Australia: Part 1 - Cairns, Port Douglas, Cape Tribulation

Following my stopover in French Polynesia, I headed for Australia. The sheer size of Australia was a little overwhelming to me. I had only planned three weeks to explore before my flight to New Zealand, so I chose to focus on Australia's east coast. Also, I had decided that joining a group tour seemed like the best way to see the most in a short amount of time.

When it came to choosing a company, I immediately went to the Contiki website. Years earlier, as a college graduation present from each of our parents, my buddy Kristie and I received a trip to western Europe. It was a whirlwind; we visited 8 countries in just over two weeks. For that trip, our parents chose to use Contiki. They are a company that focuses on providing trips for 18-35s. They allow for a relatively low-budget travel experience where you get to see a lot of the highlights and still have free time to wander on your own. Since I had such a great experience with them the first time, I selected Contiki's "Reefs and Rainforests" trip for my Australian walkabout. I would start in Cairns on February 1st and end in Sydney 18 days later. A new country, a new continent, and oh that Australian accent... I was excited!

I got off the plane in Cairns and felt the heat and humidity straight away. I made my way to downtown and checked into a hotel. I changed into clothes more appropriate for the weather and spent the afternoon strolling along the esplanade. And as much as I wanted to go swimming, I had good reason to refrain!

The next morning, I woke up and walked to the botanical gardens.

In the afternoon, I made my way to the Rydges Hotel to start the tour with Contiki. I walked into the room and met my roommates for the night; Jen (Canada), Rebecca (Australia), and Nicole (USA). We got to know each other a little and then went downstairs to meet the rest of our group. Our tour guide, Carolyn, introduced herself and gave a quick rundown of the upcoming days. We met five more people who would be joining us for the two-day jaunt up to Cape Tribulation; Brett (USA), Michael (Canada), Georgie (UK), Travis (Australia), and Krystin (Australia). We all went out for pizza that night.

More people joined our group in the morning; Lewis and Eve (France), Angela and Margaux (Switzerland), Devon (Canada), and Kaitlyn (Canada). We hopped on the bus, Carolyn played our day song for the first time ("I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas), and our driver, Mick, started the drive to Port Douglas.

Port Douglas is a cute, resort town just north of Cairns. We walked along the main street down to the beach (I didn't swim here either), window-shopped, grabbed some lunch, and finally back to the bus.

We stopped at a swimming hole at Mossman Gorge. It started raining on us so it was cut short.

We took the ferry across the Daintree River to Cape Tribulation and stopped at a lookout to see the view.

Then, we continued down the road towards our lodge. Watch out for cassawaries!

That night, we had dinner at the lodge among some gigantic spiders.

Then, most of us walked down to the only restaurant/bar in town and danced the night away!

Devon, Jen, Carolyn (guide), Mick (driver)

Georgie and Kaitlyn

Rebecca, Krystin, Mike, Brett, Nicole

By about 12:30am, we were ready to head back to the lodge. Walking in complete darkness and trying to avoid the poisonous cane toads was a difficult task.

In the morning, we drove to the Daintree Rainforest. It is by far the oldest rainforest on Earth; 16 times older than the Amazon. And another fun fact: Cape Tribulatin is the only place in the world where two World Heritage Sites touch each other (the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef). Pretty cool!

Next up was a crocodile cruise on the Daintree River. In preparing for the cruise, I saw this guy clinging on to the leaves of a plant.

The cruise was really beautiful and peaceful. And we did see a few crocs which was great.

I spent some of the afternoon at the beach. The great thing I found about many of the beaches is that they are empty, making them a great place for walking and reflecting. However, the reason they are so empty is because it's too dangerous to swim in the water. That's somewhat disappointing for me. So, I went back to the lodge and swam in the pool instead.

Before leaving the cape the following morning, we made a short stop at Blue Hole to do some swimming.

I know what you are thinking... this is the perfect setting for crocs. Believe me, I was thinking it too, but we were assured there were no crocodiles here.

Cape Tribulation was a beautiful add-on to the beginning of my Australian adventure. We made our way back to Cairns where we would add a lot more people to our group and have the official start to the Reefs and Rainforest tour.