Land Ho!
Today was the day we’d get to swap our sea legs for regular legs, becoming landlubbers for a day. The good ship Luminosa had faithfully delivered us to our tropical destination of Cairns, spitting us out onto the palm-fringed shore, right on schedule.
When we originally signed up for our rocking voyage, the ship was bound for French Polynesia but Noumea has been experiencing political tensions since its radical voting reforms were introduced and the Australian Government has slapped a “do not travel” warning for New Caledonia, figuring fun-seeking holiday makers may not be keen on having their cocktail sipping interrupted by violent rioting. Fair enough.
So Cairns was Plan B.
Never mind, tropical North Queensland is gorgeous - beautiful one day, perfect the next - and there’s so much to do in Cairns. So much to do that is, if you’ve booked something…which we had not. Our Googling of optional activities had been going on for weeks. Would we hire a car and explore the area, maybe pop up to Port Douglas? Perhaps we could visit Kuranda and walk in the rainforest, catch the little train or swim at a gorgeous Gorge? Better still, we could go on a boat trip out to the reef and swim with tropical fish, maybe spy a turtle or two?
Let’s just live a little fast and loose we thought. We’ll wander around, compare prices and see which tour takes our fancy when we get there.
We queued to disembark and made a beeline for the tour counters. We were met by shaking head after shaking head as each one declared its fully booked status. As we left the Fitzroy Island booking office, told: “Today? Nothing left AT ALL”, I thought I’d give the heads up to some young punters at the end of the queue to save them time. They gave me that ‘you seriously didn’t book?’ look and waved their precious pre-booked tickets at me, assuring me they were OK thanks very much.
Not prepared to take no for an answer, Jude and I went on a quest to find ourselves some transport to the reef. Surely someone could find a way? We’d have been happy to be thrown in the back of a tinny if someone could just get us to an island? Any mode of transport would do (preferably one that wouldn’t sink).
Jude investigated a jetski tour, which would have been fun but was told the conditions had to be a bit glassier. We found a guy taking tours on a party pontoon but he said he was only going up the muddy creek and the only snorkelling we’d be doing would be spotting crocs. We were already up the creek it seemed.
Oh well, you live and learn. The world’s largest coral reef system; one of the seven natural wonders of the world, though just a short boat trip away, was out of reach for us today. We did seriously consider swimming.
Instead, we took a photo of a poster of the fish we could have swum with and made the most of it, wandering the Esplanade under the palms, admiring tropical blooms, lapping up the glorious weather and splashing in the lagoon (where the kids outnumber the adults at least 10 to 1). I contemplated whipping out the mask and snorkel, but kept them safely tucked in my bag, listening to Jude’s wise counsel that to do so would in fact make me look like a creep.
Jude met some lovely locals at the lagoon who suggested a visit to the fresh food markets. Stalls were laden with all sorts of exotic fruits- some I’d never seen or heard of - and watermelons the size of a small child. Slightly disoriented after our wanderings, we only had to look up to see our ship’s funnel poking up above the skyline to find our way back. As we approached the port, our boat could have easily passed for a multi-storey building. She’s huge!
Jon Stevens was performing back onboard at the controversial time of 3pm, cutting everyone’s onshore day a little short but all was forgiven when he hit the stage and sang his heart out for us. The unshaded deck had the audience working up even more of a sweat than usual and Jon draped himself in cold, wet towels, offering some of his cast offs to some appreciative girls in the front row that looked like they were about to keel over in the heat. Sadly his offer of “cold, wet towels for everyone!” never materialised. It’s the thought that counts.
We’ve been seated with some lovely people and some true characters during our dinners this week and tonight was no exception. We sat with salt of the earth couple from Darwin, Stacey and Jack with their son, and man of few words, Cory. As they sipped beers, cooled by their Darwin stubby coolers, we were informed they hadn’t bothered to explore Cairns at all today, (save a quick trip to the mall to buy a suitcase) preferring to sit in their cabin and watch the V8s.
Within the first few minutes of meeting Stacey she’d shared the fact she had a UTI and was peeing blood (good dinner chat) and that she loved to watch YouTube. What did she like to watch I enquired. “Oh just cows” she said. Jude, thinking she’d misheard, said “COWS?” , to which Stacey replied a little defensively that well, not just cows, she also liked goats.
