Cairns to Brisbane adventure

My Cairns to Brisbane road trip with the greyhound bus couldn’t have been any better. I first flew to Cairns and spend four nights there. It was super hot the whole time. When I got off the plane in Cairns, the heat hit me like when you stick your face close to the oven and open the door to smell whatever it is that your mom is baking. It was over 30 degrees my first day so I spent it lounging around on the grass at the lagoon. My hostel in Cairns was wicked. I was in a four bed dorm room with an ensuite bathroom, but the best part was the huge pool and free dinner. It was more like a resort. There were so many things to do that the few days I was too hung over to do anything I just spent it within the walls of the hostel, playing in the pool and sunbathing with all the other backpackers who had come out with me the night before. There were quite a few bars in Cairns but everyone in my hostel all went to one, it was called the woolshed and that’s where we got our free meal as well as $3 pints, what a bargain!

My last day in Cairns was spend crammed into a little rental car with three other solo backpackers I met at my hostel. We drove about 300 km’s that day and made a huge loop south of Cairns. We drove from lake to lake and waterfall to waterfall to swim and take pictures of the wet tropics. We really wanted to see a crocodile, but since we were in a 900cc Dihatsu Charade that maxed out at 60km’s/h, it was probably a good thing we didn’t spot any.

I was having so much fun in Cairns and met such great people that I was even thinking of getting a refund on my buss pass and just spend two weeks there. But I thought it would be best to keep going, because that’s what nomads and globe trotters do, they never settle down. And good thing I did, because I had just as much fun and met even more people in Airlie Beach and Hervey Bay. My camera broke in Cairns, or rather, I broke my camera in Cairns as well. So I had to buy a new one, which set my budget back quite a bit because Cameras are the type of thing where you don’t want to go cheap, because you get what you pay for.

After a fun 12 hour bus ride where the air conditioner broke half way, I got to Airlie Beach soaked in sweat. My hostel in Airlie Beach was a little more expensive, it was $28 per night and I stayed 4 nighs. What was cool about this hostel was that i was in a 6 bed dorm with ensuite and every single night I had five new roomates, so I got to meet a lot of people. I went out pretty hard for a few nights to the bars and clubs. It reminded me a lot of Whistler since it was a resort town and 90% of people there were backpackers and tourists. If I was a local, I would definitely walk around with a big bag because without one, you’d feel out of place. I spent most days at the local lagoon and most nights meeting new people over a beer or two… or three to twelve. One night I was drinking with some Israelis, the next some English, Scottish and Irish and the next some Swiss.

While in Airlie Beach, I took a day trip to Daydream Island in the Whitsundays for $79 (lunch included). That was pretty cool. Maybe not worth that much though. It would be cool to get a job at a resort on one of the Whitsunday islands. I think it would be like Whistler, where you live and work on the same resort and get to see how everything works behind the scene. I might look into that actually. Airlie Beach had the most beautiful women I’d ever seen, and a lot of European ones, which means they didn’t mind getting topless. Haha.

After sun bathing for 8 days in a row and starting to look like an oreo cookie (I think I’m the darkest I’ve ever been), I took another long bus ride to Hervey Bay. It was an overnight bus so I got to save a night of accommodation, however trying to get comfortable on a 13 hour bus ride is torture, to the neck mostly. I tried to lay across both seats without having any limbs in the aisle (because we were warned) but it seemed like every position I was in I had the lump between seats either digging into my spine or sides. Hervey Bay is bigger than I expected. Looks a lot like Redcliffe. My hostel was nice. I was in a six bed dorm room with ensuite for $22/night for two nights. During my full day in Hervey Bay, I took a day trip to Frasier Island for $159 with two other Canadians I met in my hostel. The latter is the biggest sand island in the world which is also home to a 125km beach. Said beach is also a recognized highway that has a 100km/h speed limit.

I took the bus back to Brisbane on April 26th and am flying to Newcastle on the 30th for a week to visit some friends I met in whistler.