Day(s) 60-somthing: As my three weeks of living a pseudoaffluent lifestyle while travelling up the east coast of Australia comes to an end, let me recap what has taken place and what will take place: After leaving Sydney and ending in Noosa Beach it was nothing but 4-star hotels, boat cruises, beaches, islands, planes, car rentals, upscale restaurants, koalas & kangaroos, amusement parks, zoos, homestay with my own private bathroom, access to a TV with 100+ channels, suburbia life, being driven in a car from place-to-place, friendly familiar faces, and of course…safety. Well it all stops here. My final Australian destination will be of no comfort- For I will be back to hostel living; It will be of no steaks or home cooked meals- For I will be back to Cup-a-Soups; and it will definitely be of no safety- For I will be in a place where there are more living things that can kill you than anywhere else in Australia; which, by-the-way, happens to be the one of, if not thee most deadly countries on planet Earth. For instance, between the cassowary and the some of the worlds most poisonous snakes, the place I will be going to has an abundance of sea life that can either kill you or at least cause excruciating pain. And it all starts right as you enter the water. The box jellyfish or ‘Stinger”, I have been informed, can kill you with the most unforgiving pain just by coming in contact with it. In fact, the place I am staying at lies on a beach that I have been forewarned to not venture into, not even one step during this time of year, due to said jellyfish. That city? Cairns, Australia. The home to the largest living thing on this planet and one of the last great natural wonders of the world: The Great Barrier Reef. After my venture up the coast right before I got to Cairns, I had been itching to get out there and back to experiencing things that I neither would nor could experience back home. Even though the weeks spent along the coastline had been if nothing else, relaxing and much needed (shout out to Jamie Landry, Alex Mccarty, Jen Christopher, and David & Jamie Salisbury) I was starting to get lazy, comfortable, and unmotivated. So I began bouncing around ideas, asking questions, and getting advice on how to spend my final week in this modest and humble country. Unfortunately, there was still so much I wanted to experience here, but according to my calculations, I could not do it all and still accomplish my goal of literally travelling around the world; at least not without having to pinch pennies. It doesnt help that up to the point of this blog, I am 2-for-2 when it comes to underestimating the amount of awesomeness in the countries in which I visit. But maybe I purposely, yet subconsciously, do that; underestimate countries. Which isn’t a bad thing. It keeps things exciting. But all the unexpected excitement and side ventures are taking it’s toll on the traveling funds and it is far too early to blow my load so quickly. Therefore, after taking stock of the options of things to do and weighing out “risk vs. reward” & “cost vs. experience”, I chose to book a 5-day live-aboard scuba trip off the GB Reef, complete with a PADI certification. I chose that, with some regret, over; Uluru, a cross-country train ride called “The Ghan” or “The Indian-Pacific”, and with spoiled brat-like resistance…Whitsunday and/or Fraser Island. Even though Fraser Island has absolutely no connection with my bloodline or me personally, I still felt like a trader for skipping an entire Island with my namesake. Oh well…off I went to Cairns, Australia. After a two-hour plane ride from Gold Coast, I landed in Cairns. Cairns is a beach city but nothing like the beach cities I had experienced in the southern part of the coast. As far as beach life goes, it’s rather uneventful. In Cairns defense, it is a tropical beach with tropical weather full of the most viscidly unpleasant humidity I have ever felt. But even with the muggy thickness of the air, the scourge of misquotes, horse flies, and many other forms of winged annoyances make their way through to bite and poke at you constantly throughout the day. Cairns is NOT a comfortable city; not by far from. And lets not forget about the whole box jellyfish fiasco, which doesn’t even matter because there aren’t any frickin’ waves to frolic in due to the reef blocking the tides. On a side note- I have heard rumors from the local town folk that word of purposely destroying part of the reef in order to make Cairns a better destination for surfers and backpackers, is being discussed by the Queensland officials (whoever that is). Their thought, which I admit has some logic behind it, is this: Surfer’s Paradise (Gold Coast) has become somewhat of a metropolis with high buildings and high-rise hotels/apartments blocking a lot of the sun and congesting what made Surfers Paradise…. well…paradise. I have even heard the area referred to as, “Las Vegas on the beach”. I thought that was stretching it a bit, but I see where they were coming from (I think it is more like Miami than Las Vegas). But by freeing up a section of the ocean, waves will be more abundant which they predict, would attract surfers trying to get away from what Surfers Paradise has become - but thats beside the point. What is my point? I guess my point is that right now I am in a city that has more living things that can kill you per capita, in a country that has more living things that can kill you than anywhere else in the world, and I will be paying a lot of money to get thrown into the deadliest part, of the deadliest area, of the deadliest country for five days- The Reef. Maybe getting in a good bronzing while sipping a Mai Tai with an umbrella in it, in safe and peaceful Fraser Island, would have been the better option after all. We’ll have to wait and see I guess. Remember, not even Nemo was safe in reef.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 10:29:04 +0000
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