Cairns to Brisbane - how beautiful it is!

Hello dear family and friends,

At the end of the last blog, I already wrote that I flew from Brisbane to Cairns. During the flight, I could already catch a glimpse of the endless expanse of the Great Barrier Reef from the air. 

Once I arrived in Cairns, the free shuttle took me to Mad Monkeys Hostel in the center of Cairns. There, I stayed in a 4-bed room for a few days. Due to the weather forecast, I quickly booked some tours for the next few days because the weather was supposed to get worse after five days. So, for the next three days, I had a full schedule: The next morning, I was taken by bus to a cable car that took me to Kuranda after a 45-minute ride through a rainforest. There were two stops on the way, at one of them, I got a closer look at the rainforest, and at the second stop, we stopped at a huge waterfall.

At each stop, we had to get off because a new cable car started there. At the second stop, my ride was stopped before it even started due to an approaching thunderstorm, and I had to wait for 40 minutes next to a cruise ship tour group. Due to the delay, I only had a short time in Kuranda, a small village in the rainforest, to quickly strengthen myself with a burger, before taking a historic train back to Cairns along waterfalls through the rainforest.

After this beautiful day, the biggest highlight in Cairns was waiting for me the next day: The Great Barrier Reef. The catamaran set sail at 8 am and we headed out to sea in absolutely perfect weather conditions. At the first stop, before getting into the water, I took a glass bottom boat tour. We were taken further away from the catamaran by a separate ship and at a reef, we saw a large turtle and many colorful fish and corals. Then we got back on board and I put on my (fortunately with vision correction) diving mask. I also had a snorkel and of course the stinger suit, which protects you from all the poisonous jellyfish and the sun's radiation.

The initial uncertainty about potential sharks disappeared exactly at the moment when I jumped into the water and saw the first fish and corals. Even though most of the corals were gray, the fish had more colors than the fireworks on New Year's Eve in Sydney! What a sight! After 80 uninterrupted minutes in the water, everyone was called back on board and we continued to another stop. Upon arrival, we could immediately see that there were even larger fish here. This was mainly because they were being fed at the boat after the dive. Here again, I quickly got into the water. After a few seconds, several tuna-like fish about one meter in size swam towards me in search of food. At first, it was intimidating, but then quickly became impressive. 10 meters away, I saw two stingrays on the ground about 3 meters away, and after searching for a while, I also spotted small cat sharks. After another 90 minutes in the water, the snorkeling session unfortunately came to an end, leaving many impressions that I will not forget so quickly!!! On the way back, we saw many flying fish flying away from the catamaran and dolphins were also in sight.

Simply a perfect day!

The next morning, I continued on to the Daintree National Park, the oldest rainforest in the world. With a small group, we first drove to Port Douglas to have breakfast at the beach and then continue to the rainforest. There, we went on a short hike, where I could also see a cassowary, a very rare large bird that only lives in the Daintree National Park. This bird looks like an ostrich with a blue and colorful neck. If you corner it, it can be dangerous for humans because it has very sharp claws and a lot of strength in its legs. 

We then continued to a small river where we went swimming and could swing into it with a rope like Mogli. For that, I had to climb a tree and pass by a couple of bigger spiders, but luckily I didn't have my glasses on, so I only knew about the spiders from other people's stories... Those who know me, and that's actually everyone reading this, know that I'm not always the most athletic person and so I successfully stopped myself with my head on the water's surface the first two times. That provided entertainment for the group, and after I "elegantly" jumped in first and survived unharmed, everyone knew that nothing could happen to us. 

After swimming, we continued to have a quick lunch and then went on a tour to find saltwater crocodiles on a river. Our captain, who had just turned 70 that day, zig-zagged us across the river and showed us several crocodiles.

Then we went back to Cairns while music was playing at full volume in the bus and everyone (of course, especially me and my seat neighbor from Bavaria) was singing at the top of their lungs! A great ending to an eventful day! After that, there was a bit of calm in my life in Cairns. Since I liked the hostel and the city so much, I extended my stay twice, and in the end, I was there for almost two weeks, even though only five days were planned. One of the highlights in Cairns is the Esplanade Lagoon, a man-made lagoon that is perfect for swimming because you can't swim in the sea due to sharks, deadly jellyfish, and even deadlier saltwater crocodiles...

After a few relaxing days at 35 degrees and very high humidity, I participated in a pub crawl. This is an organized evening where you are taken from bar to bar to drink a free beer and play bar games. Alcohol is quite expensive in Australia, so an evening like this is very convenient, and there were also many good offers. In short, we had a lot of fun, and the next day was more for recovery...😂

Before leaving Cairns, I decided to go on another trip recommended by the Bavarian. On this day, we visited four different waterfalls to swim there. It was really cool, not only because it was a lot of fun, but also because on that day it was actually quite cool and the water in the rivers was around 20 degrees rather than the usual 29 degrees in the lagoons...

The Millaa Millaa Waterfall was the most beautiful and known for a special photo motif. It's supposed to look spectacular for women and men with hair, for me, being hairless, it looks a little different, but still a beautiful background...😂

To end the day, we bathed in a freshwater lake where a freshwater crocodile is said to live. The lake was not so huge, so we all bathed, but still, we always had the thought of the crocodile in the back of our minds. However, our guide had told us beforehand that freshwater crocodiles do not attack humans, and there have been no attacks in Australia. Ultimately, she was right, and we survived!

Three days later, I arrived in Airlie Beach after a 10.5-hour bus ride with a Greyhound bus. Airlie Beach is a small, beautiful vacation spot that calls itself the "Heart of the Reef" because tours to the Great Barrier Reef also start from here, and tours to the Whitsundays are offered as well. 

Here, I went on a day trip to the Whitsundays. In the morning, we set off on a speedboat towards the islands, and we started the day with two snorkeling trips. At the first stop, we were "drifted" along a reef by the current and didn't have to do anything to move forward and see the many fish and even more colorful corals. When we reached the end of the reef, we were picked up again and moved on to a second stop, where the fish were fed. However, they were being fed around us, so we were swimming in the middle of hundreds of fish, and the guide was throwing hard fish food at us. This allowed us to get very close to the many fish, and it felt like swimming in an aquarium.

Next, we stopped for a quick lunch in a bay. While we were eating, very, very large turtles frequently appeared around us. Unfortunately, I didn't get a proper photo; I can only say that at first, I thought they were dolphins because they seemed too big for turtles in my imagination...

Afterwards, we went to the highlight of the tour, the Whitehaven Beach. This is the most famous and popular beach in Australia, and I can't deny that. After a short hike to a lookout point, we could see the entire bay of the beach, and what can I say, it was breathtaking! But see for yourself...

Then we went down to the beach, and right at the transition from the path to the sand, I realized that this was no ordinary sand. This sand is so fine that it squeaks when you walk on it, and despite the hot temperatures, it was not hot. The guide explained that this is because the pure sand content on the beach here is higher than anywhere else. Then we went into the water, which was crystal clear. I had been in the water for barely three minutes when I saw something larger swimming towards me. A lemon shark about one meter in size was swimming towards me. At first, it was a bit scary, but after everyone had taken photos of it and didn't run away, I also took out my phone camera and followed the shark to get a good photo. It was really exciting, especially when the shark was swimming towards me!

After that, we took the boat back to Airlie Beach, and the beautiful and eventful day was over! Two days later, which I spent at the also very beautiful lagoon in Airlie Beach, I flew back to Brisbane from the Proserpine Airport. The Proserpine Airport is definitely the smallest one I have ever seen. Both incoming and outgoing flights are handled in a small hall, and only four planes take off from there every day.

Upon arrival in Brisbane, I thought about what else there is for me to experience here. In the past 3 months, I have really experienced a lot! Of course, there is Ayers Rock (Uluru), but that is the most expensive sight in the world, and it doesn't really appeal to me either. Then there is the West Coast, which offers a completely different kind of nature. After almost an hour-long phone call with my travel agency, I have now decided to fly to Perth on the west coast on March 11th, take five days to see everything there, and then make my way back to Germany. So, if everything goes according to plan and Emirates doesn't cancel flights due to the coronavirus, I will land in Hamburg at noon on March 17th. That's less than two weeks from now!

I am looking forward to the coming days, but I also look forward to seeing family and friends in Hamburg again!

Many greetings from Brisbane

Your Max