Cairns- Great Barrier Reef, Rainforest and Waterfalls!

This weekend I spent 4 activity-filled, rainy, exciting and memorable days in Cairns.

I traveled there on Thursday night with my roommate and 6 guys from our apartment building. The boys had planned this trip a few weeks ago and my roommate and I joined in after hearing great things about the area from many people. We didn't think we were going to make a trip up there but over the past few weeks we have heard amazing things about the area (one backpacker I met in Melbourne who had been traveling Australia for the past year said it was his absolute favorite city) and the boys had some pretty cool things planned so it seemed like a great opportunity.

Cairns is definitely a tourist town, with almost everything revolving around the Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. The hostel we stayed at was interesting, to say the least. Everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming, but they were not the most normal people in the world.. it was definitely an experience and I am glad I was traveling with boys instead of just one other girl because I felt much more safe and comfortable. Our weekend was jam-packed with activities so we did not spend too much tiem at the hostel, so I guess it was worth the $12 per night to have to be around a few crazy people.

On Friday we woke up early, rented an 8-passenger van, and drove an hour and a half north of Cairns to Daintree Village for an electric boat tour. This area is beautiful! Part of the rainforest has been lost to logging and development but it is now protected as a World Heritage area so we were able to see a lot of amazing natural environment. The electric boat tour was on the Daintree River, a famous area for spotting crocodiles.

I have never seen crocodiles in the wild before so this was really exciting. We saw one full-grown crocodile and later saw a baby croc (about a year old and very small). We were able to get up pretty close and get a good look since our boat was so quiet, which was very cool. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable about the area so he had a lot of great information for us, making the tour well worth it. We learned that this rainforest is home to over 3,000 plant species! We then ate lunch and everyone had crocodile meat but I could not bring myself to eat something that I just marveled over and took pictures of for the past hour. We spent the rest of the day making our way back to Cairns, stopping on the way to take a few rainforest walks, swim in the ocean, and seeing the well-known city of Port Douglas.

The next day was our Great Barrier Reef day! We woke up extremely early, practically ran to the boat because we were of course late, and spent the whole day on a sailboat.

First we went snorkeling but the water was rough- there were many waves and the water was not very clear. I went scuba diving twice throughout the day, the first time was not great because the cloudy sky made visibility but the second dive was AMAZING. I saw some cool fish and the corals were absolutely beautiful. There were certain ones that we were allowed to touch and they were so soft and silky, like nothing I have ever felt before. Since we are not certified divers, there was a guide with us at all times literally holding our hands, telling us what we were allowed to touch, and pointing out cool fish and corals to us. I seriously felt like I was in Finding Nemo it actually looks very similar to that, I was really just in disbelief the whole time. The weather was not great so that was a bit of a letdown, but the sailboat was really fun and scuba diving was unforgettable, I definitely want to do it again some day.

Sunday was filled with a waterfall-rainforest tour. Besides the rainy weather again, it was wonderful. We spent the day stopping at different areas of the rainforest and seeing some beautiful waterfalls.

The most amazing part of the day was swimming in one of the huge waterfalls. I have never swam in a waterfall before it it was such a strange feeling that I had not expected. I guess I expected it to just feel like a shower or the fake waterfalls I have seen at pools, but it was so much more amazing than that. There was such extreme pressure and the natural beauty was almost overwhelming.

By Monday we finally got a little down time in- a few of us went to a coffee shop in town and got caught up on schoolwork. Monday night we participated in a barcrawl that our hostel was hosting called ‘Mad Monday’. All week everyone at the hostel had been talking about Mad Monday so we were interested to see what it was all about. Basically, the entire hostel has matching tshirts that get written all over with permanent marker throughout the night and you go around to different bars and also get dinner. This was really fun, we met some very interesting and cool people from all over the world and at least got one night out in Cairns (all of the other night we were way to exhausted to go out at all). It was a bit difficult though because we had to at the airport by 5am the next morning. So we all just decided not to go to sleep at all, making for a very rough plane ride and whole next day.

Cairns was a really fun time especially traveling with such a large and fun group of people. My favorite part was definitely the scuba diving and all of the beauty of the rainforest and the waterfalls is definitely unforgettable. I wish we had better weather so that we could have spent more time at the beach and exploring, but overall it was a great trip. I will be on the Great Barrier Reef one more time while I am here- we are traveling to the Whitsunday Islands over Mid-Semester Break. I don’t think I will spend the money on scuba diving again (even though I would love to), but I am exciting to do another sailing day-trip and maybe snorkel a bit.