Life in the Car - Cairns 2.0

We spent most days of the past week at our hostel and at the beach in Cairns.

On Wednesday morning, Vroni and Marius moved out of their car and into the hostel - the opposite happened to us. After filling out a single form and transferring $5,500, we finally own our own car. Both parties now only had to send the form to Western Australia for the change of ownership.

In the next few days, we cleaned the car, settled in, and bought a new mattress, especially at Kenny's request. Krissi found the existing air mattress quite comfortable, but Kenny found it too noisy and Krissi woke up every time he moved.

On Friday, Nick invited us to visit the Daintree with him and two of his friends. We expected a maximum one-hour drive. After it was supposed to start early at 8am, Nick arrived at our hostel around 8.30am to pick us up. In the end, it was about a 3-hour drive - we also passed by Port Douglas (north of Cairns), which was planned for much later.

We crossed over on a ferry and then we were in the Daintree.

A road stretches through a huge area of rainforest from the ferry to the sea. You can hike different routes and visit numerous beaches. Unfortunately, we were all a bit clueless, so we stumbled from beach to beach rather randomly. They were beautiful, but unfortunately not suitable for swimming due to jellyfish and crocodiles. Hiking in the rainforest was not on our plan, much to our regret.

Of course, we also visited the beach and the lookout of Cape Tribulation. Here, the rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef meet directly. The beach was really beautiful, but unfortunately not as quiet as its fame suggests. The view was rather disappointing. For something that many people rave about, the platform is very small and we had better views on the way to Cape Tribulation.

On the way back, we visited several more beaches and Cow Bay. Also a very nice beach. This one was really empty, only the 5 of us and two other workers who probably took a break had ventured here. Along the beach, we discovered two ropes. Kenny and Krissi, of course, had to use them for playing and romping around. :D

We discovered small sand balls at many beaches. Upon closer examination, we saw that tiny crabs were responsible for them. An impressive sight and really fun to watch as the balls flew out of the holes one by one.

After leaving the Daintree on the ferry again, we followed Nick's recommendation and booked a crocodile river cruise. There were only about 15 people on the small boat, so there was not too touristy and crowded.

Within an hour, we saw two crocodiles lying on the shore and one swimming.

They were not impressed by our boat at all. Only the swimming crocodile disappeared as soon as we got too close to it. This made us realize that we have no idea how many more crocodiles are swimming around us, observing us without us noticing. One of the other guests apparently spotted a baby crocodile on the shore, but no one else saw it.

In addition to the truly beautiful and impressive nature, we also saw a huge snake on the shore, a kingfisher, various parrots, a large lizard, and many white cows. :D

We spent a few more hours finishing our English resumes and on Monday, we walked around Cairns and approached engineering offices, technology stores, and tour boats to see if anyone had a job for us. Let's see if we get a positive response in the next few days.

On Saturday evening, we enjoyed a free BBQ at the city pool. :) Thanks again for that.

Later, we went to Gilligans with Vroni, Marius, and Feli for a party. After a late-night snack at McDonald's, where Krissi had to sing her order because of a game and received perplexed looks from the cashier, we managed to arrive at the party at 1am this time and had at least 2 hours to celebrate.

Now, we are enjoying our last hours at the hostel. From noon onwards, the real backpacker life in the car begins. We want to drive north to Port Douglas. So far, we have slept in the car, but we could still do cooking, showering, and so on at the hostel. :)

At this point, we can only say that we had 2 really great weeks in Cairns. We met many great people here at the hostel and finally had a chance to relax a bit. The hostel is really clean, has great staff, and there is always good, free food in the morning and evening. We paid $60 per night for the double room and then $20 for the night in the car - in our opinion, a great deal. :)