1. I took the Greyhound bus up on Friday morning, leaving at 7:15am and arriving in Cairns at 1:00pm. I did not take into account that almost everything would be shut down because of Good Friday. The buses were not running and the majority of stores were closed. Way to plan. I also had a flashback to Europe backpacking shenanigans as my hostel was supposed to pick me up in a shuttle at the bus station but the number they gave me to call was conveniently not valid. Thus, I walked in and out of a rainstorm through the tourist trap of Cairns to find my hostel...it only took an hour.
2. Friday was uneventful; just me wandering around. I did walk along the Esplanade, the equivalent of the Strand in Townsville. That was enjoyable. I woke up early on Saturday to catch the shuttle to the dive shop - I was doing a two day live aboard snorkeling trip. We set sail on this little boat shuttle for the two hour ferry ride to the Kangaroo Express. Lucky for me, I did not get sea sick; but, because the ocean was extremely choppy, most everybody else did. Once we got to the Express, we unloaded our stuff and met on the top deck for a briefing. The ship in total was probably 25meters in length, ten meters wide maybe. The lowest floor was where my room (two tiny bunk beds and a tiny closet bathroom) was located, the main deck was where the dining room, kitchen, bar and loading docks were (all very tiny), the second deck was for equipment and the sun deck was where a tiny library and supposedly the sun, although I didn't see it all weekend. Okay, I am rambling.
3. I got to go on a total of six dives. I literally can't put into words how beautiful the GBR is. Absolutely incredible. The colors, the fish, the textures. The most charismatic creatures I saw were both black and white tipped reef sharks, green sea turtles, parrot fish, clown fish, angel fish, and butterfly fish. So good. The ship also had a wonderful feel to it and I got to meet a lot of wonderful people from the UK, Denmark, France, Switzerland and Australia. By far one of my favorite trips I have ever done.
4. We got back to port on Sunday late afternoon. The rest of the night was uneventful because I practically went to bed as soon as it got dark. On Monday I took the skyrail from Cairns to Kuranda, a village located 45 kilometers north in the rainforest. The morning was promising in terms of weather but the day ended up being rainy and all I could really see from the 45 minute gondola life was fog (no worries, I did manage to capture some good pictures). I spent the day doing some jungle walks, trying to avoid all of the tourist traps, and going to Aboriginal art galleries. Overall the day was good but I was really ready to catch the Greyhound bus back to Townsville at 6:45pm. We rolled into the station at half past midnight, Brooke kindly picked me up and I was in bed by 1:30am. Overall for my first true, lone backpacking excursion -suscess.
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