Cairns

The dates don't follow on here, as I didn't actually arrive in Cairns until the 12th of May - I spent a whole day on the road.

My initial impression of Cairns was to be somewhat disappointed. The city, known as the unofficial capital of Far North Queensland, was wet and dreary on arrival - what was I doing here! I kept reminding myself that this was, afterall, the end of the wet season and the weather would surely change soon.

My first week in Cairns was spent orientating myself with the city and tentatively looking for possible work for when Jo arrived.

Jo arrived on May 20th and we moved to a new hostel called Bohemia Backpacker's Resort, which had just finished being built 4 days earlier. Somehow we managed to stay at this backpackers paradise for a month without being kicked out (the maximum stay was 2 weeks). During this time we made a trip to Fitzroy Island, situated just off the coast, and after our return we both started working. Jo got a job at a restaurant/bar called "The Rattle and Hum" and I started working at Billabong Car Rentals.

The rest of our time in Cairns was spent working hard and taking day or weekend trips inland. I should perhaps point out, as I know it will be a source of amusement for many people, that I got another job 2 weeks before we left Cairns as a hostel bus driver. This lasted literally 1 week as I was fired - can you believe it! The reason for this was that I took the hostel mini bus after my shift had ended for 30 minutes to go and pick Jo up from work. Anyway, this didn't really matter as I had already given my notice and only had 2 more days left of work.

Just before leaving Cairns Jo and I took a trip up to Cape Tribulation which was just so wonderful - there was beauty everywhere you looked.

Well, after a monster 67 days for me and 59 for Jo we finally left Cairns - the weather not really having changed much in all the time we were there. Infact, we were later to find out that Cairns experienced its wettest dry season this year in (I believe) 50 years.

After successfully buying a couple of partially used Oz bus passes and now having to assume the identities of the prior owners of the passes (Lorne McNielly and Claire Binney), we started down the coast on the 18th of July with the first port of call being the Tully River......