The Ultimate Roadtrip - Part 3 - Cairns to Cape Tribulation
Now don't get me wrong, Cairns is a nice enough place but it doesn't really warrant driving hundreds of kilometres up the East Coast to visit, it is after all, just a small town. However, there is something this far North that does deserve such dedication and we decided to hop on a boat and see it . . .we were off to see the awesome sight that is the Great Barrier Reef. Reportedly the only living thing you can see from Space the Great Barrier Reef is simply enormous. Covering somewhere between 280,000 and 344,000 square kilometres it is the largest living thing on earth and therefore definately worth driving such a colossal distance to visit.
So, on our first day as a three we got up pretty early to discover that we had had torrential rain during the course of the night. The storm had brought to Owen's attention that maybe his bargain tent wasn't such a great buy as unfortunately it didn't appear to be waterproof. He'd spent the night sleeping inside two sleeping bags but assured us that this meant he could hardly feel the rain drops that fell on him. Although we were moving on that eveing we decided to abandom our tents on the campsite for the day in the hope that the outsides (and in the case of Owen's tent, the inside too) would dry out; there really is nothing more vile than trying to sleep in a damp, mouldy smelling tent!
On reaching the harbour I was delighted to discover that our boat was rather big as I tend to suffer from sea sickness and did think that this could ruin the experience somewhat! Even better were the free sea-sickness tablets available. I helped myself to a few and settled back to enjoy the ride.
As the journey got underway it was evident that medication was more or less compulsary for most as the boat rocked around on the waves. Strolling about the boat became a near impossible task as it rolled around on the waves meaning that even the slightest movement began to require a considerable amount of co-ordination. We decided that the best plan was to simply sit outside and enjoy the view. Suddenly, the rocking stopped and the boat began to smoothly glide through the water . . . we had arrived.
Recently learning that the Great Barrier Reef contains at least 1500 species of fish and 400 types of coral I was eager to don my wetsuit and venture into the underwater world.
Luckily there were only four qualified divers on board our boat so we were the first into the water.
What greeted us as we descended below the surface of the water was incredible. Coral as tall as a person and fish that were so brightly coloured they looked as though they were out of a cartoon. Swimming around and being surrounded by such amazing wildlife was simply awesome, words just can't describe it. Just before the end of our first dive we spotted a sting ray lurking close to the sea bed . . . pretty special to see. Our second dive was even better. We hadn't been in the water long when we saw a huge turtle . . we were thrilled and then things got even better. Swimming round a particularly large coral we literally swam into another turtle that was feeding, it was so close we could touch it and it didn't seem at all bothered by us.
After our amazing day we ventured back to the campsite to find slightly drier tents and Owen was pleased to discover that the puddles inside his tent had completely evaporated. We put the tents down in record time, hopped in the car and were once again on our way.
We had one last Northern destination to visit before we began the long drive back to Brisbane; Cape Tribulation. Clearly we hadn't learnt from previous experience as we began this trip at about five o'clock in the eveing with no idea of where we were going to spend the night. As we drove Northwards it began to get darker, and darker, and darker. The roads got narrower and
narrower and instead of being on quite a main road (the type that Australians refer to as
motorways but back home would just be a normal road) we found ourselves on a quiet winding
country lane. Every mile or so we were faced with warning signs about cassawarries and things
were starting to feel a little creepy. We eventually found ourselves at the edge of a lake . . a lake
I must add that had no bridge across it. We'd read about this in our ever reliable guidebook so
weren't fazed at the sight . . however, we were quite bemused as to why no one had ever built a
bridge. The ferry across takes a meagre four minutes, it's hardly a vast expanse, surely a bridge would be a more suitable method of crossing?! Anyway, I digress, as we were waiting for the ferry to appear Ad decided that this would be the perfect toilet break, despite the likely presence of killer cassawarries and murderers. He was quite offended when as he got out we leant over and locked the door behind him, no reason to let the murderer get all of us now was there! Eventually the tiny ferry arrived and took us to the other side of the lake which we soon discovered was even spookier. The combinaton of the road winding through the oppresive rain forest and the thought of an immenent cassawarrie attack was making us feel more than slightly apprehensive. To make matters worse we were driving through torrential rain and every stream we crossed was bulging, threatening to flood the road at any minute. Abandoning the idea of sleeping in tents we pulled up outside a small farm that advertised available rooms. The owner was amazed when Owen appeared at the door, she couldn't believe that we had got through as she presumed the roads would already have been flooded due to the 10cm (yes I mean cm not mm!) of rain that had fallen during the last twenty four hours! She politely assured us that it wouldn't be long before the roads were unpassable and we would be stranded!
Bearing this in mind we rose pretty early the next day and after a quick stroll through the rain forest (making lots of noise to keep snakes away and always keeping close to trees - apparently a key to surviving a cassawarry attack) we were on our way again, eager to escape while we still could.
So, on our first day as a three we got up pretty early to discover that we had had torrential rain during the course of the night. The storm had brought to Owen's attention that maybe his bargain tent wasn't such a great buy as unfortunately it didn't appear to be waterproof. He'd spent the night sleeping inside two sleeping bags but assured us that this meant he could hardly feel the rain drops that fell on him. Although we were moving on that eveing we decided to abandom our tents on the campsite for the day in the hope that the outsides (and in the case of Owen's tent, the inside too) would dry out; there really is nothing more vile than trying to sleep in a damp, mouldy smelling tent!
On reaching the harbour I was delighted to discover that our boat was rather big as I tend to suffer from sea sickness and did think that this could ruin the experience somewhat! Even better were the free sea-sickness tablets available. I helped myself to a few and settled back to enjoy the ride.
As the journey got underway it was evident that medication was more or less compulsary for most as the boat rocked around on the waves. Strolling about the boat became a near impossible task as it rolled around on the waves meaning that even the slightest movement began to require a considerable amount of co-ordination. We decided that the best plan was to simply sit outside and enjoy the view. Suddenly, the rocking stopped and the boat began to smoothly glide through the water . . . we had arrived.
Recently learning that the Great Barrier Reef contains at least 1500 species of fish and 400 types of coral I was eager to don my wetsuit and venture into the underwater world.
Luckily there were only four qualified divers on board our boat so we were the first into the water.What greeted us as we descended below the surface of the water was incredible. Coral as tall as a person and fish that were so brightly coloured they looked as though they were out of a cartoon. Swimming around and being surrounded by such amazing wildlife was simply awesome, words just can't describe it. Just before the end of our first dive we spotted a sting ray lurking close to the sea bed . . . pretty special to see. Our second dive was even better. We hadn't been in the water long when we saw a huge turtle . . we were thrilled and then things got even better. Swimming round a particularly large coral we literally swam into another turtle that was feeding, it was so close we could touch it and it didn't seem at all bothered by us.
After our amazing day we ventured back to the campsite to find slightly drier tents and Owen was pleased to discover that the puddles inside his tent had completely evaporated. We put the tents down in record time, hopped in the car and were once again on our way.
We had one last Northern destination to visit before we began the long drive back to Brisbane; Cape Tribulation. Clearly we hadn't learnt from previous experience as we began this trip at about five o'clock in the eveing with no idea of where we were going to spend the night. As we drove Northwards it began to get darker, and darker, and darker. The roads got narrower and
narrower and instead of being on quite a main road (the type that Australians refer to as
motorways but back home would just be a normal road) we found ourselves on a quiet winding
country lane. Every mile or so we were faced with warning signs about cassawarries and things
were starting to feel a little creepy. We eventually found ourselves at the edge of a lake . . a lake
I must add that had no bridge across it. We'd read about this in our ever reliable guidebook so
weren't fazed at the sight . . however, we were quite bemused as to why no one had ever built a
bridge. The ferry across takes a meagre four minutes, it's hardly a vast expanse, surely a bridge would be a more suitable method of crossing?! Anyway, I digress, as we were waiting for the ferry to appear Ad decided that this would be the perfect toilet break, despite the likely presence of killer cassawarries and murderers. He was quite offended when as he got out we leant over and locked the door behind him, no reason to let the murderer get all of us now was there! Eventually the tiny ferry arrived and took us to the other side of the lake which we soon discovered was even spookier. The combinaton of the road winding through the oppresive rain forest and the thought of an immenent cassawarrie attack was making us feel more than slightly apprehensive. To make matters worse we were driving through torrential rain and every stream we crossed was bulging, threatening to flood the road at any minute. Abandoning the idea of sleeping in tents we pulled up outside a small farm that advertised available rooms. The owner was amazed when Owen appeared at the door, she couldn't believe that we had got through as she presumed the roads would already have been flooded due to the 10cm (yes I mean cm not mm!) of rain that had fallen during the last twenty four hours! She politely assured us that it wouldn't be long before the roads were unpassable and we would be stranded!
Bearing this in mind we rose pretty early the next day and after a quick stroll through the rain forest (making lots of noise to keep snakes away and always keeping close to trees - apparently a key to surviving a cassawarry attack) we were on our way again, eager to escape while we still could.
posted by Ellie and Adam at
11:30 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home