Cairns and Great Barrier Reef

Many people told me that if I come to Cairns, I wouldn't go anywhere else anymore, it's just that beautiful that I wouldn't leave. Well it may have some truth to it as it is really lovely, but I wouldn't say it's the best place ever. I loved Melbourne, Esperance and Sunshine Coast at least as much! Cairns definitely has its charms tho. Small and compact, wonderful weather and lovely markets with fair enough prices. Met awesome people in Cairns, we had quite an international group.

Also met two Estonians in the hostel. Mari (yes it was confusing every time we introduced ourselves to some foreigner) was in the same room with me, she hadn't even come up the stairs yet when she asked “what language are you speaking?” Linda had already heard there are other fellow citizens in the hostel and met me on the stairs once and just said hi in Estonian.

Went to explore Millaa Millaa and nearby villages with Matt (Tasmania) and Andrea (Mexico). Thought the name means something like milk, as we have a label Milla milk in Estonia. Actually “milla” means water in aboriginal language. There were heaps of beautiful waterfalls and hiking trails.

On the way back, stopped by some pond. Apart from turtles, discovered a platypus. Cute! According to statistics : about 4% of locals and 1% of foreigners has seen a platypus in the wild in Aussie.

The cute little creatures didn't come close enough to get a good photo, but that's what they look like!

What most people come to see in Cairns and we also couldn't miss is the almighty Great Barrier Reef. Enjoyed the boat trip and discovered some colourful fish and other creatures, also stumbled on a bunch of “piranhas” . Small, innocent, plain, biting fish. Snorkeled the opposite way quickly. Have to say the Whitsunday's might have even impressed me more, but the reef is definitely worth visiting. Coming back, for the first time in my life, I kinda got seasick, some kids were throwing up on the boat and due to bit rough waters many people felt sick, the sight made me a bit dizzy as well. I don't own an underwater camera, so borrowed a couple pictures from google.

Keiu is staying a couple months longer in Straya than me, so she needed a new job and left to a remote town called Richmond, a 1000 km away, last thursday. Miss you babes!

Went to zumba on the beach with Linda. Cairns has an active living program. Every weekday there are different free trainings in parks and on the beach. Lovely to see people from ages 4 – 84 actively participating.

Visited the local art museum on saturday and relaxed by the Lagoon.

The days got even hotter, so cooling down was a must and we can't really do it in the sea, as the sea looks like that:

Thankfully the northern beaches nearby Cairns look much better. Trinity beach:

Every weekend is time for Rusty markets. Sells only local products and the goods are affordable, even cheap!

Every day from 5pm to 11pm there is a night-market. The food-court is not worth much but the stalls are lovely! Buy your souvenirs at this place! They're more artsy and with good quality and not ridiculously expensive.

And there is an awesome asian food-store in town. Keiu admitted it's like back in China. That's something! And amongst all great foods they sell something made of brains..

At night David (Uk) invited me to a party at some of his work-mates house. Came out that the mate was Oliver, the german guy we we traveled to Cairns together. That's how small the world is. It was his birthday. What a fun time and loved the international company. Estonia, France, Italy, UK, Australia, NZ, Russia and Switzerland.

Decided to give some more things to the OP-shop, a place for “previously loved clothes” as they name it here. Had some Keiu's and Mari's stuff as well. The lady behind the counter was so thankful that forced me to take a book I was previously looking at on the counter. “The Glass Palace” - an excellent book!!

As I can't leave my longboard behind, I took it for a last drive in Aussie and headed to the post office to sea-mail it to Estonia. Should arrive in 3 months. Bubble-wrapping and taping it proved to be a challenge. The duct-tape made noise like I was killing babies, when I was pulling at wrapping it around the board. The post office was not one bit empty so I earned quite many confused, frightened and angry looks.

Met a Cairns local Mark via couchsurfing. He offered to host me at first, but couldn't as his house-mates huge family from NZ came to visit without notice. He took me rafting with his buddies and made me wanna go horseback riding in a farm nearby where he and his sister have been going since they were kids and still often do.

So fun to be on horse-back after 10 years. I used to ride when I was a kid. The stables were 20 minutes from Cairns, in the midst of rainforests, sugar cane fields, wet-lands and billabongs. Met a couple dragons (the lizards, no game of thrones) and a 2m-ish long water python.

Rafting was definitely one of the highlights. Grade 4 river Tully. Basically solo rapids. My first time ever to go rafting. Luckily Mark and the boys knew what they were doing, also thanks to him we got it super cheap. Couple flips, swimming through rapids, sliding down waterfalls, cliff-jumping. We were a great team. Couchsurfing at its best!

Our hostel (Cairns city Backpackers) gives dinner vouchers to either Gilligans hostel or BJ-O-Brien Irish pub. Gilligan's “backpacker meal” is a joke. A bowl of macaroni with tomato sauce. Cat-food by the size of the bowl. BJ-s on the other hand is a lovely place. The voucher gives half priced main dishes, which usually cost 14$. It became our favorite dinner-spot. Between the 7 of us we have tasted all their mains, I'd say.

I still don't get it, what's with the christmas in July?

Decided to celebrate our last day in Cairns with Linda and Mari and went to an aboriginal village Tjapukai, for dinner and to get some culture. Wonderful, happy, special experience.