And Then There Was Just One...

When given a choice between spending some extra time with a great group of people or seeing that one extra site to see, I almost always side with the spending that time with the people. Half of traveling is meeting those like minded spirits in transit. Those that wonder and appreciate with you. This realization has lead me to believe that I am more of a people person than I allow myself to acknowledge. And that influence has deviated me from my schedule on more than one occasion. And for those that can't understand how one could travel for months, without schedule, it's the beauty of traveling this way. It's the people in your journeys that determine your schedule, to a certain extent. In most cases they are the leading factor in how long you spend in a place. If you have done it right your trip in the end is a string of new friends from all walks of life with shared common experiences. It's a reminder that those who wander are not necessarily lost.

The East Coast of Australia has a way of snowballing the people and friends you meet. By the time you reach Cairns, the last major stop at the top of the country, you have amassed a group of people littered with experiences from all over Australia. That is where Cairns surprised me. It's not the the bus depot, "get in and go where you need to then get out" kind of place that everyone made it out to be. I don't know if whether it was the Esplanade or the lagoon by the sea. Or the fact that the whole town sits next to the largest living thing on earth. Maybe it was the brilliant sunsets or the nightly pilgrimage of bats over the city. Or its nutty night life and pedestrian malls. It could have been the free BBQs in the park or it status as the last "hurrah!" for those traveling just the east coast. Or perhaps it was that fact that just about everyone who travels Australia comes to it at some point and runs into someone else they have met along the way. There is just something about Cairns.

So I have stayed longer in Cairns than planned. Why not? The people I met determined it. There was Simone, Bhavna, Tim, Don, Deanna and Christian from my dive boat. There was JJ and Sarah from Frasier Island and there was Justina and her friend Katrine who was dating the bass player from the band "Razor light". One day I organized a BBQ next to the lagoon (they have a swimming lagoon because you can't swim in the ocean because of the stinging jellyfish). Everyone came. As we sat in a big circle enjoying the Australian evening I couldn't help but be in awe of the people around me from all different walks of life. I had amassed the sum of my Australian travels all in one place next to the sea. The sun was setting and I was happy. It was the culmination of my east coast travels.

And as with most things over time the layers begin to peel away and one by one we began to go our separate ways. First it was Don and Deanna (who were only on a two week trip), then Tim and Bhavna. The next day Justina, Katrina, JJ and I rented a car and drove north to Cape Tribulation for a night. This is where some of the oldest rainforest on earth meets wild secluded beaches and eventually the sea. We did a guided night walk in the rainforest and had mango margaritas in Port Douglas. The highlight of the trip (well lets not say highlight) was when Justina nearly cut off her finger with her pocket knife while stealing some sugar cane from a field on the side of the road. After performing emergency bandaging in the women's bathroom of the hostel we drove nearly an hour before we could find the nearest town before we could find a small shack in the rainforest that contained a field nurse. Had it been a life threatening injury the situation would have been dire. In the end, Justina passed the ordeal with a smile and joke in her usual way. Those crazy Brits. Always looking for attention. Maybe it was my driving? Needless to say it was an adventurous end to our little road trip.

Upon our arrival back in Cairns it was just Simone, JJ, Sarah, Katrine, Justina and I. We braved the likes of the Woolshed and Gilligan's, two Cairns nightlife establishments, for a couple more nights. Then Sarah left, then Simone, and then Katrine. We made a few day trips to local floral and fauna around the area-one of which we ran into a giant snake slithering across the road. And I am talking giant..like six to eight feet long and 5 inches thick kind of long. Justina, who was driving, screamed on the top of her lungs. I screamed too. But I was screaming at Justina to stop the car so I could run after it and photograph it. (i never ended up getting a picture of it)Eventually it was time to drop JJ off at the airport leaving just two. Me and Justina. We ate on the Esplanade and watched the bats come in one last time, taking in Cairns for one last day. After much debate as to what I was going to do next (it seems my decision making skills stayed in the northern hemisphere while I went south)....eventually it was time even for me to leave. Leaving just one. Justina. Eventually, I believe, even Justina left-leaving Cairns to another group of wondering souls and another day next to the sea.

I could see all the wonders of the world but if I didn't meet great people along the way then the journey there would be pointless. Sometimes those wonders are only as far as the person sitting across from you.