Cairns Underwater
Trip Start
Jan 09, 2007
1
9
27
Trip End
Dec 15, 2007
Cairns,
Australia
Friday, October 12, 2007
I had a wander around Cairns... it's actually quite a rough place particularly first thing in the morning. I wandered down the main street (Shields Street) at about 9am and passed by two drinking establishments, the Railway Hotel and The Crown, both were full of Aboriginals having their first (or maybe 5th judging by the lairyness) drink of the day. They had their beers in these polystyrene holders to keep them cool in the heat ... yeah, like there was a chance of it warming up before they disappeared down the hatch!
I initially thought Cairns would be a spit and sawdust kind of town, I don't know why it just sounds a bit outback, but then I saw some brochures and it looked beautifully landscaped a lot more lush than I had imagined
Wakeboarding on Lake Tinaroo
. When we arrived, it was actually a mix of the 2. I guess it's like any other town but on such a small scale that the contrast between the newly renovated areas and the rundown areas is really in your face. At the top of Shields Street is a nice little (air-conditioned!!) shopping centre and at the bottom is "the lagoon". If you need to cool down (and you will) you can take a dip in this massive free-formed swimming pool just on the Esplanade. Whilst there is a lot of ocean behind the lagoon you won't be stepping foot in it, as it is full of Croc's I was casually informed...eeek!
Yesterday I took the bus just outside the town to the wakeboarding Cable Park. As soon as you step outside the town you realise you are in the tropics. Surrounded by lush green mountains and field upon fields of sugar cane... every Creek we passed over I just wondered how many crocs we living under the surface.
The cable ski was fab! They put a dye in the water to stop algae growing in the heat, but this makes the water really aqua blue.... And it's hot! I thought a dip in this would cool me down nicely, but I haven't even had baths as hot as this lake
Cairns Harbour
! Nonetheless, I spent a fun couple of hours being towed around the lake, hitting the kickers and sliders. I'm getting the hang of grabbing my board off the kicker, now I just need to practise landing my 180's !Today I took another wakeboard trip, this time up into the hinterland with a local guy called Jeff. We drove up through the Atherton tablelands to go wakeboarding on Lake Tinaroo.... He promised that this was the only lake in Cairns that didn't have Croc's... that they knew of !!! The lake (well dam) was quite stunning, surrounded by rolling hills. It's about 1-2 hours outside of Cairns just near the historic town of Yungaburra...such a cute little town. So I'm being towed along merrily jumping the wakes, when I'm cutting out on my toe-side and almost run into a cow!!! Apparently they like to come down for a drink ... or to watch the skiers?! The lake is also a good fishing lake, we found a MASSIVE barramundi washed up on the shore. It apparently died of stress.... I think I would too if I was plucked from my home with a hook in my mouth! The weather put an end to our afternoon when a hectic lightening storm blew in... figured we'd better get out before we got struck.
I'll get Donovan to give you the low down on his diving. Tomorrow is his last day and should be fully certified by the end of it! I'm joining them on the boat for a couple of dives myself tomorrow. Catch you later....
