Our flight out of Bali went smoother than the initial flight in. We again stopped through Singapore for a short layover before heading to Cairns. Australia was very big on biodiversity and since we were coming from Indonesia they wanted to make sure we hadn’t come in contact with any game animals during our stay there. We even walked through an area right off the plane that cleaned our shoes before heading in to the immigration area. 

Our walk through customs was relatively smooth and all electronic (which meant no Australia stamp for us). We checked in via a kiosk that gave us a ticket to use further down the line that took our picture. Once we grabbed our bags, they again asked us about any exposure to farm animals in Indonesia as they were trying to prevent the spread of Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease to their livestock here. They even asked to look at the bottom of our shoes. When we were through with everything, we were finally out to grab our Uber to the Airbnb. It was nice to be able to walk out of the airport being greeted with English and not be bombarded by taxi drivers asking if we needed a ride.  

Since we arrived in Cairns in the evening, we were ready for some dinner. We found a local burger place to grab food and some milkshakes. It was definitely back to western prices and were already missing those cheap meals of Southeast Asia. Back at the Airbnb, we unpacked for the week and decided to end the evening watching Tetris on AppleTV. If you haven’t seen it, I would recommend it! I never realized the whole story behind the popular game but it’s a pretty interesting and intense one. 

The next morning Grant headed to the barber shop to grab a haircut and beard trim as he left his shaver back home to reduce the weight for our Africa leg. He also swung by the medical clinic as his leg was not improving on the medicine he was currently on. He quickly learned the setbacks of socialized medicine as the receptionist told him the doctor was likely to be booked out all day and the next available appointment was Wednesday evening (2 days later). We decided to just head to the clinic early the next morning to hopefully get seen and figure out why it was getting worse instead of better.

Afterwards, we stopped by the Cairns Central shopping center to grab my 6th pair of sunglasses on the trip. We grabbed lunch in the food court (which shamefully was McDonalds) and stopped by Target on the way out. The first Target we had seen all trip so of course we had to stop in. Grant grabbed a pair of “Aussie man short shorts” as he calls them to help keep from rubbing on his wound.  

Since we had booked a reef trip for Thursday, we decided to rent a car to head up to the Daintree Rainforest and explore that area for the next two days. We picked up our rental car and dropped it back at our place before heading to the esplanade to stroll along the beachside. We stopped by one of the tourist centers to ask for tips on what to see and do in Cairns and got some information regarding the reef. He told us that he’s been diving for the last 10-15 years and still has only seen a small percentage of the reef. He said if we enjoyed the reef day to do it again on Friday or head to one of the local islands to snorkel. We also asked about the hype regarding the Great Barrier Reef dying and only having so many years left and he passionately explained that he felt that was media hype and that portions of the reef go through the circle of life all the time.

One of the cool things about Cairns was that they had a large public swimming pool that was free to anyone and backed up almost right to the ocean. We tested out the water and continued our walk around the beachfront before stopping at an Italian restaurant for some pizza. They had a churro place nearby that looked delicious so we gave it a try and did the three mini churros. These were honestly some of the best churros I have ever had. I could have gone there every night (but we didn’t)! 

We headed back to the apartment as it was an early morning for Grant to head to the clinic.