Cairns

Trip Start Feb 01, 2007
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Trip End Aug 18, 2007


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Friday, June 22, 2007

On the 8th June we caught the Greyhound up to Cairns. For the first few nights we stayed at 'Calypso', which was quite loud & didn't have any proper cooking facilities, as they expected you to buy food from their bar. First couple pf days in Cairns we spent looking around rown, the Esplanade & shops. Cairns doesn't have a beach as such. but has a nice man-made lagoon. We decided to rent a car for several days to see all the sights around cairns. On our first day with the car we drove north to Port Douglas, a town much bigger than I expected with a huge beach & lots of shops & cafes. Here we stayed at 'Port'o'call YHA', it was ok, limited cheap accomodation here. The neaxt day we head further north, first stop Mossman Gorge. Then we stop at Daintree where we took a wildlife river cruise & saw several crocodiles, green tree snakes, wild pigs on the island & lots of birds such as kingfishers. We then cross the Daintree river on one of the only car ferries in Australia. Then onto 'Daintree Discovery Centre', which had boardwalks through the rainforest & a canopy tower to all the different levels of the rainforest, unfortunatley it rained most of the day so not much to be seen Barron Falls
Barron Falls
 . We then drove onto Cape Tribulation, where the rainforest meets the beach, not as beautiful as it could be due to the weather. The following day we drove back to cairns, form here we drove to Kurunda a rainforest village. Here we looked around the markets & shops. Then we went to Barron Falls, a huge waterfall not far from Kurunda. The following day we drove up to the Atherton Tableland, a world heritage site. First we visted 'Cathedral Fig'. Then we went onto 'Malanda Falls', the falls weren't that impressive but we did see a tree kangaroo here. On the way back we went to 'Lake Barrine' where we saw the 'Giant twin kauri pines'. The next day we return the car. During our last days in cairns we have been staying at ' Dreamtime travellers rest' a small but really great hostel. We have been trying to get out on a dive on the Great barrier Reef but the weather hasn't been great & it is quite choppy out to sea. Our last chance will be tomorrow as we fly to Alice springs on the 24th, so not too hopeful! 
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