Our East Coast tour was coming to an end. With only 2 days
left we started to reminisce about all the things we had done, the places we
had seen and the people we had met. Time had flown by, but the feeling behind
it was bittersweet. As much fun as we had on our travels, the need for some
stability was ready lingering in the back our minds. A room to call your own
for more than a night, time to actually cook a proper meal rather than grabbing
a packet of crisps at a gas station, and a place to air/dry your clothes before
packing them away…
Like always, we got up nice and early in preparation for our
morning pick up. All we were expecting [and told we would get] was a little
white mini bus that would take us for the 2.5 hour trip from Cairns to Cape
Tribulation; however what we was wasn’t expecting was the mini bus to actually
be part of a tour. The bad side of this was that it in fact took us 5 hours to
get to Cape Trib [due to various stop offs to see some scenery etc] , but on
the brighter side, we got a free lunch and free entry to a wildlife sanctuary!
Finally I got to see some of the Aussie wildlife the country is so
famous for. First we got to see some of the native birds including the elusive
Cassowary, which is a pre-historic looking bird which only lives in the
rainforests in this area. Most people believe it only to be a myth as it is
so rare to see one in the wild. But, they are real as we saw one.
Our favourite section was the ‘drylands’ as it housed all
the hopping mammals we all automatically associate this fine country with! What
made it even better was that there was no one else around so Scott and I had
our choice of wallabies and kangaroos to pet and feed.
The plan was to start with the cuter, smaller ones and work
our way up, but halfway through as we were feeding some dessert wallabies this
massive beast rocked up next to us, looking for his food. I won’t lie;
kangaroos are actually pretty intimidating. They are about as tall as us and
have these massive balls swinging about all over the place as the hop [that’s
not necessarily why they are intimidating… it’s just a bit weird to look at].
Once we mustered the courage to extend a palm of food towards him though, it
was fine, slobbery, but fine.
When we reached our hostel [located deep in the mountainous
rainforest] I went for a swim in a nearby freshwater lagoon while Scott chilled
out in the room with the massive spiders that guarded the front door. As the
sun disappeared behind the mountain tops and darkness stole it’s place, we got
into a minibus and took a 5 minute trip into the jungle for a night walk. I
would be lying if I said we got to see loads of nocturnal wildlife that night,
but it was more the experience of wondering through the rainforest in total
darkness that made it interesting. We did however get to see a few nocturnal
iguanas and plenty of massive spiders lurking around us to satisfy any creature
cravings we were having.
Surprisingly, even after seeing all these creepy-crawlies we
both managed to get a pretty good nights sleep! The best part was we then also
got a lay in the next morning! Unheard of.
9:30am and it was time for the very last activity we would
be doing on our East Coast tour [yes, tears were shed]. Again we got a minibus
to where we started the night-walk and geared up for the ‘treetop tour of the
jungle’.
Basically this just involved us zip-wiring from trees of
differing heights, working our way from the top of the mountain to the bottom.
The guides told us about rainforest and the trees we were passing etc along the
way, and were really upbeat and kept it interesting for us.
Within an hour it was all over, as was the trip. Scott and I
travelled back to Cairns for the night before booking our flights back to
Sydney the following morning. And now here we are, back where we started, only
with a lot less money.
Feels nice to be back. We can start looking for work and get
back into some kind of routine again which means eventually we can get out of
these hostels and rent an actual apartment in the city. Oh to have my own room,
complete with a wardrobe, it actually sounds like heaven!
The journey has been amazing! We’ve both come away with some
great memories and stories to tell hopefully once we get settled there will be
time again to get some more, whether that be in Australia or somewhere else.
Who knows.
We’ll still update the blog whenever something happens, but
I regret to inform you [tissues at the ready] that it won’t be as often as it
currently has been. I don’t want it to turn into ‘we went to work today, it
rained at lunch’.
Try not to despair folks, like I said, if something happens
you’ll see the news here first! So check back every-so often!
An amazing few weeks,
which have challenged ourselves and given us some priceless, good times!
See you around.
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