Global Gauthier's: May 2014

Our first day in Cairns was really nice. We found our hostel, The Calypso Inn, very easily. For some reason they had upgraded our 8-bed reservation to a private 2-bed dorm at no cost. That was a great surprise!

We spent a few hours walking along the coast, The Esplanade, and around downtown and talking to all the travel shops about possible diving and forest tours in the coming days. With only 3 days in Cairns we wanted to make the most of them. Scuba diving was high on my list, until I found out that the laws for diving in Queensland are very strict for people with asthma! No company would let me dive unless I got a doctors test and

approval! Not enough time for that! So we decided on snorkelling until I can be approved in Canada, bummer.

The day we were up early for our tour of the tableland rainforest, where we were taken to various waterfalls and some beautiful nature. Being on a tour bus with a bunch of travellers and party goers was very different than with our campervan! But a 2-for-1 special made it well worth it.

Most of the stuff is much better explained by pictures, so I'll let them speak for themselves. However, the falls with our hair flicking in circles is apparently a big deal where multiple shampoo commercials and music videos have been filmed. Swimming right through the falls was super cool!

Also, we got to lick ant butts that taste like lime juice.

O ya also, this time we ACTUALLY DID get to see the Avatar tree! This huge tree with thousands of vines growing down from it is the tree that the main tree from Avatar was based off of, it was incredible.

Back at the hostel we got to visit a 19 year old Swedish guy who was hilarious! He's travelling by himself and really fun to visit with while we ate, along with a couple German guys and a Brutish girl. That's where hostels are much better than hotels, which are much more secluded.

Early the next morning, again, we arrived at the wharf at 7 am for our snorkelling tour of a section of the outter Great Barrier Reef. Who knew cruising on huge waves would make feel queasy? Luckily no barf, like several others!

The crew of Cairns Diving Centre was awesome and made us so comfortable and made the trip awesome.

Snorkelling was such a great experience! Even though I am absolutely terrified of the ocean, it was just as fun as I'd hoped it would be. It was cloudy for the most part, but were we able to see so much coral and so many fish! Including Nemo! Unfortunately, we just missed seeing a 2 meter White Tip Reef Shark, and a few turtles. Maybe next time we'll be able to see that stuff! But no bigger than 2 meters I hope!

The pictures we took were from an underwater camera we hired for the day, and we're glad we did. While there was a photographer inboard who was hilarious, he was most often busy with the scuba divers.

That night we were wiped! It took me a 2 hour nap to recover enough to do supper!

Our last day in Cairns we finally got to sleep in! Later on we walked downtown and then took a bus to Kuranga, a small village north. From there we walked 3.5 km to Barron Falls and back. The pics speak to the incredible beauty of these falls in the massive Barron Gorge.

Our trip on the way back was actually a bit shorter, as a local guy offered us ride, and turned out to have Canadian aboriginal status from his mom!

We went through the Koala Gardens and got some fun pictures with a Koala and a 4 meter Olive Python. We also got to feed a kangaroo and a wallaby.

After seeing them, some huge lizards and small crocs, we went on to the Bird Sanctuary, where they simply fly around and even land on you! There was about 50 different kinds of birds flying around in their. This one big Red McCaw and I had a special love-hate relationship. He flew on my shoulder, bit my ear, then climbed on my head and proceeded to claw and bite at my head! He also loved to bite my fingers and wow could he bite hard! Even made me bleed! Other smaller parrots, lorikeets and other birds were all around and often landed on us. I could have spent all day there it was so fun!

When the bus back to town was full, the driver let us squish in and sit on the floor for the drive through the mountains home.

In the evening we took a swim in the lagoon (a huge pool with sand next to the ocean, as thee is no beach in Cairns).

Now as we sit at our hostel, we plan on chillin in the common area until 3:30 am when we'll begin the 5 km walk to the airport for our 5:55 am flight to Sydney. This way we don't need to pay for a room or taxi! Wish us luck!

Neat fern that would shrivel up when you touched it!

Licking the ant tastes like citric acid

Milla

Plant growing in tree in the rainforest

Nemo!

Our very own Tarzan

Barron Falls

No seats left on the windy busride home

Coast near Cairns

The flight was brilliant. Many empty seats meant I could sleep most of the way while Milessa did whatever she does.

Once there at 1 pm, we were getting pretty hungry and so shared an airport burger before our workaway host Errol met us in the airport.

His friend, Valya, was also flying in, so he picked us all up at the airport before making the 2 hour drive north to his BnB in Daintree National Park, The Daintree Manor.

For those not familiar with the idea, workaway.info is a worldwide organization, like Woofing. Which means that when you sign up,

Mil cutting the lawn!

you're given a list of hosts that are needing work done on their personal property or business. They then allow you to stay at their place for free with food included, in exchange for 4-5 hours of working doing whatever. Sometimes it's housework, chores, cleaning, gardening, lawn care, painting, animal care, cooking, etc.

So this is what we signed up for with Errol! Online he said he was needing general maintenance done, weeding, help with chickens, cleanup of bush after the cyclone, window cleaning, painting, and room cleanup after guests. Those ended up being most of what we did during our 2 weeks.

So on the way to his place we stopped at the grocery store and he bought what we'd need for the majority of the time and we bought a few snacks. From the very start we could tell how good of a person he was and how much he seemed to care about people. We ended up finding out that he was a christian as well, so that was cool to have that in common.

The drive there was very pretty along the coast north of Cairns. And the Daintree River we crossed is apparently full of salt water crocodiles, so it's not for swimming!

The view from his BnB was also spectacular! Surrounded by mountains and in the middle of a Rainforest (reputed to be the oldest rainforest in the world), it was a very secluded paradise. And the room he allowed us to stay in was amazing as well. Much more comfy than a campervan or

Some of the fruits Errol was growing

shared bunk mattress!

He grew many of his own fruits, and soon vegetables. Mangos, pineapples, cumquats, dragonfruit, soursop, and whole bunch more we forget! He had a bunch of chickens and roosters and 20 guinea fowl. There was also the cutest little Sun Bird, Tweety-pie, that he had saved and now lived in the house. She visited us lots too, just appearing on our shoulders at random!

Though he was not at the point yet, it was his goal to be a self-sustaining property as well. It was

Rainwater tanks

powered mainly by solar panels and had huge water tanks for collecting rain water.

Our days started at 730 when we would have brekky, and begin work at 8. Almost every day Errol made sure we didn't work past noon, which was very considerate of him.

The first day we cleaned the chicken coops, hauled wood into the forest, and moved soil around the yard. After that, every day varied with the jobs I mentioned before. The most exciting was pulling a tree down by myself as it was being cut it down. It tried falling the other way, but we managed to pull it my direction with a whole lot of effort.

Our afternoon/evenings off were very relaxing. We spent most of them at the BnB playing cards, watching birds, and watching some movies (when

there had been enough sunlight to create enough power) before helping make supper. Even though rainy season was supposed to be over, it rained a lot while we were there, so going on hikes or to beaches wasn't really an option much of the time.

During a few of our days off, Errol offered his car or truck (standard right hand drive- so fun!) to take and see some of the area. We did a few short hikes through the rainforest, went into the Mossman Gorge to see some waterfalls, hiked along a beach, and went south to Port Douglas to see their local parade. That ended up being very fun as the whole town was involved and there were fireworks at the end. It was also where we first saw these huge bats- flying foxes about 3 foot wingspan- flying around the city at dusk.

Unfortunately we couldn't swim the ocean anywhere at this time of year. During the day there are too many marine stingers (Box Jellyfish, one of the most venomous animals on the planet) and during the evening/night there was Salt Water Crocodiles to worry about! So swimming this far

Grosse green ants!

north was really an option for at least another few weeks when the jellyfish move north.

So we were able to relax lots! Which was very nice after moving around NZ to a place everyday. We were able to visit with Errol lots, as well as his friend Valya, an older Russian lady. We really enjoyed getting to know both of them during our stay. One of our favourite things was when Tweety would come visit us, you'll know why when you see the pictures!

These was loads of other animals to see in the area as well. Sulphur Crested Cockatoos flew by every day making a raucous noise every time. They were beautiful. Laughing Cuckaberra's also had quite the call, sounding like hyenas in the mornings! There were many others, some we saw and some we weren't lucky enough to see, like the Australian Cassowary- a huge flightless bird that looked like some sort of ancient dinosaur bird.

Though our time there was great, it was also nice to be on our way to Cairns when we drove in with Errol and Valya. The 2 weeks went pretty quick and we were very grateful to have such a great host! Anyone going go north Australia should consider staying at his beautiful Daintree Manor!