The Adventure Begins: Cairns, Magnetic Island and Airlie Beach

Finally, after nearly 10 days Down Under, an opportunity has presented itself for me to sit down and start my blog. Unfortunately that opportunity has come in the form of uncooperative weather which is discouraging me from venturing too far out of my hostel, but c'est la vie, I suppose.

Still, time is a precious thing when you're a backpacker so I won't waste it; instead, I'll start at the very beginning ('a very good place to start', as Julie Andrews would say). Needless to say, the journey to get here was fairly hellish. It comprised nearly 13 hours cooped up inside a dry, airless but not altogether unpleasant British Airways plane winging its way to Singapore, followed by a 5 hour wait in Singapore airport - which admittedly wasn't much of a chore because it's the nicest airport I've ever come across - and another flight to Cairns which took about 9 hours excluding a 2 hour wait in Darwin airport while the plane was refuelling or something. On the first flight I barely slept a wink: a combination of excitement and anxiety, I assume. Instead, I passed the time by watching 3 films, staring listlessly at the ceiling and drinking glass after glass of warmish water in an attempt to stop myself shrivelling up and dying from the lack of moisture in the synthetic plane air.

By the time I finally arrived in Cairns, it was, much to my confusion, 9.20am on Sunday, two days after I'd left England. Somewhere in the atmosphere I'd lost an entire day of my life. And I don't mean I'd wasted an entire day of my life sitting on a plane; no, I mean literally lost. Saturday the 18th of June ceased to exist in my life in 2011, and all because I was flying through strange time zones into the future. As you can imagine, I was somewhat befuddled and disorientated.

Despite not having slept more than about 4 hours in the last 27, I was adamant that the sensible thing to do was to 'power through' my jet-lag (which, at this point, seemed almost conceivable thanks to a healthy dose of adrenaline) and not allow myself to sleep until that evening. The weather was beautiful - 26 degrees and sunny - and I was in Australia, I reasoned with myself. Of course I could stay awake!

Unsurprisingly, this resolve didn't last much longer than it took for the adrenaline to wear off. Which happened almost as soon as I saw my bed in the cosy 3-bed dorm in Tropic Days, the idyllic family-run hostel (complete with hammocks in the garden and (best of all) free tea and coffee!) I'd booked myself into for my first couple of nights in Oz. Unwilling to give up the fight so soon, however, I got talking to Cecile, a French girl who was also in my dorm and had been working in Australia for several months. Apart from the fact that I was jealous of her impressive tan (her skin was roughly the colour of deep chestnut while mine was roughly the colour of sour cream) we got on really well and decided to have a wander around Cairns. Keeping myself occupied, I decided, was the way to stave off the overwhelming urge to crash out.

I soon fell in love with Cairns; it's a lovely city with an extremely laid-back vibe and some of the friendliest, warmest people I've ever had the fortune to meet. And why shouldn't they be happy? They live in a semi-tropical paradise where it's sunny practically every day and wintertime temperatures rarely dip below the early- to mid-twenties. They're surrounded on a daily basis by tall, slender palm trees swaying gently in the just-right (not too hot, not too cold) breeze, the sparkling blue sea, the rainforest and even a few picturesque mountains for good measure. The Great Barrier Reef is on these people's doorstep, for goodness' sake! They'd have every right to be smug but instead they just seem really relaxed, carefree and genuine. After a couple of hours I was already fantasising about what my life would be like if I lived here...

Cecile and I, neither of us in the most active of moods, headed straight for the Lagoon, a gorgeous - and massive - outdoor swimming pool in the middle of the city, which overlooks the sea and is surrounded by wooden decking and grass for sunbathers to gather on, as well as a brilliant sheltered barbecue area and lots of picnic seating. Best of all, it's all free to use and open all day every day. We found ourselves a spot on the grass and I let myself doze lightly for a while before deciding to venture to the supermarket for some sustinence. After walking zombie-style up and down the aisles for a few minutes, occasionally stopping to gawp disbelievingly at the ridiculous price of Australian food (who in their right minds would pay $5 for a carton of orange juice?!) I soon admitted defeat, picked up some noodles, a pepper and an onion - the only things I could really afford - and traipsed out into the heat again. Time seemed to be passing painfully slowly as all I wanted to do was sleep, and since I couldn't think of anything else to do I headed back to the hostel.

Big mistake. By 4pm, I was sound asleep. I'd dutifully set an alarm for 5pm, telling myself a little hour-long nap would do me good, but when it sounded I promptly switched it off and rolled over, drifting once again into a deep slumber. So far, the jet-lag was winning...

The next day, after waking up several times during the night, I decided I really would have to keep myself busy ALL day if I was to have any chance of going to bed at a normal time. In this vein, Cecile and I decided to take a day trip by boat to Green Island, a small but stunning tropical island on the Great Barrier Reef. After an invigorating 50-minute boat journey we arrived, to my delight, at an island that looked as though it should be on Shipwrecked or some similar TV programme: white sand, crystal clear water and lush green rainforest. Although undeniably modest in size (just 37 acres) it has its own hotel, swimming pool, snorkel-hire kiosk and various other small touristy outlets, and even its own helipad! As we'd neglected to bring our helicopter that day - what were we thinking?! - we went for the next best thing and hired snorkelling equipment. Cecile decided to stay on the beach and watch while I braved the waters alone (despite several slightly unnerving signs warning me to 'snorkel with a buddy'). I'm glad I did; the Great Barrier Reef really is as amazing as people say. Even though I wasn't out there for very long (the possibility of encountering a shark, however remote, was always in the back of my mind) I saw all kinds of brightly coloured coral and fish, as well as - rather unexpectedly - a big white sting ray! It lay languidly in the shallows doing such a good job of blending in with the seabed that I almost didn't see it at all, but when I did it gave me quite a shock! As pretty as it was, I swam away pretty hastily.

All too soon we were back on the boat and cruising back to Cairns. I'd recommend Green Island to anyone; I only wish I'd had the opportunity to stay a bit longer myself.

That evening, the hostel put on a big Aussie BBQ. For $12 I had the pleasure of sampling crocodile, emu, kangaroo, barramundi (a popular Australian white fish), sausages and 5 different types of salad. It was all delicious, especially, I'm sorry to say, the poor old kangaroo. Yummy!

That night I slept a little better, while still randomly waking up at least twice during the night, and was thus a little better prepared to greet a very tanned, well-travelled Becky when she arrived at the hostel the next morning fresh from Bali. As soon as she got there the realisation that I was in Australia and would be backpacking for the next two months began to sink in and I felt a surge of excitement. We immediately started planning what we'd be doing over the next few days, and booked some more nights at the hostel.

After relaxing by the Lagoon for the rest of the day, we decided to hire bicycles the following day. Gabe, the very friendly and helpful owner of the hostel, marked out a good route for us on a map and off we set (me armed with my factor 30+ suncream). We rode along the seafront and all the way to Cairns Botanical Garden, which was like no other botanical garden I've ever seen, let me tell you. It was more like a rainforest. A very well cared-for, if not pristine, rainforest, you understand, but nevertheless a rainforest. I was fascinated by all the foreign flora. Everything was so colourful and obscure; a far cry from daisies and dandelions. Afterwards, we did a hearty 1.2km walk through the nearby rainforest on a circuit called the Red Arrow, which turned out to be rather steep but was worth it for the views over the sea and saltwater creeks when you reached the top. As I gazed at the saltwater creeks, I mused that the one lone saltwater crocodile said to inhabit the creeks must be a bit lonely - and, God forbid, hungry - even if his solitude did make him something of a local celebrity. Either way, I wasn't about to go looking for him.

That evening we felt weary but exhilirated from the day's exercise, and aside from rather bruised bums (neither of us were used to sitting on bike saddles for any length of time) we agreed it had been an excellent day. After such an active day it would be time for a rest, you might assume. On the contrary, we decided that the next day we would quite literally take the plunge. Yes, Thursday 23rd June 2011 would be the day I would do my first - and possibly last - sky dive. I could scarcely believe it, even though I'd come up with the idea myself. Evidently something in the Australian water was already affecting my santiy...

Jokes aside, I was surprisingly calm when I woke up on The Morning of The Sky Dive. I remained calm while I was eating my breakfast, and even on the hour-long bus journey to the place where the jumps take place. Even when we entered the Tandem Cairns centre I was still in an uncharacteristic state of tranquility. In fact, it was only when we were paired up with our instructors (who swiftly began strapping us into our harnesses while cheerfully quipping that we were all going to die) that it hit me that I was about to throw myself out of a plane 14,000 feet in the air. Subsequently, when my instructor began waving a video camera in my face (I should point out he was more than within his rights to do this as I had indeed paid $99 extra for the privilege of having photographic and DVD evidence with which I could relive my terrifying plunge forever more) I found myself not only camera-shy as I always am in front of video cameras, but also almost completely tongue-tied. My nerves had really kicked in and I didn't want to talk to anyone.

Time plodded on and before I knew it we were all on the tiny plane (about 16 of us, all strapped to our respective instructors and straddling a bench in single file, neatly slotted in between each other's legs) and propelling skyward at an alarming speed.

As fate and the law of sod would have it, I was last out of the plane so I had even more time to get nervous about it. As I watched my companions plop dramatically out of the plane one by one, sliding ever further forward on my bench, I began to wonder what it would be like if I died doing a sky dive. Luckily, I didn't have too much more time to think about it because all of a sudden I was sitting on the very edge of the plane's open doorway, the air whistling around my ears, with my head tipped back and my arms crossed over my chest as instructed, and then.... whoosh! I had just thrown myself out of a plane (with a little help from my instructor, who mercifully had 15 years' experience and around 2600 sky dives under his belt) and was plummeting boundlessly through thin air. The free fall lasted about 60 seconds, and was honestly the most surreal experience of my life so far. When I say surreal, I mean it as the highest possible praise; it was utterly exhilirating. Even though I could hardly breathe (odd, considering I was surrounded by endless supplies of air and nothing else) and my mouth was so dry it felt like my tongue might stick to the roof of it and never come off again, I didn't care. I was doing a sky dive and it was brilliant! When the parachute finally popped out after what seemed like an eternity of adrenaline-fuelled bliss, I was more than happy to hang there limply and admire the views while my instructor did all the hard work above me. And what views they were! Cairns has to be one of the most beautiful places to do a sky dive ever.

When we landed, I was so emotionally exhausted and overwhelmed I just slumped onto the floor in a clumsy heap. I was shaking all over but couldn't stop grinning.

A couple of days later (at this point I'd spent 6 happy nights in the Tropic Days hostel, including 3 in a tent in the back garden when they didn't have any space indoors for me and Becky) we reluctantly dragged ourselves away from Cairns. I could've stayed there forever but the East coast was beckoning and after a 6-hour bus ride shortly followed by a short ferry journey we found ourselves on the charmingly named Magnetic Island.

Sadly the weather on Magnetic left something to be desired, but then we'd expected the weather to worsen as we moved further south. Nevertheless, it wasn't completely awful - just a bit drizzly and humid - so we passed our time exploring the island's many secluded bays and going for long walks. One of the walks we went on was a koala-spotting trail and suffice to say I was almost wetting myself with excitement at the prospect of spotting one of my furry friends. I'd never seen a real koala bear in the zoo, let alone in the wild, so I was keeping everything crossed for a sighting.

We'd been walking for ages, and just as I was beginning to lose hope I saw a small cluster of people with their necks craned towards a nearby tree. I made a beeline for them and was absolutely ecstatic to see none other than a koala bear lounging lazily on one of the lower branches of the tree. Unfortunately he was asleep but that didn't matter to me. Despite his sizeable frame, he balanced effortlessly on the slim branch in a position that would've been frankly very uncomfortable for any other animal but a koala bear. His cushiony flanks spilled over the sides of the branch in such a way that his balancing there at all seemed almost to defy scientific reason, yet he couldn't have looked more content and less in danger of toppling off. After staring at him in childlike awe for at least 10 minutes - at one point, when Becky accidentally made a loud crash by dropping her bag he stirred, lifted his head, opened his eyes and glared at her indignantly - we tore ourselves away and completed our walk. Although we didn't spot another koala the excitement of seeing just one will probably last me the rest of the trip.

Another animal-related highlight while we were on Magnetic Island was when we purchased a little pot of wallaby food from our hostel for $1 and went in search of a well-known spot where roamed an abundance of cute little rock wallabies. Although wild, they were said to be used to people enough that they would eat from your hand, and sure enough, when we found them we weren't disappointed. They were adorable, even when one of them did nip my hand in its attempt to gobble the food out of it. At one point I had about 5 of them surrounding me. It was all hugely novel and when I finally ran out of food I was sad to leave them behind!

And that brings me up to the present. I'm currently in Airlie Beach, which I'm sure would be gorgeous only I haven't had the chance to see it in its usual glory as it has been absolutely chucking it down all day. It's definitely true what they say that the weather gets worse as you go south! I'm a bit disappointed to say the least, as the main purpose of our trip here was so that we could do a sailing tour of the beautiful Whitsunday Islands. Sadly that won't be possible because the weather forecast for tomorrow is just as unpromising as today's and all the boat trips have been cancelled. Since the weather isn't set to improve here till Saturday and there's really not a lot to do in Airlie in the rain apart from drink 'goon' (the amusing Australian name for boxed wine) and play cards, we've decided to cut our losses and make a swift exit tomorrow. Since Magnetic Island, we've been travelling with Tom, a lovely guy from Suffolk who we met in Cairns and bumped into again on Magnetic Island. Since he's taking more or less exactly the same route as us it made sense to join up! Next stop: Gladstone, which I'm told has some pretty waterfalls. Fingers crossed for some sunshine...