East to West

We slept badly overnight on a ten hour coach from Airlie Beach and arrived at 5.30am to torrential rain that had been with us for a good few hours on the journey. We took a taxi from the bus station straight to our hotel and arrived to locked doors and no one around...it turned out that their 24/7 reception was actually only open from 9am but their out of hours service remotely opened the door for us and then we collapsed on the sofa in the lobby and slept!

A few hours passed before the owner arrived and thankfully let us check in early, so we dropped our bags, had a quick wash and then headed out into the downpour to go to Cairns Central Mall. It was only a ten minute walk but by the time we got there we were soaked to our skin, but we had a good breakfast to improve our moods and then spent a few hours looking around and picking up a few things we needed. We hadn't anticipated that it would still be raining so gave up on the idea of looking around the city more and instead went back to our hotel to relax and sleep the rest of the day in preparation for the next couple of days ahead that we had planned.

7.30am came around very quickly and we were picked up by Joey from Uncle Brian's Rainforest Tours, a young and very chilled out guy in a mini van painted with colourful animals and plant life. He roared us around the city picking up the rest of our tour group before driving us out to the Atherton Tablelands where we'd be spending the day. We didn't know a lot about the tour but had been told to bring everything from hiking boots and a raincoat to swimwear and suncream. Joey told us we'd spend the day swimming, eating, swimming some more, eating some more...you get the idea. He was really right!

Our first stop was at the Babinda Boulders. When we arrived Joey took us for a walk into the rainforest and showed us some of the plants, including the Australian version of a stinging nettle. We were told a story of a British soldier stationed there during World War Two who was stung by them and he was in such agonising pain he shot himself straight away...we were quite glad we’d been told about them so we knew to avoid them, but it would have been great to know about them before we’d done all of our hiking around the country’s forests!

To give you an idea of Joey’s character he would tell the group stories of some of the things he did as a kid, like swimming in waterfalls on private land then when he was chased by the owner he’d throw stones at them and eat their sugarcane… Anyway, while showing us around the forest he caught a horse-fly type creature and put it into his shirt pocket, saving it so he could feed it to a big spider for us to watch. He didn’t find any spiders and forgot about the fly until about an hour later when driving the van and he realised that it was still trying to bite him through his shirt!

Anyway back to the rainforest. We were also shown Devil’s Pool. The story goes that there were two rival tribes and a young girl fell in love with a boy from the other tribe. They weren’t allowed to be together so ran away and spent one night together until they were caught by the tribal trackers. At that point the girl was separated from the boy and she cried so hard that the pool filled with her tears, then she threw herself into the water to commit suicide. Before this she cursed the pools and said she would take the life of a young man aged 17-24 every year. Pretty morbid, and a touch farfetched? Thirty men that age have died in that area in the water...spooky!

After being shown around we had a ‘safety briefing’ that highlighted all of the danger of swimming in another nearby pool (not Devil’s Pool, don’t worry!) however it felt very safe to swim there. There were trees you could climb and jump out of but I was happy climbing a boulder and bombing the water below it. It was quite cold but very refreshing! When we were out of the water we were given cake and drinks - the feeding had begun!

A short drive later and we arrived at our next stop, Josephine Falls. On the drive there Joey warned us that because of recent heavy rain the water could be too powerful for us to be able to swim there and when we arrived there was a large sign put out highlighting the risk of flash flooding and strong currents, finishing with STRICTLY NO SWIMMING! We took a short walk around the paths to see the powerful waterfall and surrounding forest and the area was really beautiful. The group met back a short while later near to a rapids-like area where we were told that, after checking with the park rangers it was decided we could swim and were given some very strict instructions on what to do.

Essentially we had to climb over some rocks and tree roots and then jump into a fast moving current of water. This water carried you across the pool and toward some rapids at which point you SWIM HARD out of there and toward a sloped rock, walk up the rock and then along the top of it. This rock had another pool behind it and the water from this ran down the sloped rock further along from where we walked. Why do all of this? So we could slide down the wet rock, it’s a natural water slide! I was happy to go for it and, apart from slipping on a rock getting into the water it all went well and it was awesome! It was a short slope, about 15m long and therefore you didn’t get too fast and the water wasn’t too powerful but was still exhilarating. Beth came in at this point and had two runs down it! It was really great fun and once we were out of the water we were both on a real high as we headed to our lunch stop. As we pulled away from the car park Joey joked with us about the area being amongst the most deadly in Queensland state, and we all swam in it!

It was good to rest over lunch and then it was only a short drive to Millaa Millaa falls. They’re 20m high and the water is freezing cold. It’s the location of the music video for Peter Andre’s song Mysterious Girl and has also featured in a herbal essences advert. Cue the wet hair flicks in front of the waterfall as Joey snapped away - it was pretty good fun!

Our final stop was Lake Eachin, atop a dormant volcano. It was 60m deep and is filled with rainwater and at some time it rained fish into the volcano. We also saw bottom-feeding turtles swimming around, as these were introduced at some stage. There were also a number of warning signs around the area about the crocodile that lives there, as someone put one into the lake! Again, this didn’t stop us swimming in the warm water there, although by this stage we and the group were beginning to flag after the full-on day we’d had so a short while later we had our final snacks and drinks then were driven back into the city, arriving at 8pm completely exhausted!

The following morning we’d booked to go on a boat tour to the Great Barrier Reef! Many phone calls had been made and despite the many conversations we had the nasty discovery that I wouldn’t be able to dive because I have asthma...despite having dived before… I was really disappointed about this but was still keen to get out into the water and to experience the aquatic life there.

Our boat was a large catamaran and took two hours to arrive at our first site of two, literally in the middle of the ocean with nothing but water in sight, at the outer reef. We geared ourselves up with stinger suits (just like in Airlie Beach there are loads of jellyfish at this time of year!) and our snorkel gear and jumped into the water. It was noticably different from the other snorkelling we’ve done before as it was in open water and the waves were much larger, often carrying us away from where we were trying to swim to. We’d been given fins and these were really needed! Beth and I explored the area for the whole 90 minutes we were there and the coral is so vivid in colour, full of life and at times close to the surface of the water (50cm beneath the surface!) that all made for an amazing experience. Amongst many, many others we saw parrot fish, a family of clown fish (Nemo!), bat fish and a HUGE wrasse.

We were rounded up back to the boat where we had a delicious buffet lunch as we travelled to our next mooring at Michaelmas Cay, a sand isle covered in thousands of sea birds. We were given the option of a glass bottomed boat ride but opted instead to snorkel again so hopped back in the water, where we eagerly swam around for the full 90 minutes again and this time we’d been told we may seem turtles, as they feed on the many jellyfish there. Here the coral was just as alive and kicking and we saw trigger fish, coral trout, a flutemouth and many more. Our highlights were finding a blue spotted stingray swimming just below us (less than 1m deep water), although the waves carried us both over it and a little too close to it’s tail! Also the area was full of GIANT clams and by giant I mean giant - some were so large that I could have balled up to fit in them!

Overall it was a really cool experience but it was really tiring so on the way back to Cairns we both fell asleep! It was so incredible arriving back at the port that evening having seen so much life in such a small part of the Great Barrier Reef.

For our final day in Cairns we relaxed and enjoyed the sunshine, going out for a nice meal for lunch near to the port and swimming in the hotel pool. We had to pack our bags and get ready to travel on, including doing a few jobs towards our time in New Zealand. It felt very sudden that our time in Australia had come to an end and the next morning when we were picked up to go to the airport it felt strange to be ending our time in Australia. We really enjoyed the things we’d done and some of the amazing experiences we’d had but felt excited to be moving on as we jetted off into the air to Christchurch, New Zealand.

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