Heading north

So, I am now in Cairns, having spent a while with the travelling circus from Byron to Brisbane. After saying I would never camp in Oz because of all the snakes and spiders I have now spent about 8 nights in a tent in various campsites along the way and have suffered nothing worse than Micheal's farts. And, I have even booked a trip across the outback from Darwin to Melbourne that involves sleeping out in swags under the stars, so maybe I am getting brave, or maybe I am just stupid... We'll see.

Anyhow - highlights of the east coast (other than spending time with Neil, Michael and Gemma of course) have included the Wet 'n' Wild Water Park (having competitions of who can scream the loudest going down the slides) and Movie World (big roller coasters which, surprisingly, no longer scare me since doing my bungee jump), the Gold Coast, Brisbane Markets and various cinema trips.

I also spent a while trying to figure out what I was going to do with my remaining time in Oz, of which there is frighteningly little. I really wanted to come up to Cairns and snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef, so I ended up relocating a car from Brisbane and paying just $1 a day for it. A good deal and another very good lesson in how bloody huge this country is. It's over 1700km from Brisbane to Cairns which took me 2 days and 20 hours driving to cover (had the car for
4 days, but wanted to spend as much time as possible in Cairns).

I'm relocating a camper van on the way back down ($5 a day plus $210 towards petrol - bargain!) and am planning to take it just a little more slowly. I am finally going to meet up with Bella on Sunday night at Airlie Beach before we head down to Hervey Bay for St Partrick's Day and I head back down to see NM&G on my birthday.

But anyway - you guys don't want to hear about logistics... Though, in reality so much of your time is spent on logistics whilst you're on the road. Which is one of the reasons why I am especially looking forward to the 18-day organised trip from Darwin to Melbourne - 18 days without thinking 'hmm - where am I going to sleep tonight?' or 'shall I stop here or push on a bit further?'

Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef though:

Cairns is a lovely city with a lovely laid-back atmosphere and a lack of high-rise hotel developments, which is surprising given its popularity with tourists. I kinda wish I had a wee while longer to stay here and just hang out, but I don't so there you go. I'm staying in Cairns Girl's Hostel, which is the nicest hostel I have stayed in in Oz. So friendly and clean and spacious. There's a great bunch of people staying there at the moment and we all cooked together the other night and a few of us took the reef cruise together yesterday.

It's been pretty rainy here (read: torrential downpours constantly for the first 18 hours I was here) but then it is the rainy season, so I can't really ask for my money back. My first full day here wasn't too wet though and a bunch of us from the hostel headed down to the lagoon (big landscaped swimming pool on the esplanade) and just hung out.

The lagoon is a pretty neat innovation and you can find similar ones all along the east coast since most of the year round there are too many stingers in the sea around here for swimming. It's pristine and watched over by lifeguards and frequented by all sorts of people. And, like many of the things I have experienced whilst travelling, I know it wouldn't last 5 minutes in the UK. You'd have fag butts and cans floating in it and drunk people peeing in it on their way home from the pub on a Saturday night.

As for snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef - well I am glad to be able to say I have done it. I did see reef sharks and barracuda and even a turtle, and the occasional shower didn't put me off, since I was in the water already. But I have to say that I think Malaysia was more colourful and had better water clarity. One of the guys was telling us that the coral is more colourful after they have had a spell of sunshine, but it's been pretty cloudy recently which would make it more dull.

It was still a good day though and I treated my self to an early birthday present by taking the trip back to land via helicopter, over a number of the reefs, with beautiful views. One day i will come back and spend more time in Cairns and snorkel the reef in the sun.

The further north I have moved, the more Aboriginal people I have seen and I have had mixed emotions about this. On the one hand it's really nice to see Aboriginal faces about because down in NSW and Tasmania you could easily believe that they don't exist and that Australia was populated purely by Asians and white Europeans. On the other hand it makes you more and more aware of the divisions there are between 'white Australia' and Australia's indigenous population. It's uncomfortable and depressing to see these divisions (which I guess I will find more on my trip through the centre) and to come across small reminders of the problems faced by both sides.

Even after being here for 10 months I still have such a small idea of what is an incredibly complex problem. Home brew kits are banned in one of the areas around here and I have difficulty knowing how to respond to that. Is it a fair and necessary response to some of the problems experienced here, or is it just window dressing and interference in the lives of a population who have already been so damaged by white-led government interference? This country seems to be full of these seemingly small questions, which mount up on each other to divide it. It's so sad.

And one of the reasons that it's sad is because Australia is such a beautiful country. Vast and diverse and beautiful. On my drive up here I passed endless stretches of sugar cane fields, green mountains rising up from flat plains, and miles and miles and miles of endless beautiful beaches. And that's only a fraction of the east coast. I can't wait to watch the purple sunset over the outback and the red dawn over Uluru.