26.11.19 - Cairns: Welcome to the jungle!

Arrived in Cairns I found myself at a fresh beginning because I don’t know anyone here. Usually you need to get out of the comfort zone (meaning off from the phone) to make new friends and find people to travel with.

Today in the time of facebook you use the backpacker groups to connect to other people 😜

So I got into contact with a few guys from all over the world staying in Cairns these days:

There is Sarah from France who is volunteering at a turtle rehabilitation center at Fitzroy island since on week.

Amy from San Francisco is traveling since a year already and worked in New Zealand for a while.

Michail from the Netherlands is taking a few weeks off since he’s between his bachelor and master degrees.

Lee from Malaysia is here for a 4 weeks holiday. He is one of the guys I will join and start the road trip to Sydney on Saturday 30nov.

Finding new people wasn’t the only struggle since the weather up here differs a lot from what I’ve been used to. Where it was 20-30C at daytime (with a few exceptions) and 10-15C at night in Western and South Australia it’s really hot here in Queensland.. about 30-35C at day and 20-25C at night. The real struggle is the humidity of the air. You’re starting to sweat right after showering.

When writing this I almost spent one week here in Queensland and I feel like I’m getting used to it. But still.. very sweaty 🥵

I’m struggling with a cold lately. I’ve been coughing since the beginning of my trip but lately it became worse. It’s why I took some days off from exploring to recover.

I stayed in Cairns for 5 nights. Hostel Bounce used to be my home for that time. Free breakfast included (yogurt, oats, fruits and pancakes... yum!!) .. also nice pool inside with hammocks and stuff... on top of that it comes with the best kitchen I’ve seen so far!!

Went to the botanical garden the other day. Very nice to see peace lily (Einblatt) in it’s natural habitat but not in a plant pot in my living room 😬

Amy rented a car the other day and we went to several waterfalls. Nature up here is so impressive!

Thought I would see more spiders and snakes than in the south/west but so far I’m doing fine haha

Cairns offers a lot of night life. Nevertheless I did not went for party. So many things going on during the day I’m completely out of energy when arriving at the hostel late afternoon.

On Saturday we will pick up a camper van to start our trip south to arrive in Sydney in about three weeks.

Cheers,

J