Pete's Backpacker Resort Cairns

... were in my dive group.Not long after we arrived at the reef we were putting on our stinger suits and get geared up and ready to go out on our first dive. It wasn't long before i had got used to being underwater again and off we went, we saw the usual nemo fish, some large maori wrasse, and a stingray. I went to 18.1 metres max depth for just over 40 mins total then back onboard the boat.
Pretty soon after we were back on board we were going off to another dive site and off on our ...

... night. Spent the afternoon walking the wrong way out of the city thinking "this town is terrible". Finally figured it out and still had a couple of hours left of light to check things out and get myself oriented. Tommorow I will give myself a tour.

... br>Mareeba
Thursday we headed inland... this was cool... seeing a bit of the outback..... bush fires in the distance.... burnt-out trees everywhere.... dead kangaroos on the roadside.... drive-in cinemas.....

We stopped at a mango winery for a quick wine tasting session... I can now recommend mango wine! (I like both so it was always going to work!)

We camped up at a place called Granite Gorge - this was also cool..... a load of massive rocks that we ...

... that they're harmless, that didn't stop me from soiling myself though!!), and a turtle. Went to a small reef island called Green Island, which took about 25 minutes to walk around. So beautiful. On the way back to Cairns harbour, we turned the motor off and raised the sails, it was incredible to go so fast just with wind power! The boat was leaning right over on one side, sea spray was splashing all over us ...

... become a tourist Mecca and very commercialised the whole village is one large market selling souvenirs and the usual crafts and ‘aboriginal’ artefacts. However getting there and getting back is the real reason for the trip. The Cairns to Karunda railway was constructed in 1887 to get supplies to the miners of Herberton who in 1882 had experienced a particularly severe wet season and cut off from supplies the settlement almost succumbed to famine. The stretch ...

... the body is burning a lot of calories to fight against the coldness of the deep sea.
All my youth I learnt we should not eat just before going to the water but wait at least 2 hours(cuz it can create some kind of a shock) and here it is: eat as much as possible... 15min before entering the water!

Great stuff and another personal objective achieved here (was an objective for the last 3 years!!)
Will pursue in Thailand and Indonesia.

... chequered history having survived a fire, then was inadvertently run onto a reef and sunk, brought back to Cairns as scrap and bought and restored by the skipper of our trip! It was great but fairly basic - all shoes had to come off to preserve the wood on the deck and there are only a few of these sailing ships remaining. There were only 14 paying passengers, 3 crew and 2 diving instructors. Steve and I did snorkel and I am afraid I was a bit panicked by it as I haven ...

... reached in less than an hour by boat. Daintree National Park and Cape Tribulation, about 130 km (81 mi) north of Cairns, are popular areas for experiencing a tropical rainforest. It is also a starting point for people wanting to explore Cooktown, Cape York Peninsula, and the Atherton Tableland. The city has used its natural surroundings to its advantage, with ...

... Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire??When his accomplishments raise suspicions that he is cheating, we see in flashbacks of his rough life how he came to be so knowledgeable. The "Slumdog?DVD features include commentary by director Danny Boyle, star Dev Patel, writer Simon Beaufoy and producer Christian Colson, behind-the scenes featurettes and deleted scenes. For all of its glories, "Slumdog?took a long ...

(Originally published at http://www.troysgonewalkabout.com)
< br>After catching the morning ferry back into Cairns, we boarded the more traditional style Contiki coach and met Paul, our driver for the remainder of the tour. After getting dropped off and having a fair bit of time to kill in town over lunch it was then time to check back into the Colonial Club Resort. I had ...