Cairns

Everyone who has been to Cairns in Tropical North Queensland raves about Gilligan’s. It’s a hostel that has it all: a bed, a club, and jelly wrestling. So flying in on Wednesday night of our “spring break,” that’s actually in autumn, which is actually just called “mid-semester break,” Julia and I had plenty of expectations. After downing a pint of vegan Ben and Jerry’s, we prepared ourselves for the infamous Cairns nightlife.

A quick walk from room #119 to Gilligan’s bar, Julia and I sat at the furthest table to people watch. Soon enough, a raggedy looking man with a Batman tattoo on his face wandered up to sit with us. We couldn’t get out of this situation quickly enough, and spent the rest of the weekend running away from “Batman.” Alas, this scurry across the patio worked in our favor as we found a table next to three wonderful intensive care unit and trauma doctors from the UK. Within minutes, Julia and I made three new best friends and we spent the rest of the night laughing about their crazy medical stories, cheering on the jelly wrestlers (go Sweden!), and dancing and singing to Wonderwall (which is apparently on replay every ten minutes at Gilligan’s). Sadly, as the night came to an end, we said goodbye to our new friends and wished them luck with the rest of their journey across Australia.

The city of Cairns is nothing special, it resembles a run down, kind of empty Honolulu. Much like Julia and I, all the tourists are basically stuck there in an in-between-day-trips kind of purgatory. As the beaches are infested with crocs, the biggest attraction is a large man-made kiddie pool called “the lagoon.” After strolling around the main part of town, we decided to escape to the heat by going to our resort-like hostel pool, which is equipped with recliner chairs, cabanas, and a waterfall.

Somehow, Julia and I managed to meet every British person in Australia during our stay at Gilligan’s. Our hostelmates were three very well groomed Englishmen, who taught us that unlike Americans or Aussies, Englishmen actually “take care of their appearance,” as they took over an hour to prepare for their night.

After a long night of listening to our lovely hostelmates getting friendly, we woke up bright and early to hop onto yet another bus tour, this time to the waterfalls (we have become obsessed with tours because all the people we meet are hilarious). Apparently, all aussie bus drivers have J-names, and this time we met Jim. After our first stop for morning tea and a swim, sweet Jim lost his bus keys, and ran around the rainforest barefoot and shirtless, frantically searching for the missing item and praying they weren’t at bottom of the river. Thankfully, Jim retrieved his keys, and we carried on our way to Josephine Falls.

Since we were in the wet tropics, it rained most of the day, and although we were soaking wet the entire trip, the added water made the waterfalls even more stunning. Even with our slight set back with the missing keys, our tour group was ahead of the others and we arrived at the breathtaking Milla Milla Falls before anyone else. Back on the bus, Jim sang songs to the entire bus and even made us a choreographed dance to a few. The waterfalls weren’t the biggest attraction of the tour, as Jim pulled over on the side of the road to holler at cows to come over to us. Only Julia and I, and two brave children left the comfort of the bus to pet the large and majestic animals. Finally, the last, and my favorite stop of the trip was Crater Lakes National Park, where Julia and I jumped into the blue waters to swim alongside the freshwater crocs that call the lake home. We finished the day driving back home (to Gilligan’s) and singing about houses and gum trees with Jimmy.