The gateway to the Great Barrier Reef: Cairns

April 9, 2019

On Friday morning, I headed to the tropical north of Australia. After a three-hour flight, Katrin (my travel companion for this trip) and I landed in Cairns at 10 AM. 

Already upon landing and the 15-minute drive to the hostel, it became clear that this time we were not going to a big city, but rather a small town, which is typical for Australia, surrounded by mountains and rainforest. 

After checking in at the hostel and dropping off our things in the luggage room, Katrin and I started our first exploration tour of Cairns. 

Cairns is much more manageable and smaller than the cities I have visited in Australia so far. There are hardly any skyscrapers and no metro stations, but instead mainly bus traffic and a railway station, from which you can travel through the mountains and the nearby Daintree Rainforest.

After just a short walk down the street, we arrived at the Esplanade, which is like the promenade of Cairns. The Esplanade is home to many nice cafes and shops, as well as the swimming lagoon, which serves as an artificial substitute beach in front of the actual sea. Swimming in the sea is not possible at this spot due to crocodiles and dangerous jellyfish.

Since we had left our bathing clothes with our bags at the hostel, we couldn't refresh ourselves in the water directly, but we were determined to go there later. Instead, we walked along the Esplanade, looking for a cafe where we could have breakfast/brunch. 

But we used the time to rest a bit, freshen up, and then go to the nearby shopping center to buy some provisions for our tour the next day. 

When we finally had access to our things, we put on our bathing clothes and went back to the lagoon for a swim. It was really nice and super relaxing. Afterward, we sunbathed for a while and then went to the night markets, a hall with various stalls where you can get souvenirs relatively cheap. In Sydney, there is Paddy's Haymarket, which is similar, but I found the night markets in Cairns to be much more manageable and the items offered were nicer. I was able to buy my first souvenirs for home there because it's slowly time to start. ;)

After we finished shopping at the night markets, we looked for a restaurant where we could have dinner and eventually decided on pizza. After a large pizza, we walked back to the hostel and went to bed relatively early to be fit for the next day.

The next morning, we had to get up early because the Great Barrier Reef tour we had booked in advance was supposed to start at 7 AM. So we quickly got ready, made our sandwiches, and set off for the pier. 

After finding the boat, we were warmly welcomed and briefed by the crew. We received our equipment, consisting of a diving mask, snorkel, fins, and wetsuits, and signed papers. Then the journey started with quite strong waves. 

Unfortunately, the rocking of the boat made me feel sick pretty quickly, and the ride felt endless. Luckily, after about two hours, we finally arrived at our destination in the middle of the ocean, with no land in sight, and were able to get in the water to snorkel. I felt much better there than on the rocking boat.

I have to admit that I was initially skeptical about how much you would be able to see with the normal snorkeling equipment, but after just swimming around a bit, we quickly found the coral reef, and it was sooo impressive to see so many colorful fish and corals up close below the water's surface! Unfortunately, you had to come up to the surface from time to time because water got into the snorkel or goggles, but then you could continue right away.

After everyone was satisfied and we gathered back on the boat, it was time for lunch. However, as soon as we were back on the rocking boat, I started feeling sick again, and I didn't want to take any risks, so I didn't eat anything. 

After lunch, we traveled a short distance to another spot where we could snorkel. At this spot, the reef was even closer to the surface than at the previous spot, so I was extremely careful as I swam over it, afraid of accidentally hitting the corals with my fins and damaging something. I swam more at the edge, which was also very impressive because you could see how far down it goes. 

When I think back to that and look at the pictures Katrin took with her underwater camera, I am still totally fascinated by the fact that we really snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef and saw such fascinating things!!

After the second snorkeling spot, we headed back to Cairns. Luckily, the return journey was much better for me because the waves were no longer as strong. The weather was just perfect, and on the deck, there was another opportunity to sunbathe and get a bit of color.

For the next day, Sunday, we had booked another tour. This time, the Daintree Rainforest was on the agenda, and we also started at 7 AM.

Fortunately, our tour guide picked us up directly from the hostel by bus this time, and when the group was complete (12 people in total), we headed towards the rainforest. During the two-hour tour to the Daintree Rainforest, Doug, our tour guide, told us a lot, and it was really interesting and entertaining because he had a great sense of humor.

Upon arrival in the rainforest, we started with a boat ride on the Daintree River, which is home to saltwater crocodiles. Although July - September is supposed to be the peak season to see crocodiles, we still saw four of them.

Afterwards, we drove to a lookout point from where you could see the two oldest World Heritage Sites (the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest) meeting. According to our guide, this is the only place where this happens. Quite impressive.

We then continued with a short hike through the rainforest, where Doug told us about various dangerous and harmless plants that we saw along the way, as well as some animals. Right at the beginning, we also saw a large spider (the largest one I have seen here so far), and surprisingly, I handled it quite well, haha. I think when I'm back home, small spiders won't scare me anymore. ;)

Next, we stopped for lunch and sat down at picnic tables at another lookout point. Unfortunately, it started to rain a little, but luckily, we were all given rain capes, so it was still quite cozy. 

Since we hadn't seen any cassowaries yet, which are large bird-like emus with a kind of horn on their heads, our guide told us to keep our eyes open and shout as soon as we spotted one in the bushes because the cassowary is a very typical animal for this rainforest.

After passing by two without seeing them, we finally succeeded on the third attempt when one of these birds walked right in front of us across the road. Cassowary sighted, check!

As a reward, the next destination was an ice cream shop where daily homemade ice cream made from fresh tropical fruits from the rainforest is sold. There are always four flavors available, which can change throughout the day. When we arrived, there were banana, mango, black sapote, and wattleseed (a fruit that tastes like chocolate). You could get all four flavors together for $7.50, which was a fair price because the ice cream was sooo good!

While we enjoyed our ice cream on the bus, we continued to Mossman Gorge, where there was an impressive waterfall and a river in which you could swim. The water there is quite clear and has a greenish tone, as if someone had poured color into it. I didn't go swimming myself because it was too cold for me, but 2-3 people from the group ventured into the water.

After our stop at Mossman Gorge, we were all pretty exhausted from the long day, and we made one more stop at a third lookout point before finally heading back towards Cairns. On the way there, we also saw a meadow full of wallabies, so of course, we had to stop. I have never seen so many Australian animals in the wild as on this trip!

We were back at the hostel around 6:30 PM, where Katrin and I quickly made noodles for ourselves and then took a refreshing shower and went to bed quickly after having Skype conversations.

On Monday morning, our last day, we took it a bit easier. First of all, we finally had a bit more time to sleep, then had a cozy breakfast, packed our things, checked out, and took the bus to Palm Cove Beach, which is about 45 minutes away. And Palm Cove lived up to its name because there were sooo many palm trees, and it looked really great there. Like a paradise :) 

So we sunbathed a bit on the beach (I finally got some of my tan back, yipee!) and went for a swim before getting a delicious smoothie on the promenade and then driving back to Cairns to retrieve our things from the luggage room and take an Uber to the airport.

Fortunately, everything went well on the return flight (no more nights at the airport, phew), and we were back in Sydney around 9:40 PM.

I am sooo glad that I did this trip because originally I wanted to go to Adelaide and not Cairns, but I would have missed out on so much! This weekend was truly the full Australian experience, which I usually don't have in a metropolis like Sydney, and it was so worth it!

Cairns was also my last flight within Australia, next up is New Zealand.....

But before that, I still have a few working weeks ahead of me, including next week, when there are school holidays and I have both kids. Let's see what we come up with. Hopefully, it won't be too stressful.

I'll try to find time to write next week!

Until then, Nora.