Cairns.

On the road again. This time as far north I'm going to go on this Australian Adventure trip: to Cairns. Hopefully I'll come back again to see the GBR and rain forest but I still have another month left, who knows what will happen! I booked a 2 hour bus ride to Cairns. ONLY 2 HOURS! Only really because it was the cheapest option to fly back south. I looked into every option, comparing prices and times and destinations but this just seemed to be the easiest, and plus it was a chance to see Cairns, being so close to it, rather than backtrack down the coast again. The bus from Mission Beach would have gone from 9:25am until 12:30pm the following day. More than 24 hours on a bus? I had reached my limit.

On the bus, I was actually looking forward to Cairns more than I thought I would, but hopefully not regretting having more time to spend there. If I left when I had planned to, there was still the opportunity to do my farm work in Mt Tamborine outside of the Gold Coast, so I felt as though I needed to get back. It would have been nice to go on a boat to see more of the reef, but I didn't really have much time.

I ended up really liking Carins. I didn't have any expectations for it, nor was I planning on ever going there, but even if it was just the cheapest option to fly out of, I'm glad I went. It was odd to be back in a city again, although it's not that big. It was a bit like an old western town. The streets were lit up with bright lights from restaurants and cafes where diners were enjoying the night's warm weather sitting outside. I watched them all, hungrily, as I trudged through with my backpack, trying not to knock anyone over. It's funny not having eaten out in a while because when I look at menus all I see are prices. I decided to go out and check out the city. One of the girls in my room was a 33 year old Italian and we went to get our free meal voucher at the Woolshed, as provided by our hostel. 

And I must not forget to mention, everyone was commenting on my lovely sunburn from my 3 hour walk in Mission Beach. It surprisingly didn't hurt or give me any chills, just a lot of stares.

I went for a walk at dusk along the water, past the lagoon and around the harbour. It was really pretty and there were a lot of nice looking hotels, apartments and restaurants where "real" people were eating. It was kinda nice to not see backpackers.

I also stopped in one of the museums and paid $5 to see Goya's Los Caprichos drawings.

BATS LOVE CAIRNS. It's almost creepy how many thousands of bats there were flying from one side of the city to the other. And I mean hundreds and thousands. There were big ones with pointy wing spans, and little baby ones that would fly closer to the ground in circles. Apparently there is one set of trees where they sleep during the day and then flight across the city at night to another fruit grove where they feast in the dark.

And as appropriate as can be, on the very last night of my trip up the coast, I ran into again two English blokes who I had met on my very first stop way back in Byron Bay. They were the two drinking goon at 10am on the bus to Nimbin, who I later saw in Rainbow Beach and again in Airlie Beach. It's really funny how you run into people unexpectedly, but always pleasantly. A familiar face in the unknown. Always a laugh that says, "you again!"