The end of 2 eras, a 21st Birthday and the YMCA

Trip Start Sep 18, 2006
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Trip End Ongoing


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Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Arriving back in Cairns after Cape Tribulation turned out to be an emotional time. Firstly we handed back the keys to the Snusk-hummer, in which we experienced a month of fun and freedom. I feel previliaged to have achieved a life-long dream of campervanning in Australia, and I couldn't have dreamed of better company to do it with. That was the end of the second era, Cairns was where myself and the Swedes unfortunately parted company. After the two best months of my trip, spending every day with Jacob, Sam and Jesper, it is going to be hard going solo once again. To quote Jacob; "we've been spoilt for fun". Which is true, its hard to imagine being anywhere, with other people and it being as much fun...but thats travelling and i'm hopeful the fun is nowhere near over!

We couldn't have had a better send off! Sunday 11th was Jesper's 21st birthday, so on Saturday night, a long term plan came together ...draw!
...draw!
 . We booked ourselves onto a bar crawl through the city. I don't remember the origin of our plans, but way back down the coast it was agreed that we'd spend the night dressed as the Villiage People. And modestly, I don't mind saying it, as a group I've never seen a better attempt at fancy dress. Raiding Toys 'r' us and Toy World for props (and alot of creativity) we were able to throw together a fantastic array of costumes. Jesper the Cowboy, Myself the American Indian, Sam the Construction Worker and Jacob the porn star Police Officer, started the evening with a few much needed drinks at the hostel as a bit of Dutch courage before we joined the other 150+ pub crawlers. As it turned out we were centre of attention (again) and everyone loved it!

A fantastic, but very late night was followed by our alarms waking us up at 7am, to give Jesper his surprise Birthday present. "Get your stinger suit on you old bugger", we had booked us all onto a snorkelling trip around the Great Barrier Reef. It was a great day (despite some hangover) and it was amazing to witness the reef close up. I was lucky enough to find nemo(!!), a 1.5m reef shark, stroke a hugh sea turtle, and see a wide variety of colourful fish, corals and clams. It was a brilliant last day together, and we topped it off with a nice meal and a pint.

So here I am, all by my lonesome in Cairns...well thats not strictly true, I've met up with Natasha and Hanna again and we went to the casino with a couple of their friends. One guy made $100 in 20mins - what a git, I know I'd lose that much in half the time!! And I've also met Sarah, funny story, but the manager of the travel agent where we booked Jesper's 21st. I'm moving on Thursday and its going to be another hard goodbye. My next destination is actually very much unplanned and may suprise - it surprised me when I booked it!!
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