Cairns: The Far North
Trip Start
Sep 08, 2011
1
55
85
Trip End
Jan 08, 2012
Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Coming to Australia, I realised that the Australian pronunciation of Cairns was different from the British. It has caused me problems throughout my journey it has caused me problems and so I spent some of my time at the airport practising how to say it, but still failed miserably. It sounds like a mixture of Cannes (French) and an American saying cans – with an almost silent 'r’ in there somewhere. I just couldn’t do it.
Anyway, it was pitch black when I arrived, but, within the hour, day started to break and I was able to take in my surroundings; the airport was surrounded by tropical hills/mountains. After being in a city for 2 weeks, it was a pleasant surprise to see such verdant scenery. Eventually, however, it was time to try and get into myself into the hostel. By this time it was 25ºC and I was thinking that if this is what the weather was going to be like, I was really going to suffer. Fortunately, the day didn’t get much hotter and although it was humid, it was nowhere near the humidity of the Northern Territory or the top of Western Australia.
Back when I arrived in Australia, I’d touched down in Melbourne, a true city, but since then I’d become used to the idea of Australian ‘cities’. Adelaide was more like a large town than a city; Alice Springs was a few streets; Darwin was twice as big, but still tiny; Kununarra was a one-donkey street; Broome was spread out over a large area, but still very small. Granted, Perth is a city, but what I’m getting at is that I had no real expectations of Cairns, I just assumed it to be another tiny town. So, of course, I was surprised to see that it was almost a proper city (population 150,000 – practically a metropolis in Australian terms).
Once I’d checked in, rather than going straight to bed, I decided to have a look around town, especially as I was only going to be here for 3 days. First up; a 5 minute trek into the town centre. Just keeping my eyes open, I couldn’t believe the birds that I was seeing. I’m from London, so I had no idea what I was looking at. One particular bird, a small black bird, landed beside me and started squawking at me. I thought it looked kind of cute and stopped to have a look at it. When I decided to move on, the bird seemed to take offence at that and suddenly it started following me along the road, dive bombing me! WTF??? Imagine the scene, a huge black guy, running down the road from a tiny black bird, squawking and screeching at him, thinking that it’s a Japanese suicide fighter pilot (Alfred Hitchcock’s Birds, anyone?)! Welcome to Cairns!
It eventually lost interest and I was able to proceed with a certain amount of calm, but it reminded me of a piece of advice I was given in Broome about coming to Queensland, "Touch NOTHING!" There was nothing particularly outstanding about the city centre, so I headed toward the beach. As beaches go, the one in Cairns is not particularly great; the water (when the tide is in) is dark brown, but even if the water was among the most beautiful in the world, it wouldn’t matter as no one can go into it, because of the crocs, sharks and jellyfish. The major indictment is that on the esplanade, right next to the sea, there is a (free) public pool, not unlike the pool in Vallparadis in Terrassa. Nevertheless, the walk along the esplanade is pleasant with grass next to the boardwalk and free BBQs. But then I saw something that I had never seen before, outdoor gym equipment set up all along the esplanade. When I walked back along the esplanade at dusk, it was full of joggers, walkers and cyclists (all of which I’d seen in Barcelona), but there were also people working out on the gym equipment! This country is obsessed with health and fitness.
Furthermore, I saw a plaque underneath a tree and, being a tourist, I went over to have a look at it. The plaque stated that the tree was from South America and was known as a cannonball tree. A cannonball tree??? What did it do? Fire its fruit at you??? I didn’t know, but there was no way I was going to stick around to find out! A cannonball tree? Whatever next?
So, my first impression of Cairns is that while the city is unexceptional and the sea is not great, the esplanade is actually rather pretty and well thought out. I just have to remember to touch nothing.
Comments
Is known as the "effen Q" or FNQ which stands for Far North Queensland.