Cairns

It was in Cairns that we first realized that the East Coast of Australia is preferred habitat of the 18-year-old British school-leaver. We both felt ancient in Cairns. The majority of these travellers are dragging wheelie bags behind them, which contain untold luxuries such as Jimmy Choo shoes and GHDs. This wasn’t quite what we’d expected to see on our travels. Cairns had little to offer to us, as the Lagoon was closed for refurbishment and the bars reminded us of 18-30 holidays in Spain with condom inflating games being played by the younglings. The highlight of Cairns for us was Kuranda, which is a town up in the rainforest above Cairns. We caught a cable car up to the town, and took the scenic train back down to Cairns. Whilst up in Kuranda, Gaz had a short digeredoo lesson and splashed out on an expensive piece of hollow tree. We were glad to be collecting a rental car on our third day in Cairns so that we could start making our way down the coast. The Nissan granny car that we were given wasn’t exactly what we’d been hoping for, but we've grown to love her and we named her Kitty on our journey down to Mission Beach.