Cairns and Friends

Waaa woo wee wah what an amazing few days we have had. It has finally and fully sunken in the gravity and awesomeness of this adventure in which i am part of. The Wolfpack are an awesome group of people and North Queensland is a mind blowing part of this country.
A brief overview of the last few days: we travelled from Townsville up to Cairns stayed a night, drove back to Paronella Park and stayed there a night then on the way home visited a waterfall.


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There you go some sort of layout of our Trip

A: Townsville
B: Ingham
C: Cardwell
D: Cairns
E: Gilligans Backpackers Cairns
F: Josephine Falls
G: Paronella Park
H: Wallaman Falls
I: Townsville

Now for those who want the full story in gory detail...
It was a beautiful day in Townsville (i think... I'm becoming kind of bias and every day regardless of weather seems to be excellent). We drove to Ingham to pick up Mik who had been fishing with some friends she has made in the area (she's totally a local now). We met Mik at the McDonalds in Ingham and she was impressed that we were reasonably on time, which is always nice so we continued on our merry way to Cairns, i was driving until we reached Caldwell unfortunately i didn't get any photos at Caldwell but i did take some footage which will be in the first episode of (unnamed- suggestions?) soon to be edited. Anyways the drive was amazingly scenic and it was about to get even more amazing. Nelson took over driving so i started taking photos, below are some from the trip between Caldwell and Cairns.

Selfie with the Girlies in the back.

these photos don't due justice to the size of these mountains.

I thought it was sad for such a beautiful place to have a refinery, So i took a photo.

The density of the lushness just kept on increasing.

When we arrived in Cairns we checked into Gilligans which is like the backpackers to end all backpackers my phone was flat so this part of the journey isn't documented in my photo's sorry, after we checked in we went to AJ Hackett and watched Heather and Mik go on the Minjin Swing it looked amazing and the girls were very brave, I took some footage that will also be in the first episode of (unnamed- suggestions?). Basically its a swing that you are suspended from then winched backwards until you are 40m off the ground (level with the bungee platform) then you have to pull the release pin and swing, apparently at the bottom apex of the swing you are doing about 120kms p/h which is very fast in a small amount of time hahah. The girls loved it so much they did it twice, i watched, filmed and drank beer.

After all of that commotion was complete we went for a shop in the night markets in Cairns I bought a hippie headband and Sunglasses and Heff bought a pair of hippy fanta pants (you'll see them in an upcoming photo). That night we went to the bar in Gilligans which is ridiculous its huge and multifaceted it had about 3 or 4 different bars and lots of international guests all drinking and eating, the meal i got was $10 it was an open grill chicken sandwich with salad and chips, included in the price is a free drink... i opted for Bourbon, the first of many that were to be consumed that night. The hour following tea was 2 for 1 drinks so for 7.50 i was getting 2 Bourbons i bought 3 lots in that hour. After that hour the drinks were back to standard prices which meant we could use our stamps (given to guests of the backpackers) to get discounted drinks, this meant Bourbons were now $5 ea more expensive than the previous hour, but still amazingly cheap, not sure how many we drank in this hour but it would have been at least 4 or 5. Heather was keeping up with me drink for drink which was quite impressive also we were all getting quite loose and enjoying the bogan rock that was playing. Little did we know that the bogan rock was an intro into Bogan Bingo which was hilarious. Hosted by to funny blokes dressed up in flanos and mullets, they were the funniest pair of MC's i've witnessed.
"41, up ya bum.... no babies" each number had a funny bogan comment to go with it and a song,
"15, not quite legal!" this was backed up with cherry pie i was almost crying with laughter, pretty sure the excessively cheap alcohol was helping with the mood. About an hour must have passed, the bogans announced the hour of power, another incentive to drink more. The hour of power is $10 to opt in you get a voucher with 6 drinks on it, So i had 6 drinks again in this hour. Heather managed to get 8 because the chick at the bar didn't take the voucher when she got her drinks. It was about this time Nelson Said
"Pretty cool place hey" to which i replied
"I'm wasted" i had misheard him and revealed the extent of my intoxication i one foul swoop. After such a calamity the only obvious next step is to go and dance, so we Nelson, Heather and Myself danced with such prowess that other backpackers were joining us and some were even taking photos, obviously because I'm such a talent on the dance floor!
The next morning was kinda blurry so after checkout in my blurry hungover state i thought it was a great idea to get a facial piercing! So i marched into the nearest piercing shop and walked out with a sore lip and a chunk of metal in it.

I have a shiny sprinkle on my face.

Well what came next.. aha yes our next stop was Josephine falls it was a little way off the highway but definitely worth the trek. It was a gorgeous lush rain forest waterfall that i really enjoyed. I didn't go for a swim because i was concerned about my lip. but i did enjoy the rain forest walk and the spectacular waterfall.

Josephine Falls (i had to pick my jaw up from the ground)

It so lush that everything has something else growing from it!

After Nelson and Heff had a swim and i had a smoke with Mik and washed my mouth out with mouthwash. We continued to our next port of call, being Paronella Park it was simply breathtaking. Its like a mini Spanish Castle set on a waterfall and every building on the site is made to accentuate or frame the waterfall in one way or another.

Don't worry i know what I'm doing

almost there....

Bam and the Penthouse is ready!

After setting up camp we went on the night tour and again my phone was flat so i couldn't take any pictures but i took some the following morning.  On the night tour we were all given a torch each and followed the very bubbly tour guide around the park. The highlight for me wasn't actually the park itself but the Firefly's! When the tour guide was feeding some turtle i started looking up, spacing out no doubt. But regardless i looked up and saw what i thought were fairy lights, i remember thinking that's a bit tacky to have in a nice place like this, but the fairy lights started moving this is when i pointed it out to Mikyla, just to make sure i wasn't hallucinating or something. Turns out they were firefly's, i didn't even realise we had them in Australia, but they are a definent highlight in this trip and in my life, very very special. After a good nights sleep we went packed up camp and set off on our merry way to do the morning tour, it was much more informative than the night one but somehow despite that it was slightly more boring (may be an insight into my brain). Anyways we cruised around and took some glamour shots. It's impossible to take an ugly photo in this place!

The main building

View from the bottom of the grand staircase.

Same spot as the above image just turned 180degrees

Stunning gravity fed water fountain

Morning tour Heff's afore mentioned Fanta Pants

I can't remember the name of these trees but apparently the
Australian Army Camouflage is based on the pattern.

The Waterfall from the top

This was once the refrestment cafe and entrance to the ballroom



From above the falls looking over the Eel pool.

 Paronella Park is a must and i recommend it for anyone thinking of coming up this direction. Sadly we had to leave this beautiful place and continue on our Journey back to Townsville. We had one last stop of which turned out to be epically spectacular! Wallaman Falls is the largest free falling waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere 268m of free falling water its amazing, half the water is mist before it reaches the bottom which looks excellent because the mist is blown up the valley and appears to go back to the top of the falls.

The Wolfpack at Wallaman Falls, (you can see it in the middle)

After that we returned to Townsville, which was weird because it felt like driving home from a holiday but as it turns out it was a holiday within a holiday! Awesome. Peace.