Muddle Through Memoirs

The Highs and Lows of Cairns and Far North Queensland

Cairns and the Upper North region hold some of the most incredible and diverse habitats, ranging from the Daintree Rainforest to the Great Barrier Reef, and so make an ideal location for anyone with a passion for wildlife or conservation.

My first outing in Cairns was to the village of Kuranda, a mountain village nestled among a tropical rainforest. One of the things that sets Kuranda apart is the amazing transportation to and from the village that offers a unique way to experience the journey through Barron Gorge National Park.
On the way up I took the scenic railway, a 90 minute train ride in carriages that wouldn’t look out of place in an Agatha Christie novel. The quaint little train departs from the Cairns train station but soon leaves behind the town behind as it winds its way through the forest, round tight bends, through tunnels and past the beautiful Barron Falls, where it stops to give passengers a chance to get out and take photos.

Once arriving in the village of Kuranda there’s a whole range of touristic activities on offer including a large set of markets, the Koala Gardens, Birdworld and the Butterfly Sanctuary.
Our first first stop was Birdworld where there was a variety of tropical and native birds from Australia and beyond, many of whom are extremely friendly and happy to fly down and hang out with you in exchange for some food (sold at the entrance). There was one bird in particular that took a shine to my friend Celine and I, hopping from her shoulder to mine and then when asked to move on so we could walk round to see some of the others, promptly told us “no” in a freakily low, assertive voice. At first we thought we might be having some sort of joint hallucination, since we couldn’t coax him into saying anything else, but as was confirmed by one of the keepers, it turns out he just likes to talk whenever you’re not looking (a bit like the toys in toy story I guess), and he did give us a quick “bye-bye” as we left.

I made a quick stop for lunch at Frogs Restaurant, the same spot that mum and I had eaten in 8 years ago where we’d tried the crocodile curry! I went for a slightly tamer option this time of barramundi and tamarind and it definitely didn’t disappoint. The other spot I headed to was the Butterfly Sanctuary, just a really lovely and peaceful spot where you can see some incredible and beautiful butterflies of all shapes and sizes flying around and even landing on you occasionally if you’re patient enough.

On the way back down towards Cairns I took the other favourite mode of transport, the Kuranda Skyrail. The Skyrail is a 7.5km cable-car ride through the treetops with stops again at Barron falls, though from the other side, and at a Rainforest boardwalk station. As a solo traveller on a quiet day I was lucky enough to get a car to myself the whole way down and definitely enjoyed the peaceful ride through the rainforest, making a perfect end to the day.

Without any argument, the most iconic activity to do in Cairns is to visit the Great Barrier Reef. I did a day tour with Reef Experience who offer both snorkelling at multiple destinations along the reef and also an intro scuba dive for anyone who would like to give it a go. I’m not at all confident in the sea so though I did give the scuba a brief go and passed the tests, ultimately I decided that I wasn’t comfortable enough with the breathing systems and depths and so stuck to snorkelling.
Nevertheless, I definitely didn’t feel that I missed out on the incredible coral reef views, swimming amongst the hundreds of tropical fish and much more. At the first snorkelling spot I was one of the first in the water and quickly headed out in search of some cool fish but almost immediately came across a beautiful turtle instead! Though I did try to signal to the rest of the group, the only one who saw me was the boat photographer, resulting in me being the only one on the boat to get a picture with a turtle and possibly the most iconic photo I will ever have taken. As I was so far away from the others and floating calmly nearby but not crowding, the turtle was more than happy to swim up to the surface for air right beside me before heading back down and circling underneath me for some time before slowly heading off. This is the second time I’ve swam with turtles and it just never gets old, these creatures are truly majestic. I got the chance to swim with another turtle at the second snorkel spot as well as 2 gorgeous reef sharks, making this day a truly amazing experience I’ll never forget.

The last day trip I took from Cairns was the infamous Uncle Brian’s Cape Tribulation tour, led by our eccentric tour guide Frankie, who only spoke in the third person to the degree that it took an hour into the start of the tour for us to realise he was in fact referring to himself when he spoke. The tour took us from Cairns, through Port Douglas, and Mossman (one of the first townships to be handed back to its traditional custodians) to the Daintree Rainforest, an area estimated to be more than 144 million years old. The sheer age of the forest means that it holds an almost complete record of the evolution of plant life on Earth, and more families of flowering plants than even the Amazon Rainforest. The Gundwana ecosytem of the Daintree, wasn’t affected by the ice age, which allowed for it’s incredible preservation of plant life in a way that is unique only to the Daintree and the Amazon.

After spending some time in the forest we headed down towards the beach to the spot where the Rainforest meets the Great Barrier Reef, the only place in the world that two of nature’s World Heritage Sites meet in this way. From the beach we headed to one of the Cape Tribulation’s iconic ice cream spots where we had bowls containing 4 of their signature tropical flavours: coconut, passionfruit, yellow capote, and wattleseed. Whilst I can’t say that I actually know what either of those last two are I can say that they make for very tasty ice cream.

Our last stop on the tour was without a doubt the most chaotic as we headed for a crocodile cruise down the Daintree River. Over the course of the hour cruise we saw two baby crocs as well as a small female, who launched herself into the water as soon as we caught sight of her. So, feeling like showing off a bit, our boat guide decided to take us close along a tight passage by the bank in search of their largest resident croc ‘Lumpy’. No Lumpy was spotted sadly but as we went to leave we found that we had beached ourselves on the banks of the river. The initial idea to free us was to have all of us stand up and run from side to side of the boat to try and rock us out of the dip, but when this proved impossible we were forced to radio for rescue. The rescue boat quickly made its way out to us, showing off as it made circles around us before drawing up close so we might jump from one boat to the next, only to find itself also stuck in the sand. Whilst our driver radioed for a second rescue boat, it was at this point that the 74 year old owner and driver of the failed rescue vessel decided to jump into the croc-infested river and try and push the boat out of the sticky spot. Fortunately, the second boat soon arrived and everyone made it back with all limbs still attached but it was definitely an eventful end to the day.

After 2 weeks in Cairns, fruitlessly job hunting in a way that was fairly destructive to the self esteem and desire to stick around in the area, I headed up to Port Douglas for a few days for a chilled change of scenery and to make plans for my onward journey. Although I took no exciting trips, these few days were some of my best in the far north of Queensland as they gave me the chance to meet some really awesome people, and also made me realise I wasn’t the only one struggling with the ‘Australian Dream’.

I spent almost 3 weeks in Cairns and Port Douglas and although there were a lot of really low times, I did also have some really great experiences. When you set out on a working holiday, you hear from so many people that there’s heaps of work around and people are crying out for the backpacker workforce, but that definitely hasn’t been my experience, nor has it been the experience of a lot of people I’ve met and spoken to. It’s not just the high outgoing costs and mentally draining experience of staying in hostels for months, it’s also the constant rejection ranging from mildly sympathetic to unfriendly and aggressive as soon as they hear what visa you’re applying under. Ultimately, I decided to move on from Cairns and try my luck somewhere else, and it was definitely the right decision for me.