Cairns at first glance

To fall with the door into the house, which is a poorly translatable Dutch saying meaning: to get to the point. Cairns is quite a boring town. There is enough to do if you have some money or your own transportation, but for a nearly flat broke backpacker with just flip-flops as mode of transport like me it can be a bit dull.

Daytrips are the entertainment of choice of you want to keep yourself busy. And there are loads of them. Come visit the Atherton tablelands, do a crocodile sighting tour, come deep sea fishing, bungy jumping, zoom the dome, skydiving. Just do it! Awesome deals right here! Reef trips, scuba diving, maxi yacht sailing, booze cruises, Green Island, Fitzroy Island, Lizard Island. Come do it now!! Touters try to lure you in, signs with the latest deals shout at you as you walk past, flyers seduce you with bright colors and Photoshop enhanced pictures. It is definitely tourism that reigns here in Cairns. And if tourism is king then capitalism is queen.

All the big car brands have a shop here. Big showrooms displaying cars polished to perfection. Every fast food chain is present. Souvenir shops which are mainly focused on the Asian tourists, selling the exact same stuff as their neighbor. Bright letters on the window in English and Japanese promote stuffed koala bears, boomerangs and knock off Uggs. Night stores with ridiculous prices run by Indians named Manjit or Leo, tattoo shops all over town. Yes, you have arrived in Cairns. Tourism Central of ‘far north’ Queensland.

All this, off course, is made possible by the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Cairns is ‘THE’ place to depart from in order to see this wonder of nature. Every morning a small fleet of tour operators set out to spend the day on the reef. Pristine blue waters, an abundance of marine life and hopefully the sun on your back make for a great experience. If you really want to experience the GBR there is the option to go on a live aboard trip. 3 days and 2 night will be spend on the reef. The destination will be the more untouched outer reef, which boasts clearer waters and bigger marine life. This is the trip of choice for the avid scuba diver or for people who would like to get their scuba certification on the most famous reef in the world.

All this you can do during the day. At night the souvenir shops and travel stores close their doors and the clubs and pubs open theirs. There is party pretty much every night. Pub crawls, karaoke nights, 2-4-1 deals, $7 jugs of beer, Wet T-shirt competition, Mr & Mrs Backpacker contest. Bring your friend, make a friend! Have a good time! Get drunk. Get laid. Get some kebab!

I realize that after reading this, it doesn’t seem a very accurate conclusion to call Cairns a boring town. But yet again it still is. The daytrips are quite expensive and going out every single night is too costly and wreaks havoc on your body. There is no beach to chill at during the day, just mud flats with crocodile warning signs. The place to go enjoy the day without spending anything is the Esplanade. It is a very well maintained park that stretches the length of the bay form North Cairns all the way down to the city center. Bright green laws dotted with palm trees, giant fig trees and other tropical shrubbery. It includes a lagoon where you can cool of and swim, a skate park, beach volleyball courts. Muddy’s, one of the coolest public children’s playground I’ve seen and public BBQs every 500 meters or so. 

It is also the place to go and exercise. The Esplanade is about 3km long and makes for a perfect morning run. There are public exercise stations which turns the area into a big green public gym.

For me it is the best thing about Cairns so far. Before it becomes too hot, I go for a run along the water’s edge while taking in the beauty of the with rainforest covered hills on the other side if the bay. The sun just peering through the clouds, a thin slither of mist drifting low past the hill side, lighting up silver where the sun touches it. A range of birds foraging on the mud flats during low tide, little crabs running around looking for their own grub but avoiding the lighting fast strike of the white herons.

It can be quite peaceful and serene during those early hours. But it doesn’t last. As soon as King Tourism and Queen Capitalism wake up and take over, Cairns turns into the expensive boring town again. But the fact that you are in the tropics watching the ocean underneath a palm tree makes up for a lot and can make life very enjoyable and rich.

 

Waterfalls at the Atherton Tablelands

When travelling alone and staying at hostels in Australia it is always very easy to meet new people. And so I did when staying at the Globetrotter hostel in Cairns. They asked me if I wanted to join them on a road trip to the surrounding country of Cairns. With ‘them’ I mean a girl from France named Lea, one from Scotland named Keri, one from the USA named Julie and an English bloke called Rory.

We departed the following day in a rental car to discover the Atherton Tablelands, which holds the two highest mountains in Queensland and is known for its beautiful waterfalls, endless green rolling hills and lush rainforest covering the mountainside. With 5 people crammed into a small Hyundai Getz we set off to our first stop, The Boulders.

The name more or less explains what we were about to see. Giant Boulders with clear water flowing around them. It was too dangerous to swim there and we followed a walking trail from look out to look out to take in the beauty of the site. It looked a bit surreal. The way the water had shaped the rocks over years and years to a smooth surface. Rounds boulders stocking out, dimples carved away by the ever flowing water. Different colored layers made up the surface of the rock. Ranging from dark red to light brown. I reminded me vaguely of the manmade wild water rapids found in an old tropical waterpark called Tropicana only much bigger and without the plastic tinge to it.

We could immediately feel that we were in the rainforest. Off course the tropical vegetation gave it away but it was the humidity that was prominently present. I absolutely loved it. Nothing like some heavy sticky air to remind you that you’re not in Kansas anymore.

Josephine falls

We continued to what turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip, Josephine Falls. Underway we found that Australians use some pretty weird and macabre names for creeks and places. We passed a ‘Murder house winery’, slaughter house creek and a Butchers creek. While we were laughing about it we noticed a little town on the map called ‘Bones Knob’. I imagined that to be a pretty sexy place to live in where ’70 porn star moustaches are the facial hair of choice.  

Anyways, back to Josephine Falls. This place was absolutely amazing. Apparently everybody thinks so since a manmade concrete path led us to it. The waterfall is fed by cold water coming down from Mt. Bartle Frere, the tallest mountain of Queensland with its 1622 meters. The fall cascades down over several levels. Grinding down the mainly marble and basalt surface to a slippery slope before plunging in pool at the bottom only to repeat this again until the incline drops and turn the river into a rapid littered with boulders that disappears into the forest. The last pool isn’t fed by the water falling down but rather by a slope that doubles as a waterslide for the people who dare to brave the cool water. Surrounded by impenetrable rainforest this clearing is breathtaking with the sun peering through the canopy, glistening on the crystal clear water. We had lunch on a giant boulder with a flat top in the middle of the stream looking out over the waterfall. Soothed by the sound of the falling and flowing water.

After lunch I decided to check what beauty was hiding behind the corner as the stream bend to the left into the forest. Jumping from boulder to boulder I made my way down. The stream broadened a bit and forced me to follow the water’s edge, but I didn’t make it that far. Using branches of the trees lining the river to balance myself on the slippery rocks I felt something brushing up against my shoulder. I turned out to be a web of the weirdest spider I have ever seen. The little critter was about the size of my fingernail with what looked like a shield of bright red and yellow which stuck out on either end of its body. This encounter cured me of any other adventures endeavors for the moment and reminded me that I was in a tropical rainforest in a country where everything is either poisonous or venomous. I made my way back to my travel companions to regroup and move to our next destination.   

We followed the road that led all around Wooroonooran National park. (Try and say that quickly 5 times) to Millaa Millaa Falls. It took about an hour since everything in Australia is far away, but it was a beautiful drive. Endless green rolling hills on either side. Grazing cows and horses as little spots in the hillsides. Mt. Bartle Frere as background with its summit hidden in the clouds. A wide range of the color green, the one shade even brighter than the other.

As we cruised along we were overtaken by Jeep Wrangler rented by some hipsters. They didn’t keep enough distance between them and a big truck in front. Due to road works the truck had to brake and the Jeep almost folded itself around the back fender. The smell of burning rubber and brake pads greeted us accompanied by a big puff of smoke. It was a very close call. After this ‘almost’ accident the driver of the jeep decided to continue in the same fashion and overtook the truck in a corner while climbing a hill. We were all dumbstruck by that and dubbed the Jeep, ‘work truck’ since it was obviously full of tools (slang for dumbasses).

Millaa Millaa

Not long after our front row seat show of faces of (near) death we arrived at the circuit that led past three waterfalls. Millaa Millaa being the biggest and most well-known. The waterfall was about 15 meters high. The water plummeting down into a calm pond that drained into a small stream. You could swim up to it and enjoy a nice massage of falling cold water. The back of the waterfall I found especially interesting. Through all kinds of ways, listed on a tourist information sign which I don’t remember, straight columns of basalt, black at jet formed the wall behind the thin curtain of water.

Ellinjaa

Although MIllaa Millaa was supposed to be best one, I favored Ellinjaa Falls. The water didn’t fall from hat high but rather cascaded down over formerly jagged rock now rounded by the water. A big tree trunk that came down the waterfall, probably during the raining season, was stuck a shallower part right in the middle in front of the waterfall. This off course made for a perfect picture opportunity and we all had our little ‘Kodak moment’. The third fall was called Zillie Falls, but not as easily accessible as the others.

Since it was close to 4pm we pushed on and headed for Lake Eacham. A crater lake of 65 meters deep which made for a unique habitat. I found it the (true) highlight of our trip. Rainforest lined the entire lake up to the edge save for the manmade clearing used for sunbathing and picnics. There was a certain calm about the place. A true serenity. It was quiet except for the birds and sounds of the rainforest. A single pelican swam across the lake as a silhouette while the reflection of the sun formed a golden dagger on the water’s surface. I just sat there taking it in, writing in my journal trying to find the words that did the place and the energy it emitted justice. I still haven’t found them.

The sun was slowly descending towards the horizon and we had one more thing on our list we wanted to see before heading back to Cairns. Lea had already seen it and promised us that it was quite special. We went to look at a tree. And not just a tree, but a curtain fig tree. The roots of fig trees grow down from the branches to form trunks of their own and support the ever widening ‘roof’. This tree however fell over onto a neighboring tree and the roots had grown down as a curtain, hence the name. It was an enormous tree around 500 years old and definitely something special.

We took about 20 minutes to marvel at the sight of the forest giant and got back in the car for the last leg of the trip back to Cairns. Most roads so far had been straight so we were not prepared for the type of road that laid ahead. A 2 lane road winding down the mountain. Steep rock cliffs on the left and a green valley on the right the road twisted and turned constantly. Turn after turn at a pretty steep decline. It was called Gillies Highway and it felt we were on a rollercoaster ride that lasted for over 30 minutes. I was loads of fun although not everyone in the car felt that way. But after half an hour of snaking down the mountain everyone was glad that it was over. The rest of the ride home was very smooth and we just chatted about what an amazing day it had been.

We had driven about 300 km that day, had seen some amazing places and all that for just $20. Being backpackers and always on a budget, that made the already successful trip taste just a little bit sweeter.