8th -> 13th July (Cairns)

Hello Everyone!

So, it's a bit late, but I'm going to try and blast out all the information (I can remember) about Aus! So here goes.

As soon as I landed in Cairns it was all fairly straight forward, and I got on a bus to the city centre. The bus was full of backpackers already booked into various accomodation around the city, so I had a good tour of the place before we stopped outside Giligans, the place Mum had been recommended. A few people were heading there so we chatted and I had a look inside. It was nice... almost too nice. I was informed later on in my stay that Giligans is refered to as the "flashpackers" of Cairns; it's for people who want to think they're doing the backpacker thing, but with a hotel style room and top facilities. It was minimum $30 a night for a 10 person dorm... not my budget. So I crossed the road and went to Corona's Backpackers. It was so much better! 4 dorm rooms and a kitchen. All you need, and the people were the best I could have hoped for. (the other thing was, with Giligan's next door, we could go and use their games room / pool / bar / TV room when ever we wanted!)

As soon as a booked in I was practically assulted by the extremely friendly and sociable Noah who would turn out to be the highlight of my stay: wherever he was, there was a hell of an experience to be had. He has travelled for 4 years, acting, doing bar work and cleaning, even modelling in europe. And now he was in Aus, with no job and $200 dollars left in the world. Good fun :)

It was with Noah and a sturdy group of around 20 guys and gals that I spent many days chilling by the waterfront in a place called "the Lagoon" and many nights in the small but packed clubs and bars of Cairns. One faitful night we were all out on the stairs (the best venue in Northers Australia) having a few drinks and chatting, when one of the girls started doing all the guy's make up. Going back a step... the stairs were really, just some stairs in Corona's, but people from all over would come there with boxes of goon (wine) to drink and share stories! So to cut the story short, we all went clubbing looking like trannies.

This went on for longer that I had intended... chilling in the day with some sun, and going out to varying quality bars. The best bit was the day time. At the Lagoon people would share everything. Food, stories, books and tallent. For a few days we hung out with a guy who had a tightrope, then some Thai guys with Poi and fire sticks. And every other person had a guitar! There was beach volleyball, an open dock (you could go onto people's boats and chat) and so many friendly faces.

Another perk of Cairns was the free dinners :) three places offered free dinners if you had vouchers (just needed to know where to get them) so some days (most) we would skip breakfast and lunch and have three dinners :) Anyway, after a while I decided enogh was enough and I wanted to go explore. Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation were next on the list, and a French girl called Fanely decided she was keen too. So we headed off together, and ended up travelling a lot together over the next few weeks.