Cairns

It was a 10 hour flight over to Cairns as we had to stopover in Darwin for a bit first. We landed in Cairns on the Tuesday morning, 3 weeks after leaving home. We had no details of our Visa's or bank balances on us, but we were welcomed in none the less. After a quick sniff from the fruit & veg doggies of course.

It was a strange feeling when we walked out of the airport, we had finally hit Australia. It was early in the morning and it was nice and hot, not too hot though. We had booked a hostel in Cairns called Gilligan's so we hopped in a taxi and headed for there.

We arrived there at 8:30 in the morning so it was too early for us to check in, but they took our bags into storage free of charge. The hostel had a huge bar, pool tables, big screens, a nice swimming pool, and of course a games room for the Pokies!!

We went for a walk around Cairns and I have to say it was really beautiful. It was an old looking town but the weather was beautiful and the pier was very easy on the eye, even at that hour of the morning having had no sleep. Then there was the lagoon which was so beautiful and relaxing.

We stumbled across a casino amongst all of this natural beauty too, and of course our inquisitive nature got the better of us :o) The place was massive but it did not have Texas Holdem in there so after a quick game of Blackjack, we just ended up watching a movie in there and eating the free popcorn.

We went back to the hostel to check in but of course it was still too early so we hit the bar for a game of pool, and a quick one!! We met two other Irish lads in there that were playing pool so we had a few beers and a few games, and before we knew it, we were drunk again, and it was 2 in the morning...

The rooms in the hostel were really nice, 6 beds, but we had our own bathroom, and a huge locker each that we could put our bags into. Coming in so late that first night, I just took a free bunk and passed out for the night.