Cairns Holidays

Hey guys!

So Jill and I FINALLY made it up to Cairns for our Cairns Holidays! We were super pumped to go on an eco reef tour and cruise of the Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunately during our Cairns Holidays we were rained out. It rained for 3 days straight. Not only did it rain the ENTIRE time, there’d only be like an hour or two break in between showers so we couldn’t even get out and shoot anything.

We spent a majority of our time in the Bellview Hotel. The Bellview was a great budget stay, it’s part hostel, part hotel. The rooms you can definitely tell are aged, but they’re spacious and there’s air conditioning. It was bloody hot in Cairns too, so you’ll definitely appreciate the A/C!

They also have a commons area, with television, kitchen, public washrooms and an outdoor pool in the middle of the hotel. Jill and I hoped in once for 30 mins of sun before it clouded over and started raining again.

I was so excited for our Cairns Holidays, because I was dying to dive the Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef was recently made popular destination again, with everyone flocking to find little Nemo like in the movie Finding Nemo. No Nemo for Prieur though. Sad day.

I did however meet some very interesting travelers also on their Cairns Holidays. One guy was 19 traveling from England. He’d bought an old car and traveled all over Australia and in each destination travelers would sign his car and leave messages. The tin beater was a driving reflection of Chris’s travels and memories! Sadly though in Darwin people broke into his car, stole his: camera, car, wallet and all valuables essentially leaving him with nothing but the change in his pocket. He told us it was the most devastating experience of his life and he’d been working on boats and in farms just to get enough money to stay in hostels. Without a passport or photo Id he was unable to access his bank account and lost his phone so he wasn’t able to call home for a bit. His last words to us were, “no matter what happens it can only get better right?”. Truly a unique survivors story!

We met another girl aged 21, also from the U.K., she had been traveling Australia for a few weeks having just come from an African safari. She was working at a Lion sanctuary, her job was to help nurse back injured and weak Lions in captivity and set them free. She said her scariest moment in the Mother Land was releasing an alpha male lion back into the wilderness. She said they set him free off the jeep, then the jeep had mechanical issues. She was stranded with 3 other co-workers, radioing for assistance to the rangers when the lion came back after them. The lion started circling them like a hunter stalking prey. The jeep had no hard top cover and was exposed to the Lion giving this hungry feline ample opportunity for a human snack. With no guns or tranquilizers on board the three clung to each other anxious to see if they’d be lion lunch or be saved in a pinch by the rangers. Luckily as the lion got closer the rangers showed up firing shots in the air scaring the ferocious beast back into his homeland.

Then there was Dave. If you check out our “Real Aussie Slang” you can meet Dave too! Dave was such a character and I thoroughly enjoyed “taking the piss” outta him for a few days on our Cairns Holidays. He was SO funny! Aussie to the core this guy wore only boardies, drank his MB, and recounted many stories of being on fishing boats. He showed us pics of fish that were over 5′5″, weighing anywhere from 80-120lbs. He told us a story of a shark being hooked on the line and when they brought it on board the shark was biting at their ankles crankily fighting to be let back in the ocean. Stories of a crazy french Canadian that got bit by a fish and had wounds so deep they had to sew them up on ship, using only sewing thread and a bottle of whiskey.

So while our time in Cairns was a wash, sometimes the you meet the best people on rainy days!

See Roo around, and stay tuned for our amazing GOLD COAST FEATURE!

SP
xo