Travel Biography - Week 80.

YHA Australia compared to traditional YHA England & Wales.

The Youth Hostel Association of Australia was more like in America than in the UK, as Down Under, each hostel was privately owned and affiliated with the YHA. In the UK, each property is owned by the association. They hired wardens, usually a married couple, to manage the hostel, including assigning duties to every hosteller to keep down the running costs. Also, the lights out was at 11.00pm. In its heyday, hostels were for city youngsters from deprived backgrounds to experience the open countryside. In many larger hostels in the UK, the lounge doubled as a classroom for the students to study fieldwork.

In recent years, as clientele were older, more independent, and had money. Unless the duty was done away with, the YHA was under threat of collapse. Hence, the "Youth Hostel" became "Backpacker's Retreats" and the warden became the receptionist. By catering for adults rather than schoolchildren, the YHA survived a changing world.

Woody Isle and Low Isle. Stock photo.

In Australia, the YHA had a "Dollar or Duty" scheme, where a customer was given a choice of either a higher payment or a duty. In 1997, of all the Aussie hostels I stayed at, I was asked only once, at Byron Bay. Naturally, I was willing to pay the extra dollar for each night. And apparently, so did everyone else, as throughout my entire stay in Australia, I have not seen a single duty carried out.

By 1997, most hostels had given up offering the Dollar or Duty choice. Nobody was going to choose the household chore just to save a dollar per night. And so, in Cairns, its Esplanade Hostel was basically a cheap hotel, but one with self-catering facilities. 

Leaving Cairns for Port Douglas.

However, with this casual, laid-back attitude of the hostel staff, I was kept awake around three in the morning by the sound of canoodling in the bathroom, which was close to my bed. As I lay in bed with my eyes open and amidst the gentle snoring of others around, it was easy for me to realise what was happening. With a plethora of nightclubs in town, it wasn't above board for a drop of alcohol to encourage one of our fellow hostellers to bring back a tipsy young female and frolic where they thought no one could see or hear them.

Eventually, I dropped off to sleep. After daybreak, aware that I wanted to board a catamaran to Port Douglas, a  town and holiday resort sixty km or 37 miles north along the Queensland coast. This was in readiness to visit Low Isles, a coral cay around 15.5 miles off the mainland seashore. However, for my first visit, I decided to remain in Port Douglas, swim in the sea (if possible) and check out the town and its esplanade.

With the forthcoming trip in mind, I was the first in our dormitory to arise. Forgetting what happened in the night, I made my way to the bathroom, as I didn't want to wait around for others to finish. As I pushed the door open, I startled the couple clutched in an unusual position at one corner.

Why the heck have you disturbed us? the young man asked with some annoyance.

Disturb you? I responded. You kept me awake at three this morning! There is the beach outside! I exclaimed firmly, pointing in the direction of the esplanade.

The couple was shocked, if not horrified by my brazen response. Come, let's get out of here! They then stormed out of the hostel, leaving me alone in the bathroom. I never saw them again.

The Catamaran sped past Double Island.

Four-Mile Beach, Port Douglas

The First Visit to Port Douglas.

After breakfast, I made my way to Cairns Harbour. At the shopping mall, I bought a return ticket for the Quicksilver catamaran sailing to Port Douglas. This vessel was larger than the Big Cat to Green Island and less formal. There was no prep-talk, rather this was a ferry service between two points.

It took about an hour for the catamaran to cover the distance, which surprisingly enough, was slower than the coastal bus ride to the same destination. On the way out, there was a brief stop at Clifton Beach, a strip of sand lining the coast from where a lone jetty jutting out of the thick forest covering the coastal slope of the Great Dividing Range, roughly halfway along the journey. However, the return journey back to Cairns Harbour was non-stop. Also, during the sailing, the catamaran passed Double Island, the forested twin peaks of what was once a high hill rising from the land shelf before submersion, leaving the peaks as an island off the mainland coast.

The catamaran eventually moored at Port Douglas Harbour, from where a connecting catamaran was due to leave for the Low Isles. This time, I didn't board the second vessel but sauntered off to explore the environment.

The Four-Mile Beach was a strip of sand covering a long, sweeping bay, quite unlike at Cairns, which had a mudflat for a beach. The beach was backed by palm trees, giving a tropical feel to the coast. I stripped to my shorts and plunged into the sea. This time, I didn't want to allow my awareness of sharks to overcome me as it did at Mission Beach in San Diego two years earlier. Instead, I went in and enjoyed a good swim.

Beach at Port Douglas.

Port Douglas Esplanade

Backing the esplanade with its row of palm trees, there was an area of open space. On the far side of the park from the esplanade, there was a live band, and an audience had assembled in front of the stage to listen to and enjoy the music. However, during the performance, a group of youths, not far from where I was sitting, were larking about, and one threw an egg at the stage, splattering it. Immediately, the music stopped and the lead singer, who saw who the culprit was, angrily ordered the whole gang to come over and clean up the mess. We all watched as the humiliated group got to work under the eye of the lead singer.

Later, I strolled into the town centre and looked around the main shopping mall. The indoor mall was cool and refreshing from the warm sunshine outside. I also saw that the town was smaller than Cairns, but looked to have more diving schools than its larger sister. Like Cairns, Port Douglas was an ideal base for divers and snorkelers visiting the Great Barrier Reef, namely, Low Isles Coral Cay and the Outer Reef. 

However, I did have one regret. That was regretting not boarding the second catamaran for the Low Isles snorkelling tour. The trip I made to Green Island and glided over the corals surrounding the cay has converted me from a casual inquirer to a Reef fanatic. And I was determined, one way or another, to visit another coral cay and compare one with the other. Low Isles suited the bill exactly.

By the evening, I was on the Quicksilver catamaran, heading back to Cairns Harbour. Again, that evening, after I had dinner at the member's dining room, I went out for an after-dark stroll. I shunned the nightclubs with their tempting efforts to entice me into their bars, and instead, I strolled along the esplanade, gazing up at the Southern Cross Constellation shining through a clear night sky as the white band of the Milky Way streaking across the heavens. 

Another view of the Esplanade

Port Douglas Shopping Mall.

The Second Sailing to Port Douglas and onward to Low Isles Coral Cay.

The next morning, after a shower and breakfast, I made my way to the mall, and I saw the same Quicksilver catamaran waiting in the harbour. I was late, and avoiding the queue at the booking kiosk, I went straight to the vessel and boarded. There was a ticket reception on board and approaching, I asked the assistant whether I could buy a day return ticket for the Low Isles. She was happy to oblige, and I bought the ticket. I then sat at a table and took advantage of the free coffee and biscuits on offer. Then I made my way up to the deck and from there, watched as the catamaran pulled out of the harbour.

The ride was the same as that of the previous day. The catamaran stopped at Clifton Beach before resuming its journey to Port Douglas. Once on arrival, I was taken aback by the absence of the connecting Quicksilver to the cay, which was identical to the one I had just disembarked. Instead, a smaller catamaran, not very different to the Big Cat, was awaiting us to board. Although I was curious, it was someone nearby who asked a staff member why there was a change in boats. The explanation he received was that the vessel normally used on this trip was in for maintenance, and this smaller catamaran was to temporarily replace it.

Actually, this could be to my advantage that we were about to board a smaller vessel. The larger the boat, the less of a family feel to it. In a smaller vessel, I no longer felt like a lone traveller. Instead, I felt more part of a family. All of us, perhaps around a dozen, all with one purpose in mind - to glide effortlessly over the corals making up the reef surrounding the island. This feeling of being part of a family was enhanced on the journey back to Port Douglas from the Cay. On deck, a staff member took out his guitar and reclining, sang songs to all within earshot.

Although I refer to Low Isles in the plural, this is actually a misnomer. Indeed, there are two coral cay islands, and each has its own name. The larger of the two is not open to the public. Known as Woody Island, it's covered with mangrove vegetation. This seems to mean that during high tide, especially spring, or king tides, the mound itself is covered, but the tops of the mangrove trees remain above water. This gives the appearance of a forest growing straight out of the sea. The smaller of the two is a cay proper, covered with tropical vegetation befitting an island that remains above water, even during the highest of king tides. It could be said that it is a smaller version of Green Island with identical vegetation covering it and holding the mound together. Its proper name is Low Isle (in the singular).

The islands are 15.5 miles or 25 km from the mainland. This is significant, as it's 2.5 miles, or roughly four km closer to the mainland than Green Island, which is 18 miles out. It shows that the Great Barrier Reef isn't exactly parallel with the Queensland coastline. Rather, the further south one travels, the further out the whole barrier seems to "drift away" from the mainland coast. One example of this phenomenon is Heron Island Coral Cay on the southern Reef. It's 80 km or 50 miles out from Gladstone, on the mainland coast.

We alighted from the boat, which was anchored close to the beach of Low Isle. A short wade and I was standing on the beach consisting of coarse sand and broken shells. However, having learned from the Green Island experience, I stripped off the black singlet I was wearing and put on a button-up shirt to protect my back from possible sunburn while snorkelling.

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Next Week: I explore the reefs of Low Isle before starting my journey to the next stop.