Finding Nemo and the Origin of Avatar

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