Keeeens (Cairns) and surrounding area

Scrooge the wallaby. Can I have one? Nooooooooooooooo.
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Days 55 to 60 - Cairns

Cairns is not a place that anyone goes to because they want to see Cairns, but it is very conveniently placed for lots of other stuff, so we used it as a base to do a few day trips.

My ankles actually doubled in size with the swelling...... almost to the size of a normal adult male!

Having spent our first night in the Cairns Central YHA backpackers (which was quite nice by hostel standards) we had to find somewhere else to stay as there was no room at the inn for the next 4 nights. Having walked the streets of Bethlehem... sorry, Cairns without too much joy  (Naomi didn't fancy the stable) we went back to good old lastminute.com to find somewhere to rest our weary heads. Eventually we decided on an apartment at the City Terraces which had its own kitchen, balcony, satellite TV (not that I watched anything other than the second test match (not a good investment of time as that turned out)). Anyway, Naomi was happy with the relative luxury and I must admit it was a novelty not to have to wash up plates and saucepans before we ate.

"If you hug the tree it will bring you luck". Yeh, like anyone's gonna fall for that one.
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We did a day trip south of Cairns with Northern Experience Eco Tours. It was a really good day involving walks through the rainforest, a visit to this castle at Paronella Park which some crazy Spaniard built himself early in the 20th century. He went off to Australia on a boat, leaving his fiancee behind so that he could suss out the territory before bringing her over to be with him. Twelve years later he finally came back to Spain to find that his fiancee had married someone else (shock horror), so the two families arranged for him to marry her younger sister instead. Judging by the look of her from the photos he could NOT have been happy about that. Still, he married her anyway and they came back to Australia, built the castle and lived happily ever after... until he died from a heart attack aged 60. We (as in me) also got to swim under a waterfall (not that I wanted to after the giant eel warning but felt I had to prove I've not gone soft after having swam under the same waterfall 6 years ago). It was eel free thankfully, although a floating log did cause some concern and a minor bowel movement. Naomi decided it could be better viewed without getting wet. We also had a really nice boat cruise on a volcano crater lake (Lake Barrine), watching the turtles, eels, water dragons, cormorants, pelicans (and ducks), all surrounded by beautiful rainforest.

Romeo, Romeo, where's ee to?
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Our second trip was north towards Cape Tribulation. We stopped off at a wildlife sanctuary to see some crocs, cassowaries (big rare emu type things), some wallabies and kangaroos, including some babies  (altogether...... aaaaah) and lots of crazy tropical birds. We then crossed the Daintree river and headed up to Cape Tribulation where we had lunch near the beach and walked through the tropical rainforest. After luch we went crocodile spotting on the river (with some success) and then swam in the river at Mossman Gorge. Being significantly less than 30 degrees, the water didn't quite entice Naomi in.  Beautiful spot though.

The giant eel may have taken my legs but look, I still have hands!
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On our penultimate night we both got absolutely mauled by mosquitos, who took a particular liking to our feet and ankles. If you've seen my feet and ankles, this won't come as a surprise to you. My ankles actually doubled in size with the swelling...... almost to the size of a normal adult male.

Did I mention it was hot and sunny?