The ferry left at 8:30, a whole cool island day ahead of me.
After 45min that marvelous view . In fact, in reality it even looks much better.
White beach, calm, cristal clear turquoise water, most beautiful sunshine, green hinterlands.

Thanks to my cool new Australia travel guide I knew I had to do the Summit Walk (I wonder why they took the pics for the www on such a cloudy day).
The guide says it's difficult, and that's a pretty good summary. The first part is all very steep uphill, for some 2,5km and with thirty-something degrees quite a challenge. The good thing about this is, that hardly anyone else took it ;) So I could enjoy the scienic view all on my own, only saw others twice within 3 hrs. When I finally reached the summit, I could nearly see the whole island, 360 degrees, some trees in the way though. It's hard to describe to look down a beautiful green island, see even more further away,..but especially when you only see the blue water, up to the horizon, infinite.
Australia makes me think abot dimensions all the time.
At one stop I looked down on the thick rain forest and heart so many birds, it was incredible.
The way back was about 2km and of course all down hill. But that doesn't really mean it was easy. I guess, what I am trying to do here is justifying all the lazyness that came afterwards :)

I hired some snokeling gear (14$ rip off, damn monopolies!) and headed to the beach.

...oops the www place is closing...will have to finish later

COMPLETION

Anyway, I am back at a www Cafe.

Well the beach i headed to is called "Nudey Beach" , unfortunately I should find out that there was no justification for that name whatsoever...just in case YOU were wondering ;)
However, I can say that this without exaggeration, I have never seen such a wonderful white calm beach before. It was all white corals, surounded by jungle, with big round rocks in the water. Again, I have to say, what you see in the www is NOTHING compared to the real beauty.
My pictures will prove that.
I was still exhausted from the hiking and couldn't wait to get into the water. It was just wonderful. I took my snorkeling gear and althought it was so close to the beach, I saw some amazing fish, one had all the colors of the rainbow, I swear!
I spent the rest of the afternoon by the beach...and damn vanity, I nearly got my back burned...
But just nearly:)
Wonderful day.

This country kills me!!!!

Arrived at the airport in Cairns, Saturday, lunch time. Here I am, ready for the big tour.
Sky looked cloudy from the plane, a little disappointing. When I got off, breathing was all different. This feeling, when you come to hot, humid places and have to breath deeper to get the oxygen in. I enjoyed it.

Called a hostel, they gave me a free lift from the airport. Saved me 5$ for the bus, made me happy.
Looked allright, moved in. Shared with two big British girls. Of course, they fitted perfectly into
my well justified picture of the British youth. They just cant do without drinking. Anyway.

Got a free bike and made my way to the city. It's a village, rather. Its center is no more than a square with maybe 1,5 x 1,5 km, not much of a challenge. They don't have a beach which is rather surprising for the tourist hot spot no. 1 in Australia. Instead, they have a big out door pool, the "lagoon" (it's free) where people hang around.
But the real tourist life takes place elsewhere. Cairns is kind of a starting point for any tourist activity one can imagine. Every third shop is a tour booking agency, that's NOT exaggerated (for a change). So I got some 20 odd brochures and my travelers' guide and tried to figure out what to do. Wow. It/s just too much. Rainforests, Bushlands, Great Barrier Reef, Islands, Sky Diving, Bungee,...I really got stuck.
However, my (only) plan was to get back down to Sydney, all along the East Coast and make some stops. Went to one of the tour shops, the girl was French and again, I got my impressions reinforced. She was brilliant, very genuine, not sales men fake genuine. I got the cheapest bus ticket possible (I checked a couple of places) 229AUS$ is not too bad, unlimited stops. Also she told me which tours are a waste of money because I can do them on my own. (The only thing is, I have no drivers license *hmpf* which makes things a little complicated.) Also got the cheapest possible ferry ticket to Fitzroy Island ($21 instead of 42$ or even $85). Sorry for all the boring numbers, but those tourist tours are so ridiculously expensive (no day trips below 100bucks) that all these little savings feel like a big victorry.

What's more, I got a voucher for a free dinner meal at the "wood sheads".
Pretty much every hostel in town provides them, so it's no big deal - and no big meal either ;)
It's pretty cheap stuff and not really much. Got some plain rice and something they called chilli con carne but was rather tomato sin chilli, sin carne. But if you are really dealing with a tight budget, that's allright. Now, the catch is, you can upgrade you meal for 5 or 6 $ and get some decent grab. And of course they are happy if you buy drinks, but the tap water is free, too.
So all very cool.

Got to bed at half ten, the two big Brits were not there yet. Fell asleep immidiately and when I woke up at half six, the girls were already gone. I didn't hear anything at all, so I guess that was a preety good nap:)

By the way, I just entered that text in the Google Tool to get it translated to German. Funny stuff, try it if you like.