A Travellers Blog : Backpacker central

'Cairns, you spent two weeks in Cairns what did you do?'

To be completely honest we spent most of our time following the

routine of spending the day by the lagoon, then going out,

then spending the day by the lagoon, then going out, win a few bar

tabs playing beer pong, find some free pizza, then wake up the next day and sunbathe by the lagoon. This makes it extremely difficult to write a blog post about Cairns itself, however we can tell you a few things we learnt about

the backpacker central of Australia.

1. Goon is a killer

So to describe Goon quite simply it's a cheap wine which

is EXTREMELY strong which we had to find out the hard way

(a wet t shirt competition and 2 games of beer pong later we were all gone)

2. Local exercise classes are free

Cairns doesn't have a local beach for you to sunbathe on and so a

man-made lagoon is the place to go. After spending a few days there

sunbathing until we were as red as a lobster we learnt that aqua zumba

and aqua aerobics were held at the pool every Wednesday and Saturday.

So naturally after not doing any exercise for 3 months we thought it would be

fun to attend, and trust me when I say following a gay man dancing outside in a lagoon to the spice girls was possibly one of the funniest experiences of our lives.

3. You can find free food anywhere.

Being natural food enthusiasts if there is free food anywhere in a 5km

radius we have a tendency to scout it out. Luckily for us

we soon found out that the local travel agents serve free pizza

and goon every Tuesday and Thursday. So, every Tuesday and Thursday

can you guess who was waiting outside the travel agents 20 minutes

early? Yup, it was us, so word of advice for any up and coming

travellers scout out free food before buying dinner, chances are there is

some somewhere.

4. We can flip our hair like the girls in the Loreal adverts.

Megan and Robyn soon learned that they had a hidden talent in the

sport known as beer pong. Because they were undefeated champions

(until the last round so technically we came second but we were

champions in our eyes) we were lucky enough to win a trip to the waterfalls.

This day included FREE FOOD (obviously that was the main thing)

no we're kidding, we actually saw a lot of the local rainforest,

slid down some natural waterfalls, and walked in the footsteps

of Mr Peter Andre himself. That's right ladies, we were in the shadow

of the hunk you see in the 'mysterious girl' video.

5. The Great Barrier Reef is just like you see in Finding Nemo.

(Prepare yourself for a big paragraph because this was a pretty special day)

So we started the day with a selection of 3 muffins, chocolate, white chocolate

and blueberry and finally lemon and poppyseed, and I know you're thinking what has this got to do with anything, well the answer is not much but the muffins were that good they get a special mention. Anyway, after a two hour boat trip (which tested the stomachs of Robyn and Erin as the boat flew over the choppy waves) we arrived at our first diving spot, this was where we would scuba dive. Being beginners we only dived 6m but it was pretty amazing to swim to the ocean floor and the depths of the reef to see every fish imaginable.

Now we don't know the names of the fish so we will just say their names

from Finding Nemo and hopefully you'll know what we mean,

we saw a 'Gill' fish (you know the one with the scar), we saw the fish

that's like “BUBBLES BUBBLES, MY BUBBLES”, some rainbow fish,

a stingray, a huge ass clam, pretty much everything. We then had lunch,

which was delicious, and stopped at our second diving point where

we snorkeled. So picture this, Robyn is swimming, she keeps swimming

until she's quite secluded and no one is near her and she sees a sting ray

so she's like “oh hey get a photo of that stingray” then out of nowhere

behind her a shark swims past her only about 2m away. SHE FREAKS OUT, SHE THE THINKS THIS IS THE DEATH OF HER so she swims as fast

as she can away from the shark only to remember reef sharks are harmless and you overreacted and missed a perfect photo opportunity you melon.

To sum up the Great Barrier Reef it's like a new world down there, do you remember how we described Bangkok, like a beehive, everyone having somewhere to be, well the reef is like that but of the fish world, wherever

you look there is fish of all colours and all species

just minding their own business as they swim around the big blue.

Even the journey home was unforgettable as Erin and Robyn

sang karaoke (Leona Lewis, bleeding love) for the unimpressed crew and divers, after a stunning performance of Leona we were invited

into the captain's cabin and were allowed to drive the boat

which is a lot easier than most of you may think.

I think it's fair to say we all had the most amazing day and had

an experience we will never forget whilst swimming around the worlds

most well known and largest reef.