Ryan Down Under

After the sailing trip there was an after party that included lots of dancing on tables among other things. This is where I had to work my magic and score a ride north again. I was introduced to an Israeli dude named Nadav who had a camper van and he agreed to take me to Townsville. I have to say, all the Israeli people I met on the trip have been real characters, tons of fun. My favourite quote from Nadav was 'Ryan, prepare your belly, we are going to have a stop at Subway!'. It wasn't too far to Townsville and I checked into a hostel, watched a movie and crashed. Next morning, Nadav came over to bring my camera which I left in his van, and we decided to drive to the top of Castle Hill that domintates the 'skyline' of townsville. Pretty cool, reminded me a lot of Mt. McKay in Thunder Bay. Similar height and similar sights from the top, that is to say, the water, the entire town and even the airport. Next we checked out the Sunday morning market downtown, where there was even a booth selling 'Poffertjes: little Dutch pancakes' at a price of 5$ for 18 or something like that.
Nadav had to stay in town to try and find a job and sell his camper van so I got on the bus for Cairns in the afternoon. I met a few guys from the sailing trip on the bus including Itai, another hilarious Israeli. In the end, after paying for gas, food and the hostel, I paid 10$ more than if I had just taken the bus, but I got to see a whole other town and have a few extra laughs. Again, scoring rides from people at the pub is definitely the way to travel.
I got to Cairns in the early evening, and went out to meet up with Itai and another friend from Switzerland, and also Paul who drove me to Airlie Beach. We took in the soccer game with some beers and a big sausage on a bun. Over the course of the night I tried to organize a day trip north to Mossman Gorge, and Port Douglas as well as the Daintree River, but failed miserably. The next day was one of the first nice days in Cairns for awhile so I went down to the lagoon and chilled all afternoon to actually finally get a tan so it looks like I've actually been in the tropical north when I got back to Melbourne, and it worked.
The next morning I was booked on a dive trip on the Noahs Ark Too. This was by far the cheapest and best valued trip to the reef that exists operating out of Cairns. I paid 100$ plus reef tax, plus 10$ more to have a guided scuba dive. The trip included 2 dives and a buffet lunch as well. Most companies charge 100$ plus another 40 and 30 for the first and second dives you take. The crew was awesome and heaps of fun. We pulled up to Michaelmas Cay, which had a sand island that is a bird sanctuary. I first went on the guided dive and I have to say it was a good idea and I recommend it. The instructor showed us a family of nemo fish swimming in an anemone, he taught us that you can actualyl touch a giant clam and have it close on your hand but still be able to get out, and the best part, he had a fish head in his pocket the whole time and there were sharks everywhere! Black and white tipped reef sharks up to 7 feet long circled us the whole time. I had the chance to stare one right down as it swam at me, and I could see the rows of teeth in his mouth. There were also giant trevallies swimming all around charging us to defend their territory. We also saw and played with some huge sea cucumbers and sting rays. We also came across a sea turtle which was pretty magical. They just have their fins out and appear to be flying effortlessly through the water like an eagle soars through the sky. I really should have had an underwater camera, there was so much cool stuff to see on those 2 dives. Something else I found exciting was people telling me that the diving gets even better than this in Malaysia and Thailand, so Ill be looking forward to that in December.
I met a guy named Dave from England on the dive trip as well as 2 Danish girls and we decided to rent a car the next day to drive North to see all the other stuff.
It cost 50$ to rent the car, plus 20$ for extra insurance and then 20$ for fuel in the end. Between 4 people, it sure beats paying 100$+ each for the organized day trips. We picked up the car and I was the designated driver, which the girls got a kick out of since I've barely ever driven a manual, and thats what this car was. It was such a piece of crap car it was hilarious. It was a Daihatsu for one thing, and super small. I eventually got the hang of driving the little guy and raced it like a rally car around the winding coastal roads, tons of fun.
No big deal though, we took off north and stopped at a lookout on our way to Mossman Gorge. This place was pretty cool. It was a pretty old rainforest and had a cool swimming hole.The water was really clear and green and there was a bunch of fish to keep us company. The water was way colder than out on the reef though. The trees were like I had never seen before with a special base to them that I should know all about from a wetlands class I've taken, but I have no idea. You can see from the picture how wild it was. There was also lots of places to jump into the creek and chill out and the shades of green were spectacular as you can also see from the pictures. The whole countryside is pretty cool up North of Cairns, with much more mountains that I originally thought would be there, as well as a road that winds along the coast.
We found our way onto some gravel back roads that led into the table lands there where there is just farms. We drove around there for awhile and climbed a coconut tree and found some banana trees. We also climbed one of the hills in a farmers field to get a view of the entire valley.
The worst and funniest part of the trip was when Dave was driving and he pressed the clutch instead of the gas and had time to yell 'oh shit' before he hit a pole in the parking lot of a grocery store. Scratched up the front panel pretty good. I was nervous because I was totally responsible for it but he said he would pay for it. They never called me about the damage so maybe it will just blow over.
The benefit of having the rental car was I didn't have to pay for a shuttle to the airport. Dave dropped me off there and just like that the whole trip was over. The plane wasn't full on the way home, so Ihad 3 seats to myself so I could crash after 3 late nights, early mornings and action packed days.