Part 2 - Cairns, Queensland

 

The coach trip to Cairns included two memorable incidents, both involving the fairer sex. At one stage, I had changed seats to chat with someone and there were two young girls sitting at the back who started a conversation with me. From their accents they were obviously British, and I could also detect a west country lilt, so I asked them where they were from. It turned out that they had been to same school as me (Norton Hill), and were a couple of years below me. The coincidence of meeting someone on a bus between Darwin and Cairns who had gone to the same school thousands of miles away made an impact on me. The second incident occurred late at night. I met a young woman, Lorna*, who worked for the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. She was from Ireland originally, but had been living in Australia for several years and was on holiday. We chatted for some time and she mentioned that she had nowhere to stay when we arrived in Cairns (we were due to arrive at around 7.30am). I had booked a hotel room, so I offered to share the room I'd booked. She agreed and a short but enjoyable acquaintance was forged.

When we had recovered from the journey from Darwin, we set off to explore the Cairns sea front and then booked a return trip to a small island on the Great Barrier Reef about 45 minutes away by fast motor launch. I believe this was Fitzroy Island. The ride there on the Reef Jet was great and it was wonderful to travel and sunbathe with a beautiful woman. I was wondering if a romantic involvement was on the cards, but then Lorna told me that she was only staying in Cairns for two more days before heading down the coast to Magnetic Island. I planned to spend a week in Cairns before flying to Sydney, so I resigned myself to enjoying being just good friends. The next day, we got a steam train up to the Atherton Tablelands called Kuranda. First we found and excellent band playing modern Aborigine music, Tjapukai, including my first taste of the didgeridoo! Then we found a really high bungee jump set up in the forest. Lorna did the jump and tried to persuade me to join her, but for some reason, I declined. I think I regretted this a bit afterwards because Lorna could only talk about the jump for the next two days! Before returning on the train, I experienced another first. In an area selling lots of local arts and crafts there was a flying fox hanging upside down outside one of the huts! Wow! It looked like a flying dog! And when it stretched its wings out, the wingspan was shocking! After a very enjoyable day, we took the train back down to Cairns.

Both Lorna and I were interested in driving through the Daintree Rainforest north of Darwin, I knew there was a route through it with a place called 'The Jungle Lodge' on the way. I booked us in there and then we went to hire a 4x4 for the journey. Now luckily we were together, because I had the money but no credit card to rent the car, and Lorna had a credit card but not the necessary funds. Therefore, I cashed in the travellers cheques necessary to cover the rental, signed the forms and next thing we were driving along in a Suzuki Vitara with George Thorogood and the Destroyers blaring out through the onboard music system!

We took the road north out of Cairns and drove up to the Daintree Ferry. After crossing the ferry, we drove down to the sea near the Penguin Channel and happily took photos on the beach and of the crocodile warning signs! Then it was time to hurry on the Jungle Lodge before it got too late. It was dark when we arrived there at about 8.30pm. They had separate sleeping quarters for men and women, so after eating together I said goodnight to Lorna and had a few drinks before walking out into the rainforest alone in the dead of night. I did this just for the experience of feeling the night creatures around me. I didn't go far into the forest, and after a while I returned to get some sleep.

After breakfast the next morning, we set off early because we had a long way to go on tracks through the rainforest as far as Cooktown 126km away. There were some spectacular views across the rainforest, and to the sea beyond, and, not long after leaving the lodge, the track finished at a river bank, with the track continuing the other side of the river! I waited to check things out, and then, after watching three stockmen cross with some cattle, decided that we would either have to risk it, or go back the way we had come. The Vitara took the river in its stride and we continued through the forest. After a while, I started to put my foot down a bit, because Cooktown wasn't our final destination as we were heading back to Cairns again the same day, a further 331km. At one point, I screeched to a halt because I saw a sign by the side of the road saying "Viv's Place, Fish + chips, hamburgers + cold drinks". I posed beside the sign while Lorna took a photo. Unfortunately, we didn't have the time available to investigate Viv's Place, any further. After a while, the track got better and we could see the end of the forest in the distance. I stopped once again to take a photo of a very strange looking mountain on our right. It turned out that this 'Black Mountain' was known as the 'Bermuda Triangle' of Queensland! I took a photo of Lorna returning to the car after a brief visit to the Black Mountain National Park, but we were on a tight timetable and had to push on! We parked near the beach at Cooktown, and Lorna stayed there while I explored the lighthouse above the bay. We took the main road back to Cairns (Highway 81), which was, like virtually every other road I took in Queensland, very scenic, passing rivers, railways, lakes and reservoirs. We did make one final stop on the way back, which was to visit the Cathedral Fig Tree. It was a bit out of our way, but worth seeing while we had transport.

I felt a bit sad the next morning, as we returned the car, and I saw Lorna off on her trip south to Magnetic Island and returned, despondently, to the hotel.

However, my despondency didn't last very long. I left the hotel room I had been sharing with Lorna that day and moved into a Backpackers in the centre of Cairns. These cheap hotels often involve dormitory accommodation and are a good way to meet new people.

Now, let me explain something about Cairns. It reminded me of a kind of Disney World for people who liked adventure sports! It seemed that you could do just about anything if you had the money to pay for it! A hang glider had caught my eye during our trip to Kuranda, and I had plans to try to get my pilot's licence after a three-day training course. I called the guy on the flier and arranged for him to pick me up the next morning at 8am at the cafe outside my hotel. Then I went out drinking and woke up the next day with a bad hangover. I was nursing a coffee in the cafe at 9 the next morning, but the guy didn't show up. By 9am I was on my third coffee and wondering what to do (there were no mobile phones in those days) when I noticed a sign on the wall saying "Diving in the Outer Barrier Reef, contact *****". "Ok. That'll do", I decided. I asked in the cafe where to find them and headed down to the docks, stopping to buy a small waterproof underwater camera on the way. Next thing I was flying out of Cairns on a sailing boat built for speed, and a guy was asking me to sign a form basically saying that if I died, it had absolutely nothing to do with them, and I took full responsibility for my life during the day's sport! One of the instructors, Dave, showed us how to clear water from within our masks by leaning our heads back, pressing on the top of the mask and breathing out through our noses. Next, they showed us what to do if water if water got into our respirators, which involved removing the item and pressing a button to release oxygen through it before replacing it again, and that was it. We arrived at the diving area on the Barrier Reef out of sight of any land and then we were divided into two groups to jump into the sea.

It was the first time I had ever really enjoyed being underwater! There were thousands of tropical fish around me and I snapped at them as best as I could with my underwater camera. One of the dive instructors saw me, swam over, took my camera from my hand, took a picture and returned the camera to me. Underwater photography must be one of the most difficult skills to learn, because when I got my photos developed, the only photo which had anything recognisable in it was the one the instructor had taken of me!

I had heavy weights on a belt around my waist and dropped down to the coral, then I started rising back up towards the boat with no control whatsoever over what was happening! Almost immediately, someone's flipper caught my mask, pulling up the rubber nose cover and my mask immediately filled completely with seawater. "Ok, tilting my head back isn't going to hack it here!", I said to myself, then realising that I wasn't enjoying the experience a jot, I made the signal - a hitch-hiking gesture with the thumb - to request to be taken up to the surface. An instructor came over immediately and helped me up to the back of the boat, which had a step-like structure on the back to help divers in and out of the water. "I've got people down below, is it ok if I leave you here?", the instructor said. I assented, and when he'd disappeared started to pull myself up onto the boat. However, I got as far as the weight belt and didn't have the strength to pull myself and the belt out of the water. "Ok, I'll take of the belt", I said to myself, before realising that the chances of braining one of my fellow divers on the coral below if I dropped it were quite high, so I discounted that idea. I knew that one of the crew was still on the boat, but he was resting with either a hangover or the flu (everyone else was off snorkeling). Nevertheless, I was able to wake him up eventually and asked how I got back on to the boat. "Use your knees to pull yourself up the steps", he explained. Easy when you know how! After 20 minutes or so, groups 1 and 2 returned and the instructor sat next to me and said "Do you want to try again with group 2?". "What was I doing wrong?", I asked, "One minute I was scrabbling about in the coral, the next I was flying up towards the boat!". He explained that I had been all hunched up*² and wasn't using my flippers to move around.  So I agreed to have another go, and this time I got the hang of it! After exploring around under to the boat, and swimming through fantastic multi-coloured schools of tropical fish, I noticed one of the instructors some distance away beckoning to us. I swam over to where he was standing beside a giant clam, and as he moved his gloved hand near the opening, the huge animal, about one metre across, slammed shut its gaping undulated mouth. I continued swimming around for a total of 20 minutes and then noticed that seawater was entering my mouthpiece. I felt I'd pushed my luck enough for one day, so, once again, I asked one of the instructors to take me up to the surface. This he did, and once again, he said "I have to get back down, are you ok to get back to the boat?". I nodded and he disappeared. "Now, where's the boat?", I asked myself. When I managed to locate it about 50 metres away, I panicked for a few seconds. "My God! I can't swim that far!", I thought to myself; and then the logical part of my brain chipped in.... "You've got oxygen tanks and a face mask, you idiot!". So I flapped my flippers and in no time at all I was back on board the boat happily smoking a cigarette. The next stage in the trip involved sailing to a coral cay. These geological formations are fascinating: a strip of sand in the middle of the ocean with the waves breaking against both sides. Our catamaran sailed up  to one of these and we all got off the boat and had lunch and drinks. The sail back to Cairns in the sunset after such a fun and enjoyable day was forever captured on film; the feeling of utter contentment I felt at the time can only be transmitted in this humble text.

I still hadn't completely given up on the hang gliding, so I went to rent a car and try to track them down. Unfortunately, the only transportation for hire was a 'Ute' (pronounced /YOOT/). I had no idea what that was, but when I went outside to check, I found out that it was a flat-bed truck. I didn't really care what I was driving, so I agreed, paid the money and the next thing I was searching around the hills outside Cairns looking for any sign of hang gliders in the air or on the ground. I had a nice drive round, but didn't find the hang glider people. This adventure sport would have to wait until I arrived in Rio a few years later.

"Another day, another adventure", was my motto in Queensland. The scuba diving was followed by horse riding on a huge cattle ranch. When I say 'huge' we need to bear in mind that Australian cattle stations are of mind boggling dimensions. The largest farm in Queensland is 3,730,000 acres. Yes over three and a half million acres or 1,509,477 hectares. When we got to the top of a hill with a view over thousands of miles, our guide said "everything you can see in all directions is our cattle station!". My horse, Major, was a retired working ranching horse, which had been happily munching grass free before being roped in to take me for a ride. I had been riding many times in England, but there, the horses were all virtually on autopilot, knowing both the route and routine and, as a result, becoming virtually uncontrollable when it was time to head back to the stables. On this ride it was different. When I pulled gently left on the reins, Major went left. When I dug gently in with my heels, Major sped up to a trot or canter. There was one exception. We were spread out in the scrubland when I decided I wanted to explore an area which looked an interesting viewpoint. I tugged on the reins to pull Major to the left, but he dug in his hoofs and refused to move. "This is unusual", I thought, "let's take a closer look at where I want to go". I examined the ground to the front left, and half hidden by a rock, I spied the head and upper body of a snake. Major had refused to go there because he recognised a danger I had been unaware of. That two and a half hour ride across the Queensland outback was by far the best experience I had riding horses both before and since that time.

On my last day before flying out of Queensland and on to Sydney in New South Wales, I decided to head back to the water, and booked a freshwater fishing trip. It was a beautiful day for a relaxing day watching a float bobbing up and down on the end of a fishing line. I didn't catch anything, but that for me is only a secondary consideration as far as the sport of fishing is concerned.

 

* Name changed

*² Intransitive verb (v.intr), entry 1.