Cape Trib trip - Australia

One of things on our to-do list in Cairns was a trip to Cape Tribulation, a tropical national park north of Cairns. We decided on an overnight trip with Jungle Tours.  We were picked up at 7:15am at the hostel and then arrived at the Wildlife Habitat at around 8:45.  This is a small zoo with mainly birds, and some crocs and wallabies in three enclosures based on habitat. It was a bit too commercial for our liking, you could hand feed the wallabies and have you picture taken with koalas or crocs. But the animal presentations were informative. 

Oh oh....

Then we drove to the Daintree River ferry, and after crossing were in the Daintree National Park. One of the few places where the endangered cassowary lives. Unfortunately we didn't see one. When we arrived at our hostel we had lunch and the day trippers went on, while we chilled on the beach. A lovely looking beach with jungle right up to the water, but not a swimming area, this is where the salties roam! 

Cape Tribulation beach

The hostel really was a collection of bungalows at the path from the reception area down to the beach. Since we really have to mind our spending we slept in a dorm room here. That meant a 4 room bungalow with 5 beds in each room. We shared our room with 2 German boys. 

At 7:15pm we were picked up for our night walk through the forest. The walk itself was rather nice, but we were disappointed that the only wild life we saw were some spiders; not our favourite animals. 

At 9:45 we returned and were knackered! Let's use our jetlag as an excuse, not our age.... We went straight to bed. 

Our bungalow at Beach House

The next morning we woke up just before 7 and enjoyed a walk on the beach before the crowds arrived. After lunch we joined the day trippers for the drive back. The guide this second day was very knowledgeable aboriginal guy, that shared his knowledge of the forest and some of his people's legends. We stopped on our way for a short walk, and saw a Boyd's forest dragon during the board walk. Twice! Gorgeous creatures. 

Boyd's forest dragon

 

On our return we had a river cruise planned while crossing the Daintree River. Time to do some croc spotting! We saw the alpha male basking in the sun. An impressive 4,5meter long specimen, probably some 65 years old. 

Impressive 65 year old salty

 

The rather cute 14 week old on top of a broke log, in the vicinity of its mum Lizzy, and a two-year old hiding in the mangrove roots. Of course there were loads of birds at the shores too. Egrets, herons and kingfishers! Too quick to snap a photo off, but at least we saw them. When we arrived back at our Cairns hostel we went into town for some grocery shopping and then back to bed! Oh such rock and roll lives we live! 

Rather cute 14 week old salty

 

And so it starts

After months of waiting, preparing and thinking, finally the first week of our vacation is there! Our plans were: Friday party prepping, Saturday Rodie's birthday bash, and then just some packing and cleaning to do before we hand over the keys to our renter in Wednesday, then 1 night at Rodie's mum before we catch a plane on Thursday, arriving in Cairns Saturday morning. That were our plans at least...

It started out really good, had a lovely party with talks and hugs abound. But then came Tuesday morning... And bad weather. When I was packing our clothes into boxes a I suddenly heard the sound of cascading water... Inside the house? A quick run revealed the source of the clattering: we had a major leak in our kitchen! Rain just poured in! Of course a day before our renter would move in.  

Some quick phone calls and lovely helping friends further, it looks like we solved that problem. Luckily our renter was very understanding, and now there's just some painting left to do, but what an adrenaline rush! Not the most relaxing way to move out, I can tell you that.  

Anyway... We slept at Rodie's mum that night, and after an early breakfast headed to Schiphol Airport. We booked a flight that would leave at noon, and arrived at 9:15. And then couldn't find our flight at the departure overviews... Oh oh... After franticly checking our flight number it turned out our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:15. Whoops. Good thing we arrived early!

In the end our flight was delayed and we left at 12:15. After a 13 hour flight with lots of turbulence, we arrived in Singapore just in time to see the sunrise. 

Sunrise at Changi Airport

We have a 20 hour stopover in Singapore, and we had decided before we left, that if we felt like it, we would book a room at one of the transit hotels. After all, we're not that youthful anymore and love to sleep in a proper bed.  And oh boy, we were knackered when we came out of the plane! Although it was 7am in Singapore, in our biological time zone it was 1am. A room was available at 8:30am, so we booked it for 8hours.  What a good choice! It costs S$20 per hour, but so worth it. We got a nice room with two good beds, a clean and spacious bathroom and after we checked out of our room we got a complimentary meal and unlimited access to the lounge area (with free coffee!) and the rooftop pool. That is where I'm typing this little blogpost just now. 

If you haven't been to Singapore before you can always choose to do one of the free city tours, but we are happy with our choice so far. 

Counting down to take off

It's now the first week of June, and we'll leave the country mid June.  We've reached the countdown fase! I've got another week to work, I'm getting into the spirit now...  At my job people keep asking "When is your last day?" "Will I see you next week?" and "Will you be here next meeting?"

The answer to that last question is "No" ever more frequently! I'm handing over projects and saying my goodbyes. 

Getting in the mood

Now it's time to think about what we still need to do and who we want to see before we leave... we have planned a little birthday/bye bash in the last weekend before we go, so that's when we'll say most of our goodbyes. The house is mostly taken care off: just a few little things left to before the renter moves in: get our personal stuff out (clothing and administrative stuff) and a extra thorough round of cleaning. 

Off to Cairns

I think we have bought and decided on the stuff we want to take with us, though I am considering to buy a bikini.... Really! Booking that diving trip last night might've played a part in that sentiment.  As said before, we will start our trip in Cairns: one of the main gateways to the Great Barrier Reef. Now think about this; we've both been diving since our mid teens (see how I just avoided telling you how OLD we are?) and this will be our first trip to the GBR. So we decided to splurge: we have booked a 3 day/2 night diving trip! This does mean we can't afford to eat the week afterwards but hey... we all have to make choices. 

Let's just hope that there's enough alive of it to make it memorable in a good way, the headlines thes past few weeks have been frightening.