Travel Biography - Week 78.

The Flight from Singapore to Cairns.

After spending five days in Singapore, there I was waiting at the departure lounge at Changi Airport. The flight I was about to board was unique. It wasn't a direct flight to Cairns but featured a stop at Darwin, an outback town on the coast of Northern Territory. Although one of the country's most northerly cities, Darwin isn't the closest south of the Equator. That honour goes to Bamaga, near the Cape York tip of Queensland.

After boarding and take-off, I saw that the Boeing 747 wasn't at full passenger capacity. Like on the London-Singapore flight, there were plenty of unoccupied seats. And like on the initial flight, I had the row to myself. Two other unique characteristics were connected to this flight. On one hand, this was my first flight that was neither out from London nor returning to London. This feature sets this flight apart from all the other flights I had taken up to then, as they were all either out from London, or returning to London. Indeed, I was quite excited about that. Secondly, not long after take-off from Changi Airport, I crossed the Equator from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere, thus officially passing out of Summer into Winter, as I was reminded by some locals after arriving at Cairns.

The Shopping Mall, Cairns, Queensland.

Shopping Mall Interior, Cairns.

It was still dark when the plane landed at Darwin. It rested at its airport for a while before other people boarded for Cairns. After Darwin, this was no longer an international flight but now a domestic one. As the plane took off, I was able to make out the city directly below. The streets were laid out in a symmetrical grid pattern, not unlike in size of that of Tijuana or even San Diego.

We were flying over water as the day broke. The sky was clear and the view I had by the window was unhindered by clouds. The sea I was flying over was the Gulf of Carpentaria, a large three-sided bay on the northern coast of Australia, bounded in the west by the east coast of Northern Territory, and in the east by the west coast of Queensland.

Just then, the western coast of Queensland came into view. I was surprised by what I saw! Below was a thick rainforest, the tops of the trees forming an unbroken green canopy across the whole land below. What surprised me about the topography was that I was expecting a desert to appear beneath me similar to the Outback surrounding Uluru, or Ayers Rock. This was one of the reasons why I believe this Round-the-World trip was so educational as well as pleasurable. It was during my stay in Cairns that not only had I learned much about the Great Barrier Reef, but also of the Great Divide. The eastern fringe of Australia, including the peninsula we were flying over, is dominated by the Great Dividing Range of mountainous country, covered with rainforests and also where the majority of Australians live. West of the range, the thick vegetation peters out and the land becomes a semi-desert.

Arrival at Cairns.

It was still morning when the plane landed at Cairns Airport. Like in Singapore, the weather was hot, but unlike the Asian city, the air was less humid and more bearable. Almost straight away, I noticed that I wasn't prone to thirst here in Cairns.

While I found that entering Singapore was straightforward, almost walking straight through Passport Control, here in Cairns, the border control was more strict. One habit the officer tended to find pleasure in was flicking through the pages of my passport casually, back and forth, with his thumb and forefinger. Actually, he was watching me to see whether I was hiding something illegal, and looking out for any signs of guilt. Satisfied, a blessed entry visa was stamped on one of its pages. But it wasn't over. At customs, I was told to empty my rucksack. With all my belongings, out fell a Bible I always carried on my travels.

The officers were taken aback by the sight of the Bible and actually apologised to me for being so tight on security. I replied that if the Government paid me to do this job, I would have done the same.

In the same room as Security, there was a currency exchange kiosk. Here, I cashed a US Dollar Traveller's Cheque for some Australian cash. I received a wad of notes and some coins, and I thought how clever they were. Each banknote was laminated with a thin but strong layer of plastic sheeting, making the banknote both waterproof and tearproof.

Mudflat outside the Mall, Cairns.

A Chinese Boat, known as a Junk, at Cairns Harbour.

I made my way outside, where a main road led into town. Presently, a taxi arrived and I asked to be taken to the YHA Esplanade. I climbed in, along with another backpacker, and I was taken to a point several miles into town. The driver alighted along with me (although the companion remained in the car). After lifting the rucksack over my shoulders, he pointed to a building a couple of hundred metres along the esplanade.

"You see that building over there?" he asked with a typical Aussie drawl in his voice.

I answered, "Yes, I can."

"That's the place you want."

He then drove off in another direction, leaving me alone at the furthest location away from home.

I approached the hostel here in Cairns the same way as I did with Will's Homestay in Singapore, which is the off-the-street approach without having first booked. I walked up to the reception, which looked out onto the street, and asked whether a bed was available. Like before, I was offered one and I gladly accepted. 

I was happy as I carried my rucksack into one of the dorms and found an unoccupied bed. Like most YHA hostels, mine was an upper of a two-tier bunk bed. However, close by, a hosteller was in his bed, asleep in the middle of the day. I didn't give any thought to first seeing him lying there, but I quickly caught on that he was down with a fever.

I took some essentials and asked whether there was a grocery nearby, as this was a hostel proper, and had a member's kitchen and dining room on the upper floor that was open all day. There was a Woolworths store on the next block (the streets of Cairns, like in Darwin, were laid in a symmetrical grid pattern.) The Australian Woolworths store was different from the British store. Those in the UK sold all kinds of small household goods and appliances. Here in Australia, the store was divided into two sections. One half stocked household hardware like those in the UK. However, the other half was given fully to groceries, and thus, while I stayed in Cairns, I stocked up at Woolworths.

In all, I spent five days in Cairns, the same as in Singapore. This consisted of three days on the mainland and two days on day trips to the Great Barrier Reef.

After the shopping was completed and stocked up one of the pigeonholes in the member's kitchen, I went out on a stroll to explore the town. In 1997, Cairns did not have a beach. Instead, at low tide, the esplanade faced a mudflat which stretched between 50-70 metres wide at low spring tide (or the king tide as known here in Aussie.) When the tide was in, the sea lapped gently against the wall of the esplanade, covering the entire width of the mudflat. The mudflat coast looked ugly and unsuitable for either sunbathing or swimming in the sea, yet it was rich with shore life and, as I saw it, a nature reserve. However, I believe that sometime after 1997, sand was added to the shore, creating an artificial beach to attract tourists. Why spoil such a rich wildlife environment? To me, that was criminal.

Towards the end of the esplanade, the walk turned towards an indoor shopping mall where booking for catamaran trips to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) could be made. The interior of the mall was rich in aesthetics, especially in marine life. Surrounding the mall, Cairns Harbour housed different boats and was the terminal for all GBR trips. There were many souvenir shops there, along with cafes, and there was even a decorative but fully functional postbox. One morning, I used it to post a picture postcard to the one who teased me relentlessly about wearing long hair in Singapore. At the back of the postcard, I wrote a message to him saying that I still had my long hair as I arrived safely in Australia.

In the busy streets of Cairns, along with the mall, there seems to be an infinite number of shops and businesses offering PADI courses in diving, from beginners to advanced levels, right up to coaching to become a diving instructor. (PADI stands for Professional Association of Diving Instructors.) So frequently these shops appear it has become impossible to remove the idea of diving out of my mind. If only my stay in Australia wasn't so limited! Here is a city with golden opportunities to learn a new skill. But I wasn't feeling too discouraged. Would snorkelling be a good alternative? As I walked the street, ideas began to fill my mind.

That afternoon, my eyes began to feel heavy. I didn't sleep much on the plane from Singapore. There was the city square and a place where I could sit. Once relaxed, I simply dropped off to sleep. How long I slept, I had no idea, but my small knapsack was intact. None of its contents were tampered with or stolen. And that includes my trusty film camera, a device I would never go without whilst on my travels. I sauntered back to the hostel to make dinner.

Town Square, Cairns.

Palm Fronds at Cairns Harbour.

Later that night, after dark, I went out for a stroll. The streets of Cairns were lined with nightclubs as well as restaurants. Bouncers stood as doormen at the nightclubs. If I recall, proper dress such as a shirt and trousers was required to enter these clubs. I wasn't interested. I was much more keen to stare out into the blackness of the night from the esplanade, and looking up to the clear, starry sky.

The view of the heavens was astounding. Streaking across the sky was the white band of the Milky Way, like the view I had from the floor of the Grand Canyon two years earlier, but more intense when seen from here. The view was enhanced by the presence of the Southern Cross Constellation, seen only from the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore the ability to look up into the sky to see such a constellation directly above my head was a wonderful privilege.

Later that night, even if the dormitory lacked privacy, the bed was still welcoming.

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Next Week: First Trip to the Great Barrier Reef - Green Island Coral Cay.