Posts filed under 'Cairns'
Wow! I made it, the final destination Cairns has been reached! Over 2,300 km of cycling to get here and 31 days of riding and I’m DONE! What an awesome feeling! No more trucks, buses, or caravans, no more bad roads, no more hills, no more dead kangaroo stench, no more attacking dogs, no more raging heat rash from head to toe, no more headwinds, no more honking idiots, no more caravan parks, no more peeing in sugar cane fields, no more magpies or snakes, and no more V drinks and glucose tabs!!! I am so happy it’s over, and it’s such a great feeling to look at a map and see how far I’ve come.
I had a good day for my final day of this leg of cycling and was thrilled that there was no rain but enough cloud to keep the heat rash away. Seemed to be an easy day despite 90 km, but I’m sure it’s because I was at the end and so had unlimited energy just to get here. And now I am here in a really nice motel room complete with living area and kitchen that I managed to get at a standby rate. And I deserve it at the end of a long journey full of dirty backpackers and cheap caravan parks! It’s been a fantastic challenge and has tried me in various ways but now that it’s over I’m looking forward to a good rest.
And what can I say about cycling in Australia? Well I guess it just depends on what you’re looking for. Personally I think I enjoyed cycling in Asia much better because (1) the distances are smaller, (2) there is much more to see along the way, (3) the culture is more interesting, and (4) everything is about 10 times cheaper. In Australia there just isn’t that much to see and the distances are huge and it’s an expensive country to travel in. Plus I found the locals in Asia to be much friendlier to me as a cyclist than the Australians. Cycling on your own in Oz can be quite isolating and lonely because there just isn’t anyone else out there. That’s just my opinion based on my experience anyway.
And to everyone I met along the way who thought I was crazy and stupid to even consider doing this on my own and who tried to instill their fears on me instead of offering me encouragement and support ? Hey, I MADE IT!! There. Have a think about that the next time you see a girl on a bike, and hopefully next time you’ll just say YOU GO GIRL. And to that annoying Australian man with a big fat beer belly who I met at Mt. Warning and who was absolutely convinced that I would just never make it, well I’d love to watch him eat those words now ’cause I’m here mate!!!!
Resting up tonight over a few beers and will figure out what to do with my time in Cairns tomorrow.
Distance: 87.67 km
Time: 4 hr 4 minutes
Avg Speed: 21.5 km/hr
Is that rock real?? Royal National Park NSW
Spread the work Aussies! Royal National Park
Great weekend Evan and friends, thanks!!
June 1st, 2003
Got the Cardwell range behind me now, and just 170 km to Cairns. 53 km was enough for me today after waking up to grey skies and facing a day of riding in the rain with hills and headwinds to boot. At least with the sun away for the day the heat rash had a bit of a break. But
then she fell asleep….
Distance: 55.18 km
Time: 2 hr 49 minutes
Avg Speed: 19.6 km/hr
May 30th, 2003
Wow. The time has really flown by over the past 3 weeks. Australia seems to suit me well. I am having a blast. There’s too much to tell to get all the details so I’ll just have to list some of the highlights:
1. Diving in Cairns with Tusa Dive – 2 excellent dives at Thetford Reef (the Horseshoe and Magic Garden). Saw one cuttlefish (cool!), a stingray, and a yellow boxfish just to name a few.
2. Hang gliding with Sanne off the coast north of Cairns. All went well for Sanne’s run, and mine lasted about 30 seconds until we lost the lift and crashed onto the beach. Still a great time!
3. Going to Reef teach, a 2-hour talk about the Great Barrier Reef, given by Paddy Colwell, a marine biologist who’s been working to protect the reef for 12 years. While at his talk I asked him about privately guided dives, and he agreed to take me out to the reef for a day of naturalist diving with him. It was like diving with a human encyclopedia – he knows so much about everything including hard and soft corals and all the fish. We went to Micamas Reef and just a few of the things that I saw included fish swimming upside down, fish changing color, coral changing coral, and much more.
4. Meeting up with my family in Cairns! Stayed at a swanky beach-front 3-bedroom condo with my mom, dad, sister Kristine, brother-in-law Jim, and nieces Morgan and Jessica.
5. Diving at the reef again off of one of the pontoons at Agincourt Reef. I had 2 great dives at the Nursery Bommie and Point sites and saw a carpet shark (wobbygong), unicornfish, several barracuda, and 2 lionfish. My parents went along as well and snorkled off the pontoon while I went diving.
I have to break this up into 2 entries so I can include more pictures. So the rest of what I’ve been up to will be included in the next journal entry…
The harbor in Cairns, Australia
Me and Paddy Cowell doing our naturalist dives
Thetford Reef, at the Great Barrier Reef
August 27th, 2002
Have I been living on a different planet for the last 10 months??? Why didn’t anyone tell me? Everything here is so absolutely normal!!! How do I even begin to explain the complete state of culture shock I have been suffering from for the past 2 days since I arrived in Australia?? It’s unbelievable.
People actually speak English everywhere here, what a concept. It may sounds silly, but I have been so completely isolated in SE Asia for the last 10 months and well I just got used to not being able to understand background conversations, music on the radio, local tv, and basically everyone in general. Now all of a sudden I understand everyone again! Even as I write this people are walking by where I’m sitting and I am able to pick up a piece of each conversation as they pass and it’s SO nice!
Then, at the airport in Cairns, I found the shuttle bus into town and when I got on the driver announced, ‘it’s a law in Australia for everyone to wear their seatbelt so please buckle up.’ I’m looking around like WHAT?? I haven’t even seen a seatbelt for 10 months. In most of Asia they cut them out of the car and absolutely NO ONE uses seatbelts. I mean, come one, this is the land where I saw SEVEN people on a motorbike at one time!!!! (one adult, six children) Road safety does not exist.
The supermarket yesterday was another highlight for me – an entire aisle of cheese, a whole section of mustards, pickles, olives – all the things you can’t get in Asia. Ok, you can get Kraft mustard and Kraft singles, but that’s only if you’re lucky. And they had a produce section here with apples, broccoli, alfalfa sprouts – I was in heaven. How did I survive without so much for so long? I have no idea.
Last night in the hostel I was hanging out with some other travelers – a girl from Holland, and a guy and girl from the UK and they’ve all been in Australia for 3-8 months already and they were just laughing at my amazement over everything being Western again. They told me I will be bored of it in a few more days, but I don’t know. I just didn’t realize how hard the traveling I’ve done has been until I landed here. There’s no hassle, no haggling, no people following you saying – you need taxi, where you from, where you go, change money, buy something, want massage, special discount, etc, etc etc. You can actually walk down the street and no one even looks at you!!! I am absolutely loving it.
Yeah so I’m in Australia now. In Cairns, on the coast of Queensland, one of the main port towns for visiting the Great Barrier Reef. The Happy Family is due to arrive on August 8th, so I’ve got another few days to check out the sites on my own.
Today I was meant to go hang gliding (a first for me) with Sanne, the girl from Holland, but there wasn’t enough wind so we’re going to try again tomorrow. It was a relaxing day, hanging out at the hostel with Sanne, the 2 Brits, eating (are you ready?) hummus and pita!! Wow. Very exciting. Finally around 2pm I decided to go out and about so I went down to the waterfront and spent the afternoon walking around the shops and marina. I also booked some diving at the reef for the day after tomorrow. Have I mentioned how much I love being here yet? Ok then. I’m about to go buy a bottle of red wine and some Doritos (hooray!) and go back to the hostel to work on conforming to Western society. Oh, I forgot to mention that yesterday I spent 3 hours in an art gallery because I was so amazed with the beautiful aboriginal art collection there and in the end I bought 5 paintings!! That was my first real souvenir I’ve bought on this trip. Hey I deserved it!
One last kudo for the land down under and that is the weather! There is NO HUMIDITY in Cairns! This is really, really wonderful. I have been living in a sauna for almost a year. I’ve heard that you folks at home are suffering from a heat wave, well imagine 10 months of exactly that in third-world countries with no air con anywhere? You can’t even breathe without sweating. Now I’m here and although the sun is warm, there is a wonderful breeze just like in springtime at home. And at night it gets chilly!!! It’s ALL so great. Life is good.
Getting ready to fly!
Friend Sanne (from Holland) in the air
Me, still happy after the crash landing
August 4th, 2002