The road abroad is UNDER DA SEA!

CAIRNS, AUSTRALIA

After my last Italian dinner on Lygon Street in Melbourne, I hopped on a 10pm flight to warm, sunny, tropical Cairns!  Heat alas!  When I exited my flight at 1am, it didn’t take me long to realize that I had forgotten my Australia Lonely Planet on the plane.  I tried my best to get it back but the plane had already gone back to Melbourne.  It wouldn’t have been a big deal except I had borrowed it from the NYC public library.  I’m guessing they wanted it back at some point but now I can’t promise that.  There wasn’t much else to do at 2:30am so I laid out my sleeping bag on top of a row of chairs in the terminal and went to bed.  There were plenty of other backpackers doing the same so it didn’t feel so trashy. Haha.

It was raunchy hot when I woke up and got on the bus that went into town.  I skyped with my parents at McDonalds and learned more about the city of Cairns from surrounding backpackers.  I made the mistake of asking a hippy about the hostels and it turned out he was from the USA.  He didn’t even answer my question but instead went on a long rant about how these aren’t the same backpackers of his generation. These backpackers are spoiled brats.  They’re missing the concept of what it really means to be backpacking, which is anarchy and free love, in his opinion.  It sounded like the LSD of the 60s did wonders for him!  I listened to him bash the USA for another 2 minutes before I told him he shouldn’t disrespect my country or my generation. 

In the evening, I met Linda from my hostel.  She was from Latvia, completely stunning and ready to dance in one of the 6 pairs of heels she had packed for her trip!  We had a very fun night dancing at Gilligan’s hostel until the wee hours of the night!  The party scene gets pretty fun when there are a myriad of cultures expressing their version of the word ‘dancing’.   I was horribly unorganized when Deep Sea Divers Den came to pick me up the next morning.  Let the scuba classes begin!  I got through the first day of classroom and pool training pretty well.  I was more claustrophobic with scuba diving than I had anticipated!  I really didn’t like opening my eyes under water so I would panic when we did exercises of clearing or removing our masks.  I got a lot more comfortable by the end of the class when I realized I wasn’t going to die in the pool.  I passed my exam and was looking forward to our 2 day trip to the Great Barrier Reef!

That night I used the free meal voucher from my hostel  and ate the terribly bland food at a place called Woolshed.  This place was a marketer’s success!  They had paired themselves with several hostels and offered free pasta meals as well as upgradeable meals.  They also made announcements over the loud speaker in the hostel to tell backpackers that it was ladies night or thirsty Thursday or wet t-shirt night or some other cheesy-theme.  The party towns of Australia all seemed to go for a spring break theme and there were enough backpackers with low self-esteem to make it work. 

The following morning, I was so excited as we made the 2 hour trip out to the Great Barrier Reef.  It was magical to stumble upon this immense reef in the middle of the blue abyss.   My diving partner, Romano, and I double checked each other before taking our giant step entry off the boat.  We had a chance to snorkel beforehand so we could get our bearings before going all the way down.  The water was pretty warm and we were packed with adrenaline as we carefully made our way down to 16 meters (48 feet).  The sea was alive!  There was marine life all around us and we kneeled on the sandy bottom to watch in awe.  Their bright colors were distracting us from any directions our guide, Benny, was trying to give us.  

I soon realized that most of my knowledge on the sea comes from animated films!  Thank you, Walt Disney!  The Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo were full of so much marine life. I saw Nemo (who’s actually one of the most aggressive fish down there), Dori, Sharkbait, and a giant sea turtle (laterrrr dude)!  We also saw a cool sting ray on the ocean floor (rest in peace Steve Irwin).  The colorful coral was intoxicating and our underwater camera could not even begin to capture everything we saw.  The fish came in all sizes and everything was so peaceful.  I was focusing on my breathing and could almost bring myself to yawning since I was so relaxed.  We had two beautiful days for our five dives and I felt so lucky to be living my life. 

I had made friends with a very FUN German girl named Lena and decided to travel down the coast with her.  She looked a lot like my sister-in-law, Eliza, and was just as much fun too!  The two of us bought the hop on-hop off Greyhound bus ticket and decided to explore north of Cairns with a guy off gumtree.com named Daniel.

Daniel was originally from Melbourne but had lived in Byron Bay the last 3 years.  He was hosting a seminar in Cairns on sustainable energy and struck me as very independent and smart.  His genuine nature told us that he would be a trustworthy person so travel with.  He was funny when we would tell him what we hadn’t seen yet.  He would say, “You haven’t seen THAT yet??  Oh you HAVE TO see that!  Let’s do that!”  So we left the next morning for Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation!

We drove the beautiful coast road to Port Douglas and explored the famous Sunday markets before stopping off at 4 mile beach.  The weather was nice, the beaches were great but the water was crappy.  Due to global warming, the waters were loaded with jelly fish and swimmers weren’t allowed in.  They had one small area netted off from jelly fish and crocodiles.  How enticing!  The beaches were also equipped with emergency vinegar so that stinger wounds could be treated immediately.  Geez!

We drove through luscious Cape Tribulation and made it to the campsite just before dark.  Daniel had forgotten the poles for his tent but said we could just sleep on top of the tent.  I asked about snaked and he said there would just be pythons…nothing poisonous.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME??  I put him back to work until he improvised with rope. 

The next day was filled with Cape Trib coastline and waterfalls from the Tablelands region.  What a great adventure in the area around Cairns before making my way down the coast!  We got on a midnight bus and endured the 10 hour trip to Airlie Beach.  Australia is such a big country!  These long bus rides were going to be standard in the coming weeks!

sunset in Cairns

Port Douglas

Kerri and Swiss Romano- open water certified divers!

Port Douglas

Great Barrier reef!

Giant clam- sorry did my best to rotate it

Coral

Coral

Nemo!

Later duuuude!  Giant green sea turtle