I left Sydney to go to Brisbane, but only for one night, to break the trip to my real destination, Cairns! Consider that the only travel from NSW to Queensland city takes 14 hours! You just have to get out of town to be circulating by the typically flat nature of the island and see nothing more than eucalyptus.
If I stayed longer in Brisbane or decided to make an intermediate stop I would have been able to arrange tours to Fraser Island or more north to the Whitsunday Islands, but when traveling in huge and expensive countries like this, you have to make choices dictated both by Portfolio that by the time. Queensland I chose Cairns to head directly to Cairns because it represents the perfect starting point to enjoy all the best that this state has to offer: the great coral reef, the Kuranda Scenic Railway, tropical beaches and the Daintree Forest.
And so shortly after a little more than a day and a half in the tropical Brisbane, I took the “Spirit of Queensland” train to Cairns for a 24-hour journey: from the window, you can observe cultivation with a profusion of bananas, tropical fruit, Here is the Queensland I had imagined!
Here in Cairns, it’s even hotter than in Brisbane, and Sydney’s winter looks so far away!
Cairns is the classic holiday town, full of tourists, and like many other locations in this northern part of Australia, it has bathing limits due to dangerous animals. You will find in fact close to the beach signs indicating the presence of any crocodiles or jellyfish in the water and an attached emergency kits!
The Australians thought it best to overcome this problem by resorting to the city centers with beautiful pools in the center of the sea. Like all Australian cities, the long sea of Cairns, very tropical, is well cared for and features barbecue areas and children’s games. In this, the Australians are very good, they have a great civic sense from which we should learn a lot.
But Cairns is the world famous for tourist activities such as snorkeling and scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. The best thing is to book your business on the site, you will find many local operators offering different options and prices for all pockets. (Read tips on a cheap trip to Australia). If you have decided to stay in a hostel, for me the best option, the staff will help you find what is right for you, and may also sell you an exclusive offer as a guest of the hostel as it has happened to me.
The prices are certainly not low but you can not go from here without seeing the world’s largest coral reef! Rather try to save somewhere else!
There are so many, many tour operators operating in the area and, in my opinion, you should reduce your daily number or at least convert your boats to a green optics, so if you have the option of giving them a respectable operator that for example, use a sail rather than just the engine.
My advice is also to rent a digital underwater camera to capture the spectacle of nature that will stand in front of your eyes: tropical fish of every color, size, sponge, coral and colorful vegetation, and if you are lucky Like me you happen to swim in the company of a sea turtle!
While navigating, keep your eyes open as well, because you might see whales and dolphins following you along the path, making strange lines.
From Cairns, you can take Kuranda Scenic Rail, a historic and panoramic train that after a tortuous route on cliffs, waterfalls and with suggestive views, will take you to Kuranda, a small town surrounded by tropical forest. Here you can visit the Kuranda Markets, or the tropical butterfly sanctuary or just walk along the city streets and paths in the green.
It’s amazing how these landscapes are different from those seen in NSW, it seems to be in another country as diverse here are climatic and therefore geographic conditions!
We said that one of the best ways to visit this country is on the road, then what better than hiring a car with hostel travelers and driving on Captain Cook Highway to Cape Tribulation?
There seemed to be a feasible tour in one day, instead, the times were a bit pulled and we arrived at Cape Tribulation in the afternoon forward. Also because we did not know that to get to Cape Tribulation you have to cross a river and then ferry with the car, a service that obviously is paid and no one had informed us!
The road to Cape Tribulation is truly impressive and scenic because it always crosses the ocean and in some stretches instead enters the tropical forest. If you have time in addition to stops to take photographs, stop at Port Douglas. The one that most satisfied us was the trip itself more than the goal to reach, a succession of beaches, bays, paradise coves and tropical forest so lush and enchanting.