Australia – Cairns
I hopped on a late night bus from Airly Beach to Cairns to arrive in the morning. I had no idea what to expect out of this city at first, but all I knew was that this was a great place to catch a boat to dive the great barrier reefs.
Cairns is a cosy town, situated right by the waterfront with an assortment of palm trees and nice parks near by. A botanical garden is situated just out of the town cetner and a few zoos are near by but I didn't have the time to catch a bus to make it all the way out there.
I came in and got a place for $19/night at a backpacker's hostel and booked myself on a 1 night 2 day diving trip to the great barrier reef the next day. The trip set me back $270, a little on the pricy side but it's just one of those things that I've have to do while in Australia.
While killing time in town, I had the pleasure of meeting a fellow backpacker by the name of Franz, a guy in his mid 30's from Switzerland that just recently quit his job working at an oil company to do some traveling. A very interesting guy as he can play the digeridoo and knows some poi. A really friendly guy. He has also been in town for the last few days and was really nice to show me around town. Especially to the grocery store.
Franz, the Swiss digeridoo player!
In the afternoon, while walking around the lagoon, I stunbled upon an Australian guy by the name of Boyd, practicing poi and is currently an aspiring fire spinning professional. As I approached him he was quick to greet me. I really like friendly people. At the time there were also some young Japanese people around practicing juggling, poi, the digeridoo and the african drum as well. I knew that this was a really cool crowd of people so I naturally dropped my stuff, pulled out my poi set from my bag and started practicing with them.
I ran into Franz by the lagoon and naturally invited him into join the fun, and so he did as he brought out his digeridoo and came to join up with us. We hung out outside until the evening and had a great time practicing. I took a photo to commemorate the event. I really enjoy the gathering of random people doing something they enjoy doing together. I do believe that sharing and helping is what brings people together. As the evening drew to night, we eventually packe up our stuff and headed home in preparation for tomorrow. For me, my adventure would take me out to dive the great barrier reefs.
An afternoon of african drums, digeridoos and more!
The Great Barrier Reefs
I made a booking on boat going by the name of the Rum Runner. It looks like a sailing boat but it's powered by a motor. The mast and sails were there mainly for asthetic purposes. There were 16 people on the trip including myself. The boat was run by 2 deckhands and one divemaster. I got to meet all sorts of people on board, joining from the UK, Germany, Columbia, Switzerland and more. A very international group of people and I had a great time hanging out with them. The food on board was pretty good too. The ocean was clear and it was a bright sunny day. the sun was exceptionally hot and I kept on applying sunscreen to prevent myself from getting burned.
On the first day, we did 3 dives, 2 during the day and one more night dive. The great barriers reef were very beautiful and there was plenty of aquatic life to be seen. I caught sight of cray fish, a hermit crab, an assortment of clown fish and more. My best description of diving would be like swimming in a very large aquarium. Personally speaking though, I thought that the dive sites of Sipidan in Malaysia, where I got certified, had nicer corals, but still the great barrier reefs was something to see.
Top: Jumping off the boat, BottomHanging out
Left: Dinner time! Right: Roast beef, it's what's for dinner!
The great barrier reefs can also be easily enjoyed while snorkeling. Just that diving lets one go a little deeper into the waters, the experience is pretty much the same (and even a little cheaper). For those that have a chance to make it out to the Cairns, I would highly recommend having some fun on a boating trip out.
Of an interesting note, I was thinking about how much money these diving boats were making. The dive boat I was on took 16 people onboard at about $200 gross a person. The hostels that book these tours seemed to take about a $30-$40 cut and then there is a $10/day reef tax to pay for people going out to the great barrier reefs. Doing the math, a boat like this brings in $3200 over a 2 day period, operated by 3 people and the boat is owned by someone else that manages the business.
Doing the math, I let's assume that the deckhands might get $200/day and the divemaster might get $350/day. For the 2 days, we are looking at about $800 total for the 2 deckhands, and day $700 for the divemaster, or about $1500 in costs for manning the ship. Say that food for 16 people over 2 days costs about $200 extra so the that would bring the total expenses up to $1700, leaving about $1500 for the 2 days for the owner of the boat. I don't think that's too bad of a deal to be running an operation like this.
I did some research into prices for boats while in Australia (after passing by a marina for the boats) and used small live aboard boats go for about $40,000 ish or even cheaper. I would guess for a boat of this size might run into the $120,000 to $160,000 range and estimating at about $750/day for the owner and a $160,000/day price tag on the boat, I believe that the boat would pay for itself in about 7 months. I did not include mooring fees and maintenance into the equation but I would guess that a boat like this would end up paying for itself within 2 years (assuming that business is good during the high season and business might be slow during the slow season). Sounds like a good and fun business to run to me!
Mission Beach
Mission beach was introduced to me by Franz before leaving on my diving trip. I did some reading into it and learned that it was a beautiful 3 km stretch of beach about 2 hours by bus out of Cairns. It's a sleepy little area and not many people go out there, but I decided to go there, just to be off the beaten path.
Mission beach, 3 km of beach. It just keeps going and going
I arrived at the bus stop at Mission Beach after a morning bus ride and got picked up at the bus station by a car taking people back to a backpacker's lodge called “Scotty's”. The place ran at $24/night but it was a really nice place, complete with a pool, lounge, kitchen and more. The city around the area is a little quiet but a really great place to get away from it all. I walked the beach and along the streets back to find all sorts of resort houses in the area. I found out that there were a few companies in the area offering skydiving packages where people got to skydive onto the beach. Sounded like a lot of fun, but I didn't have the time to participate.
For $24/night, it's like staying at a resort!
I did meet up with Franz at the backpacker's lodge to find him doing some part time work, a night shift job just watching over the place in the evenings and then he changed over to cleaning the pool and doing some odds and ends for free accomodation and an extra $40/day. Not bad if you just wanted a place to hang out and relax. I also found some other people working at the local bar, getting paid $20/hour in the evenings and working for about 5 hours.
It's not bad working here and I think it is a great way of funding a trip through Australia. Doing something like this in Japan, unfortunately, is simply impossible as bar work pays about $7~8/hour. It's a different world.
I walked the beach and hung out at the backpaker's lodge before catching a bus back to Cairns as I would be catching my flight to Adeliade and a fire show. But this is all I'll write for now. Will have to catch up on my writing another time!
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