticed reception had a poster about free bike rental. A quick look on google maps and we decided that for a short cycle ride we could go see the botanical gardens of Cairns. The inspiration of which was that this could be done for free.
We got the keys for the bikes and their locks and started to head out the door when…ring ring! My phone was going off with a call from a number local to Cairnes. The local travel agent had called me up to let me know that I was the lucky winner for the day to be given the discount on a travel activity. This felt a bit like the “Congratulations you’re the 1,000,000th visitor to our site” bulls**te from the days of dubious popups. However, interested in not turning up an opportunity for some fun on my superstitions we decided to go have a look.
It took about 5 minutes for the travel agent to practically have us sold on the idea of doing a skydive. It had turned out that my being a lucky winner had granted us 100 Australian Dollars off the total cost we would normally pay. A small glance at each other and we non-verbally managed to get the message of “Well, we should be saving money but on this occasion…….LET’S GO SKYDIVING YAY!” was in someway understood by us both! We forked out the dough and picked up our vouchers for the dive. We then got back on the bikes and headed back on our journey, only a half hour behind when we had planned.
We cycled along the coast in the evening sun, feeling the wind in our hair as we inhaled the salty scented air. Within 20 minutes we had arrived to the gardens to find that the visitor centre was closed. Not to be put off from our plan, we decided to hike around an easy route which was populated by many of the local residents who were out and about on their evening jogs/runs. After a fair number of stairs and a good hour or so, we were done and ready to get back before dark. We raced back to the hostel where I popped into the liquor store nearby to get us some drinks. I noticed that the prices were not that favourable for any of the smaller drinks but did spot a deal on a full litre bottle of gin. That and some mixers and we were ready for a quiet evening in the hostel. We made a cheap dinner in our hostel and watched the Inbetweeners 2 with others staying in the place. I somehow felt that laughs aside, as the representative of Britain within this place, we were being treated with the same mocking glances the actors got on screen.
Scuba Diving in Cairns
It was a great effort to ensure we all weren’t endangered by this one particular Buffoon
Our next day was the main event for Cairns. Our scuba dive to the Great Barrier Reef had arrived. We were welcomed onto the boat by a really happy and friendly crew. Before long a boat load of exciteable people were heading out to the reef. Katy had her diving license on her so asked if she was able to go on an “advanced dive”, putting me firmly into my understanding that I was a complete n00b!
I sat through some instructional type presentations, highlighting the Do’s and Do Not’s of scuba diving. Most things seemed pretty obvious but there was the occasional useful, and seemingly life saving advice dispensed. One of the most important lessons drummed home was that the buoyancy aids were not to be touched whilst underwater.
Placed into a group of three, we did some basics into how to do a scuba dive. I passed the tests easily while remembering one of the only things to do is not panic! We were then shuffled along to an anchored rope nearby and brought slowly into the depths of the reef.
I found it incredibly difficult to equalise, needing to take more time than the rest of the group to sort my ear drums out and stop them from feeling like they were being crushed into my head. After a short while we had finally made it to the sea bed and had some fun with the fish that we could see! Great times!
On the way back from the photo shoot, I spotted a shark nearby minding its own business. I was pretty glad that I hadn’t made the aquatic beasts lunch menu for the day and instead took in the views of everything around me.
Sadly, it seemed to end all too suddenly, we were brought back to the rope and were given the hand signal from our group leader that it was time to go back up. Now, if you recall from further up in this blog post I had mentioned one specific lesson an out buoyancy aids? Well it turns out that a member of our group had forgotten this vital instruction and let rip! Air filled his bouncy aid and he suddenly shot upwards through the water. A panicked looked from our instructor was instantly transformed into an action where he tried to pull this diver down while slowly bringing us up. It was a great effort to ensure we all weren’t endangered by this one particular Buffoon. We got to the surface and everyone seemed okay, much to the relief of our instructor.
After the dives, with our appetites well earned we had a buffet lunch on the boat. While chowing down, the captain powered us to another location on the reef. This allowed us to admire the fantastic waters and clear sky as we ate. Our second stop for the day was a poo island.
Now hold the phone, i know you’re thinking that sounds INCREDIBLY GROSS! But actually putting that thought aside, the isles are beautiful. You see, the islands are formed near the turning points of currents where Parrot Fish poop collects and forms a mound. The poop is formed of lots of small fragments of coral that the fish have eaten and passed through themselves. So the result is actually an ULTRA fine white sand beach. Well done nature, top effort!
To get ourselves to the island we snorkelled over, which allowed us to see some more fun fish. However it was a damn tiring experience as we were battling the strong currents the whole way! A few good moments of sunning on the poo island we snorkel some more to see the aquatic delights of the area before being summoned back to boat via life guard whistle.
We got back to port around 5pm where we were knackered, and ready for some chill time. On heading back into the hostel we cracked out the gin bottle again and had a relaxing drink before the hostel staff told us that there was a free BBQ downstairs. Without a moments hesitation we headed down to bag ourselves some free food! Whilst being handed a sausage we were also shown a small box full of board games that we were told was open to all.
After nomming down the food we opened up what looked to be a luxury version of snakes and ladders. Frustratingly, for a children’s game we spent over an hour and a half trying to reach the number 100 square. This meant of course that we had more gin than first intended but this can be put down to that crafty sneakey snake on square 50. This beast would send your token back down to number 8 and in total we managed to land on it a combined total of 15 times! We couldn’t bear the idea of another game after this and decided it was probably a good time to go to bed and get ready for our morning adrenaline rush!
Sky Diving in Cairns
…the chute opened up and the harness tightened around the vital areas!
The next day was an early rise, which, no thanks to our great effort of gin drinking the previous evening, was quite difficult (I refuse to believe that age has anything to do with this!). We packed up and checked out of our hostel before any other residents had started to rise. The pickup point for the bus to the skydive was a short walk from the hostel. However, as the minutes ticked past our agreed meet-up time, flashbacks from our hotel pickups in Ubud came rolling back and we were worried we had been left behind again.
Thankfully only after a few minutes of staring at a watch, the bus turned up! We showed our ticket and climbed on board, at which point I recognised another guest on the bus from the dive. A few good laughs and chats on the ride and we made it to the skydive centre.
The usual process of signing waivers which amount to my life becoming worthless in the event of any injury happened and then it was time! We were given a briefing were we told what to do when the time for the jump comes (Be the banana! – which means to arch your back as you go down on the dive). We were fitted for harnesses and then met our tandem divers. This process was somewhat reassuring as we could meet the people in who our literal lives were in the hands of.
Arriving at a side gate of Cairns International Airport, our group were herded to the small propellor plane which would be carrying us up to our jump height of 15000 ft. With less legroom than a cheap short haul flight we made our ascent. Seeing the ground get further and further away from our bums was enough to get the adrenaline pumping through the veins! Before we knew it the shutter was rolled up and it was our time to go. Katy went first while I was due to go second. The instructor pushed me to the edge of the plane, I hooked my feet under and….wooooomf!
The stomach rising feeling kicked in and the wind sliced past me. A few moments later and we had reached what I assume to be Terminal velocity. Everything felt normal as we hurtled towards the ground at an alarmingly fast rate. The diving instructor spun us around a few times and pointed out sights for me to look at. What a feeling!
After what felt to be ages, but was probably less than a minute, the chute opened up and the harness tightened around the vital areas! Grateful to no longer be heading to impending mortality, the glide down was serene. Lots to take in, and the occasional drop down, we eventually landed on the ground with my legs in the air so we could slide along the grass. I had to wait a few moments to let the other divers down before meeting up again with Katy where we shared our adrenaline fused enthusiasm for what we had just done!
Note: More can be found about how sky-diving feels in relation to Bungee Jumping in another of our blog posts!
Getting out of Cairns
We may have looked like “undesirables” or “Riff-Raff”
We got back to our hostel with plenty of daytime left. After enjoying the free pancake breakfast we borrowed the bikes once more and headed back out to the Botanical Gardens to see a bit more. Lots of nice enjoyable walking on boardwalks amongst the nature. Sadly the time escaped us and we had to head back to the hostel to get our bags sorted and do some last minute shopping in the night market next to our hostel.
It hadn’t really dawned on us that a night market would really only be open during the night. As a result, our planned shopping trip was placed in jeopardy! We walked around the shuttered stores and realised that thankfully we would have 30 minutes to shop if we returned to the place, our bags ready for our flight. The shops had lots of local wares for quite frankly unbelievably low prices compared to what we were used to paying down under! We snagged ourselves a few good bargains and vitals (as well as a cheeky Christmas gift or two) and headed to the airport.
We got to the airport and checked into our flight, at which point we realised we hadn’t decanted our gin into our main backpacks! Whoops! The only reasonable course of action to take at this point was to buy a bottle of sprite from the vending machine and enjoy a drink outside the airport. We may have looked like “undesirables” or “Riff-Raff”, but we think we had the better deal. We recalled some great memories from our road trip journey in the evening sun as opposed to sitting in a stuffy airport lounge.
Next stop, Melbourne!