Port Douglas

Port Douglas was a really nice town, like a bigger Noosa, but it was expensive. The shopping looked quite good but I wouldn’t know really! Luckily the weather was good and the campsite had a pool so we spent a couple days tanning. The only real issue with our time in Port Douglas was the mosquitoes. There were millions. Everywhere. On our first night, it was absolute torture, it was boiling hot so we had to open the windows but then obviously all the mosquitos came in! While trying to sleep you could hear them buzzing around your head and you just knew you were getting eaten alive. I woke up with 25 bites on my left foot. The next night we decided that the only way we were going to sleep is if we got so drunk that we passed out and well, we definitely gave it a good shot!

Port Douglas

Cairns

Woke up quite hungover and drove to Cairns. Checked two of us into Calypso Hostel, the big party hostel Gilligans was fully booked. Spent the whole day just watching Love Island and catching up on admin, it was actually exactly what we needed.

That evening we went out to the world famous Gillians to party. Little Gabby was so drunk by the time we got there that we had to get her a slice of Pizza first before! We had a little pres in Frans so that we could drink our own alcohol and play our own music. The club had shit tunes but the night was so good. We saw a load of people we’d met on previous tours which was really nice, Koko had also rejoined us (the boy from Brisbane).

The next morning we weren’t actually that hungover, we were just feeling really lazy. I think we were finally getting over the van life. Having a lazy day was perfect and we had to get to bed early as we had our dive the next day!

We got up at 6:30am and headed to the boat. Christie and I had signed up for an intro dive, you only go 7m and it’s for half an hour, Riss and Gabby have already done their advanced Padi so they were doing a certified dive. I actually did my Open Water but I was only about 15 when I did it so I couldn’t remember a thing!

The dive was really amazing, both Christie and I had a bit of a freak at the start. The water was so choppy and the feeling of going completely under water was actually quite scary! We both managed it though and I’m so glad, we saw a shark, a load of Nemos, heaps of Parrot Fish and a HUGE barracuda and the coral itself was stunning. Diving on the Great Barrier Reef, what an absolute treat.

Spot the Nemo!

We were all given a fantastic lunch – the food on the boat was so tasty. We were then taken to another spot where we all went snorkeling: we saw two turtles and a stingray!

The whole day was pretty unreal, even though it was raining at the start and we were all cold and wet, we had the absolute best day. It was such a nice way to end our trip, it was our last day together. We all went out for a girly meal that evening to a Thai restaurant called Khin Khao, it was a BYO which was perfect and the food was yum. We hadn’t been out for a meal in so long, since Byron Bay – so it was such a treat to not cook in a hostel or campsite kitchen.

After dinner we made a quick trip to the Night Market, being in a market a bit drunk is a very funny experience. Riss was falling all over the place and trying to go for a Chinese massage at 10pm drunk!? It was a really nice end to the most amazing 6 weeks. I have never laughed as much as I did on this trip, everything was hysterical. Who knew 4 girls could survive in 1 van for 6 weeks? We did.

Next stop: Bali.