Cairns... Australia

We arrived at a small suburban campsite on the outskirts of Cairns which was within walking distance of the town centre. We pitched our tent, literally oblivious to everything going on around, then just died. What passed was just 10 hours of darkness, complete blackness, the kind of sleep were you wake up in the morning in exactly the same position than you went to bed.

It was only when i began to come around that i realized the true extent of the Queesland climate. It was absolutely fantastic. I honestly cant believe i even got to sleep it was so damn hot. Well this was it, the first day of our adventure and i was determined to make it an interesting one...

Ahhhhhh... freakin animals all over the shop, we were surrounded by critters that had spent half their life on steroids. "What the hell was that" i shouted.. all i will say is that the groundsheet rippled and whatever it was either got teleported to an orbiting spacecraft or disappeared into a supernatural void underneath the tent.. The locals must have been thinking "looks like we've got a couple more winging poms on the site". Talking about the locals, we are not talking UK caravan club stylee holiday makers, we are talking a pukka trailer park community. Simply think 'Home and Away' then add the reality of sharing a site with 24/7 working class residents, its not exactly a match made in heaven but it makes for an entertaining time if you are prepared to mingle a bit. We are talking a fusion of late night parties and police raids.. no hang on that was Bowen further down the coast..

From what i can remember Cairns was absolutely stunning. I've always had this philosophy of once you've seen one town you've seen them all but when you consider its overall location, Cairns was special. Its only when you actually look out form the harbour that you realize the extent of its geographic isolation. Across the bay was a Jurassic parkesque landscape of untouched bush clad hills cloaked in low level cloud. Directly in front was a vast harbour filled with expensive yachts, you could just imagine the rich and famous from around Australias shoreline cruising up the coast for a bit of fishing on the Barrier reef before parking up in Cairns to explore the upmarket restaurants. I couldn't get my head round seeing a Pelican right in front of me, it just seemed so happy and content, every couple of minutes gnoshing on a seemingly endless food supply "where were the discarded shopping trolleys, the floating pieces of sewage, the used condoms and syringes".. The place was immaculate, it was just a shame we had to leave so soon to find work further south.