I woke up too early, and decided to snooze, having set my alarm to give myself enough time to get up and walk to the pier. This may not have been the best plan, since my alarm didn't even vibrate, due to my having put it on to lowest possible volume!
Fortunately I still woke up after the snooze in time to be able to do the now familiar last check pack and get to the hostel reception for 6.15am ... I had to make it to the pier for 6.30am, so I decided that I would grab a taxi.
When we pulled up, I was on the wrong side of the taxi, and since I had sat in the back seat, there was no wing mirror for me to check to ensure there was nothing coming that would smack in to the door.
I mentioned that there wasn't a mirror for me to check, and the driver said I looked great, then corrected himself and said I looked like I had been travelling for a few days
I got checked in to the ferry terminal, rious as to how much my bags weighed, but they didn't have a weighing machine. I would have to wait till the airport.
The first stop was Daydream island, where I had been the day before, partly to drop off staff, and also to pick up people heading to Hamilton island.
The next stop was the airport, where I discovered I was the only passenger headed for the airport - as such I was the only person with baggage that had to be taken off the boat, so it seemed a little bit strange to walk to the baggage pick up place with the guy taking my bag on a huge trolley following me before I could get it back.
I got checked in, and found that my main bag was 19.5kg.
I think that for my future flights (still a few to go before I hit continental Asia) , I should stick with the method I had used this time - namely to have all my manga and books and paperwork on the carry on luggage - it's amazing how dense paper it (and therefore heavy!).
The plane was a small 2 propellor one, which could seat at a rough estimate about 100 people. It was still able to accelrate down the runway at a reasonable pace, and cruised at an altitude of 22,000 ft.
Flying up the coast of Queensland was rather splendid, I had never really appreciated how much impact on the landscape the barrier reef had, but seeing all the reef islands and the amazing green sea water, dark blue where the clouds cast shows, and tan coloured where the reef made the sea more shallow, really was picturesque.
We made good time and landed at the airport about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I picked up my bags, and headed to the payphone to request a pick up from the hostel. They advised that there was a bus waiting already and how to get there, so I made my way there, and hopped on.
I was much too early to check in at the hostel, so I reorganised my stuff and left a lot of luggage in the storage room, heading out to see how long it took to walk to the main boat terminal.
As I made my way south, I soon realised that the hostel was quite far outside of the town center, and that it might be worth while checking transport options for getting there early for the cruise.
On my way down Abbot street, I noticed that the trees were absolutely chocablock full of fruit bat. They made quite a racket, sounding a bit like the squeakers in squeaky toys! This, amongst other distractions meant I had no realiable measure of how long it took me to get to Woolworths, so I decided to measure it on the way back instead.
I grabbed some rolls, a green pepper, 6 mushrooms, about 500g of pork strips, rocket leaf spinach, and a pint of milk, fguring that ought to last me for the rest of the stay in Cairns.
Once I had packed that in my bag, I decided to check the terminal since I was close, and also found Calypso, the camera shop that had been recommended earlier. I also stopped by at a shop that promised to give 10% off tours, so I booked on to the Kuranda Scenic Railway and Skyrail tour, which afforded me the chance to see the Koalas tomorrow!
I headed back, getting distracted again by more wildlife, and then I was greeted at the hostel reception by Natalie from Oban in Scotland. All through my tour I have been meeting Scottish people, and yet other folk I have met have advised me I was the only one they met so far - so either I'm doing something right, or they're doing something wrong!
I introduced myself to Erik from the Netherlands and Bradley from England, who were both travelling together - their plans were to head to Sydney for New Year. It still seemed to be that the general traffic flow is from North to South, which would have been my own route if I didn't have other things I had wanted to achieve on top of the just touring the country.
After checking in, and putting my food away in the kitchen, I decided to grab a nap, as I was worn out from such a hectic previous few days. During this time, someone came in a few times and ended up waking me up, apologising for it, though as it was 5pm I mentioned that I needed to be awake anyway so that I didn't end up on the wrong sleep schedule, as I had only meant to nap, and it was now 90 minutes later.
A bit later on, Anya from Stuttgart arrived, though didn't stay long enough to chat for long with, so I headed down to the kitchen to cook dinner for myself. This is where I met Rosalynda from the Solomon Islands, who was working in Brisbane rnning her own business, but met someone and has moved up to Cairns, selling the house and now looking for a job up here.
I headed back up to the room, and learned that the person who had woekn me earlier was Julia from Pennsylvania. For some reason I found it difficult to talk with her. She was feeling in a bit of a funk as had been studying Business in Melbourne and didn't know what she wanted to do with her life now.
It was fairly late as the chatting and cooking had used up the last of the evening, so I went to bed, knowing that I had to be out and ready for the scenic rail tour in the morning.