So I’m in Cairns right now. It was incredibly difficult to say goodbye to everyone in Perth last Monday. Incredibly. Difficult. And I thought proposing my major was hard. (Just kidding, those two things are utterly incomparable, one thing I wanted and the other I didn’t.)
I spent all of Tuesday travelling. My friends dropped me off at the airport at a crazy early hour so they could get to work at another crazy hour. I spent most of my time in the airport staring at my bags in disbelief and despair. I kind of just wanted to walk out of the airport. Which was strange because of my occasional bouts of homesickness these past few months. Regardless, my last month in Perth without uni has been incredibly rewarding—from the beach to Wiluna to meeting and becoming close with heaps of people. It’s always the people that make it hard to leave—not exactly the place. My friends were like—nothing is in Perth! There’s nothing to do! But it’s not exactly what you do—it’s whatever you happen to do with people you meet and care about. And that’s why study abroad has been so fantastic.
I got on the plane. I had a layover in Ayer’s Rock (pronounced ‘airs rock’) and got to take a glimpse at the enormous sedimentary structure. The red sands reminded me of Wiluna. I slept on a lot of both flights, so when I got to Cairns I was startled with the beautiful rainforest, mountain ranges and water that consumed the area. Bats and parrots greeted me when I got off the plane and waited for my hostel pick-up service. They’re everywhere, loud and poop a lot.
Every night my hostel gives me a voucher to the Woolshed—a bar that gets really crazy. I haven’t spent time there when it’s crazy though—I usually just eat and go. When I have roommates (I have a 4 person dorm that’s not full), I stay a bit longer. But I’m alone and usually just enjoy my food, the music, and leave.
It’s not that weird being alone here. I do my own thing and I love not having to consult anyone for it. Wednesday I explored the town, visited many souvenir shops including the late night market, the regional art gallery and the botanic gardens. There’s a boardwalk that spans the length of the bay which I walked along. This town is made for backpacker’s and sunbathers—no one wears more than tropical clothing and thongs (flip flops) and everyone is pretty laid back. The weather is strange here though—raining one second, sunny the next.
Thursday I went to Cape Tribulations (a beautiful, isolated beach), the Daintree Rainforest (tropical, wet, green and brown, complete with mangroves) and Mossman Gorges (rapid flowing water, very humid, dense forest with elevated board walk). I also took a Daintree River crocodile cruise—I saw 5 crocs! They’re territorial so they’re predictably in certain spots along the waterfront.
Friday I basked in the lagoon all day after not getting a lot of sleep—a gecko invaded my room in the middle of the night and I was terrified it was poisonous. Not having a roommate, I put on Garden State, my favourite movie and before I knew it woke up when the janitor came to my rescue. He said they’re harmless. Anyway—I realized how easy it is to get sunburnt here. Ouch.
Today was the ultimate day though. Get ready. I dived the Great Barrier Reef. That’s right. I fulfilled one of my dreams today. A bus service drove a group of us up to Port Douglas, where we caught a bumpy boat ride out to the reef. I got suited up and plunged in (a 1.5 m drop from the boat), ready to see the largest biogenic structure on Earth that you can see from outer space. We descended and I look to my right, the first thing I saw about 2 m away was a shark. The next thing I saw was a turtle. And the rest was all coral, fish, crabs, sea cucumbers...I also saw and pet a 1.5 m long Maori Wrasse. It’s super friendly—just came up right to me asking for a pet.
I dived three dives at 18, 16 and 14 m each for about 45-55 minutes. I had some trouble getting so close to the reef—not wanting to damage it. But I got more comfortable in the water. Because I was alone, I was the divemaster’s buddy—so he was really keen on pointing things out to me. He also knew where all the cool spots were on the reef. In between dives we got fed heaps of delicious food—seafood, sweets, coffee, tea, fresh fruit, salads, curried dishes, potato salad, chicken...I thought I may need to drop one of the weights off my weight belt after lunch (not really—but the food was THAT good).
Tomorrow I’m going to plan out the rest of my days here—3 more to go until I catch the 6 AM plane to Sydney! I’m thinking of either a bike trail day, horse back riding half day or river rafting/sea kayaking half day. I’m aiming for half days so I still have time to relax at the lagoon. Once it hits 4 or 5 o’clock it’s pointless to sunbathe (remember—east coast!) and so the days go quickly. But peacefully. I love vacation and I love relaxing—it’s been so long since I haven’t had school.
Speaking of school—my marks came back! All up to K standards :)
No comments:
Post a Comment