Oz XXIV - Rainforest meets Reef

I finally made it to the end of my East Coast odyssey when I arrived in Cairns. I spent a week in the area and went further north staying in Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation. Cairns is good for everything around it rather than the city itself. It is a tourist town set up for families and backpackers. There are lots of tacky tourist shops and tour agents. In saying that it has relaxed atmosphere and I had a good time while I was there. The weather was good, it was hot during the day and stayed warm in the evenings. During the day the beautiful people crowd the lagoon (a man made swimming pool on the esplanade) lying out in the sun. I caught up with the nautical Surrey girls from the Whitsundays and we stayed at Bohemia Central. It is a nice hostel, with good facilities, clean rooms, a good location, and a cool little bar on the premises. There are lots of backpacker deals in town, while I was their I always had a free evening meal at Rhino Bar.

I went on to Port Douglas and I had my run in with Team Japan at Port O'Call. Port Douglas is a resort town for those with some cash in their pockets. It is much prettier than Cairns. The beach is reminiscent of Mission Beach, but much busier. Port Douglas also has very aggressive Mosquito's which land on your face and try and bite you (or actually bite you as a friend of mine discovered). I then went on a tour up to Cape Tribulation with Tropics Explorer. On the way we stopped at the Daintree River to do a Crocodile spotting cruise. We spotted a big Saltwater Crocodile and a Freshwater Crocodile, we also got up close and personal with a tree snake. The drive up to Cape Tribulation has some great views as you wind up through the Daintree Rainforest. From one of the lookouts you can see the Low Isles group of islands where Steve Irwin was killed. Cape Tribulation was named by Captain Cook when he struck a reef off the coast and the Endeavour nearly sunk. When you wander round it doesn't feel like it has changed and you wonder whether this is what Captain Cook saw himself. It is an undeveloped place with a few accommodation options and a couple of shops. There are certain sections of the beach that you aren't allowed to walk along because Saltwater Crocodiles live there, it isn't unusual to see them sunbathing on the beach or swimming in the sea. Cassowaries also live in the rainforest, but I again didn't bump into any. I stayed at Ferntree Lodge which has good accommodation and location but the kitchen is appalling. The kitchen at Ferntree Lodge is probably the worst I have come across in Australia. Dead insects littered the kitchen, the facilities were completely inadequate, there was one bowl and one spoon for everyone, and the staff couldn't of cared less.

Choice can be paralysing. We have firmly established that the East Coast is setup for backpackers. It means that when you want to do something then there are a multitude of ways to do it for a variety of different prices. The Great Barrier Reef has arguably the most options of any on the East Coast. For starters you can jump on a boat from Cape Tribulation, Port Douglas or Cairns. They then visit different types of sites, some go to islands, others to cays, or to the inner reef, or to the outer reef. Now within these different types of sights are different places. You then also need to factor in the speed and quality of the boat, which becomes more important when you realise that getting out to the reef isn't the smoothest of crossings. After much deliberation I finally choose Silverswift from Cairns. It is the fastest ship out of Cairns and stops at 3 different sights on the outer reef. It was a pretty rough journey to get out there and back, within 10 minutes of leaving port people were throwing up on the back deck. There was one time where we hit a particularly big wave and everyone on board let out a collective gasp as we crashed down on the other side. In saying that I and the majority of people were perfectly fine. The snorkeling was excellent. I had heard so many reports of coral bleaching and lack of fish that I was surprised to see the variety of colours and fish. It was worth paying the extra money to go to the outer reef on a decent ship. I got alot of great photos and even managed to find Nemo. I spotted a turtle from the boat, but unfortunately none while I was in the water.