Gilligan’s
Picking a place to spend the mid semester
break is never easy, with so many places across the world sounding so
appealing. However with just a week, limited funds and the cold weather quickly
taking over Sydney, travelling up the East Coast of Australia to Cairns seemed
to be the perfect escape from Uni.
My friend Kim and I booked our flights, and
then the next thing to decide on was accommodation. After a quick browse of the
Internet it was clear there was one place to stay that stood way above anywhere
else in the city… Gilligan’s.
Gilligan’s Youth Hostel was the perfect mix
of modern, affordable and fun. With constant entertainment going on every hour
of every day it was ideal for Kim and I. With the nightclub attached to the
hostel, drinking was a big part of the week, and the pool just behind it was
always lively and busy, with it being hard to find a sun longer if you woke up
too late.
Staying in an 8 bedroom room wasn’t always
ideal (people coming back at 4am and others getting up at 6am), however we made
the most of it and the girls we were sharing the room with were mostly really
nice and friendly. It’s always interesting meeting other people from around the
world. There were girls from England, America, The Netherlands, Sweden and
France, each of which gave their account of their time visiting Australia and
told us the best things to do whilst we were up in Cairns.
The Atherton Tablelands
Kim and I had heard about all of the
beautiful waterfalls in the rainforests up in Cairns and knew we had to make
the most of the opportunity and go whilst we were up there! A Canadian girl we
met at the beach informed us of Barefoot Tours and told us how good of an
experience it was, so pretty much straight away we got online and booked a slot
for the Wednesday.
It was an early start, we were picked up
from Gilligan’s at 7pm! But the tour guide, Brett was funny and interesting and
immediately woke the whole bus up.
Our first stop on the tour was Josephine
Falls, a stunning waterfall up in the tablelands. We all couldn’t wait to jump
in. Once in we swam across to the rocks where we were instructed to climb up.
Then the tour guide showed us how a natural water slide had been formed the
other side of the rocks as he went and slid down on his front! We carefully
followed him (but too scared to do it on our fronts), but by the third or
fourth go we were loving it and racing each other down the slide.
The next stop was Milla Milla Falls, famous
for Peter Andres music video for Mysterious Girl and the Herbal Essences
advert. It was the biggest waterfall I’ve ever seen in real life and it was
amazing. We all swam across to sit behind it and looking up and seeing all the
water falling down was breath taking. Swimming through the waterfall was harder
than expected, with it being so strong, but once out and on the other side I
got to take the iconic hair flick picture, which by the third go I just about,
mastered.
We then went up to one of the tableland
lookouts where we could see for miles. The view was magnificent, and felt like
we were on top of the world.
The next waterfall we visited was Dinner
Falls, which was very deep so we all got to jump in. The stronger swimmers then
could swim through the waterfall to the cave behind, but I was happy sitting up
on the rocks, where we were lucky enough to see a tree kangaroo. We walked a
bit further in this same spot, which lead us out to a huge crater from a
dormant volcano, 61 meters wide and 58 meters to water level and divers have
only been 85 meters down which isn’t even the bottom! Brett the tour guide
showed us the impact it would have if you jumped in there by throwing a rock
down. It made the loudest bang ever.
The final stop on the tour was Lake Eacham,
which was a lovely and relaxing end to a long day. The water was warm, the sun
was beginning to set and we finished with some drinks and snacks looking out on
to the water.
Skydiving
Even with my great fear of heights Kim
eventually persuaded me to go with her and skydive! Yes it was tandem but still
the most terrifying experience of my life. We went 15000ft up in the air, in fact
we were literally above the clouds. The 60 second free fall was honestly kind
of horrible, you can hardly breath and my ears really hurt, but once the
professional opened up the parachute I had calmed down a bit and realized how
incredible it was. The view stretched out for miles and miles, one side of me
was the ocean and the other was the green fields and mountains. I knew I might
not get another opportunity to do this so I took it and definitely didn’t regret
it!
Scuba diving
From up high to down low, the next day Kim
and I went on a boat trip, which took us out to the Great Barrier Reef. This
was without a doubt the best bit of the trip. I had never been scuba diving
before, so it was just an introductory dive where you have to hold on to an
instructor, but I loved it so much after I got out I decided to pay to go down
again where you don’t have to hold on to the instructor and you get a lot more
freedom. I couldn’t believe how beautiful everything down there was, all the
hundreds of different shape, colour and size fish, all the coral and we even
got to see a shark, a stingray and a turtle! This was an experience I will
never forget and definitely want to do it again in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment