I was pretty stressed out when we got to Cairns. I had spent heaps of money in Airlie and my funds were decreasing fast. Our plan was to find work as soon as possible but we were not having any luck. Dan really wanted a day where we could just enjoy ourselves and take our mind off things for a bit so we decided to go on Captain Matty’s Barefoot Tours - $85 – perfect for our budget.
We got picked up at 7:15am out front of the hostel. This orange and white hippy van pulls up infront with a musical horn and out jumps Captain Matty a 32 year old full bearded dreadlocked hippy. “Good morning you must be Dan and Emmie! Come here give us a hug!” He embraces us in a huge bear hug with a kiss on the forehead (just me not Dan) “Allright then Dan where are you from” “England” “Ahhh a POME. Nice. Emmie where are you from?” “Canada” “Are you afraid of the dark? Apparantly Canadians are afraid of the dark!” I knew right away this was going to be a great day.
Every time someone new joined he would hug them. His energy and vibe was amazing and before we got to our first stop he knew everyone’s name and where they were from and, of course, had a little anecdote or fact about them. “Alright now you Irish as much as you deny it we all know that you guys are not very good swimmers so everyone here please keep an eye on them. Team America – Fuck Ya!” He sang to the 2 couples in their 50’s. “ Now guys, please do not talk about bombs and terrorists because it makes Team America really nervous.” “Emmie, Miss Canadia. Is it light enough in here for you? It’s going to be dark on our way back but don’t worry I have night lights so you won’t get scared.” He had something for everyone! “All right guys welcome aboard my name is Captain Matty and the bus…her name is Shh Ka Ka. We are on no time limit if you want to spend 5 minutes or 1 hour at our sites be my guest, this is a chilled out laid back tour so take your time. You can eat on the bus and drink (soft drinks) and just enjoy. Questions, concerns, comments anything about butterflies? I am currently learning about butterflies so please feel free to ask me anything about them. NO? Well I will tell you anyways!”
As we drove the Atherton Tablelands Matty educated us on butterflies, Kangaroos, Koalas and the evil cows in the fields. ``See the little white birds in the fields next to the cows. They are terrorists and they tell the cows to charge at tour busses filed with backpackers so we need to be really careful. Look how all the cows are facing the same way…sitting there staring at us and it goes through every field out here. Just keep your eyes peeled, it`s dangerous around here.``
At the first stop we decided to roll a cigarette. “I will roll that for you” Captain Matty said and took the half rolled cigarette out of my hands “you can have one if you want” “nah mate, I quit but I love rolling and I love the smell so just blow your smoke my way. You can’t smoke on Shh Ka Ka but if it’s green be my guest!” Our first stop was the Cathedral Tree. A tree, in which its roots wrap themselves and swirl in every direction up the base of the tree and the leaves starting 100 feet up. It was awesome! Our next stop was Lake Eacham, or what they call a lake. It was basically a really big pond. “Are you sure this is called LAKE Eacham?” I asked Dan “ya that’s what Captain Matty said” It was the size of our Mill Pond. I wonder sometimes about the Aussies, they call something the size of a pond a lake but yet they say some of our beach aren’t beaches because they are fresh water?!? It makes no sense. Anyways after Dan took a morning swim in the “Lake” we had the morning tea and biscuits Captain Matty had prepared for us. “So Emmie how old are you?” “31” “Sweet I am 32. Dan how old are you?” “25” “Good job mate. Are they real?” “Yes.” “Good on you!” Said Captain Matty slapping Dan on the back.
Next we went to a “really big hole.” There really is no other way to explain it; it`s this really big whole with water in it, but it is not known where the water comes from or how deep it is. One diver went down to 95 meters and there is still no answer of how deep it is or if it is connected to another body of water. When the rivers around flood the level of the water in the ``really big hole`` stays at the same level. To be honest it wasn`t that beautiful but yet at the same time it was breathtaking.
After that we went to our first waterfall ( I can`t remember the name) where we swam around in the fresh water and kissed under the waterfall. Next we stopped in Milla Milla at the pub for a beer and lunch and then we headed off to Milla Milla Falls.
You know the Herbal Essences commercial where the girl is under the waterfall and she is moaning orgasmically well that is Milla Milla Falls and it’s amazing. We could’ve stayed there all day. We swam right out to the falls and went behind them. It felt like we were in a storm back there, it was so loud that you had to yell to talk and water kept blowing in my face so it was hard to see. We swam underneath the falls and took pictures and enjoyed the coldness of the fresh water. Matty took pictures of everyone whipping their hair back even the guys posed for pictures. I honestly wanted to sit and have a picnic and spend the rest of the day there but it was time to move on. We went to two water falls – Zillie Falls and I can’t remember the other one – which we couldn’t swim in and then we went to our last stop Josephine Falls. This was awesome!!! The falls rand down these huge rocks which have become a natural waterslide. It was so much fun! You just climb up the rocks and then you slide down on your stomach, back or like I did on my bum. Some of the locals actually run and slide all the way down on their feet. We must’ve spent about an hour going down the rocks and swimming, well swimming as much as we could, the current was really strong and would always pull you the opposite ways so finding a rock ad perching yourself was the best way to stop and take pictures. After we made our way back to the car park Matty had prepared evening tea with chips and dip. My favourite! We snacked for about a half hour and then loaded back on the bus for the ride back to Cairns only to find out he had tv’s and a DVD on board and we got to watch Ice Age.
By the time we got back to Calypso we had been gone for 12 hours. It was one of the best tours I have done in my 8 months of travelling. It was laid back, entertaining and all the places we went to were awesome, we had so much fun and it was so nice to not stress out for a day, though that didn’t mean I didn’t get back on the stress the next day.
It was now Monday and we still hadn’t found a job. The Night Owl across the street was hiring for two positions but I didn’t want to spend the next few months working at a convenience store. We had answered to heaps of ads on Gumtree, Happy Travels ad Peter Pans and still we had heard nothing, and I had started cleaning at the hostel so we could get free accommodation. Tuesday we devoted most of the day to researching jobs and sending out our resumes. At 4pm Dan said to call it quits “we have been doing this all day, give it time for responses.”
The next day (Wednesday) his phone wouldn’t stop ringing with job offers. We got offered 5 in 20 minutes. There were two we were really keen on. We got offered one in the Torres Straits on Thursday Island which we were really stoked about. Not many white people get to go there as it is Aboriginal so we knew the experience would be amazing. The other was helping run a lodge in the Northern Territory Outback. We didn’t know which one to take. We made our decision only because one of them said we could start right away while the other said we had to wait 10 days and we couldn’t afford to wait around Cairns for another 10 days.
We booked our flight for Friday morning but as we were boarding our flight got cancelled due to technical difficulties. So we had to go through customs and baggage claim and then wait around in the lobby for 2 hours before we could check in to a flight 7 hours later. Jetstar was putting us up in a hotel at our destination for the night as our new employers were picking us up but we were landing too late so we had to spend the night after we landed.
So now here we are in the Outback working at a Roadhouse/Lodge just off the Stuart Hwy. There is no population here as we are not even in a town. There is just us employees and all the miners that stay onsite here during there work weeks. It’s so incredibly hot here. It’s about 30 degrees at 5am when I start work. It’s beautiful here though. The landscaping is beautiful and the roadhouse is set up like a bistro and our house – we get free accommodation and meals – is massive. The sunrises here are so beautiful, the sky turns purple!
We are so stoked to be in the Northern Territory. We even got to spend the afternoon in Darwin before Dallas (our employer) having drinks at Shennanigans with Nik! You all remember Nik! My mate from Dracula’s who I used to walk home with. He was out here visiting his parents so we met up for some drinks. He was dying in the heat. You can always tell the Melbournians, pastey white and dying in the heat lol.
Well, we are spending the next three months here in Population 0 and we are super excited. We both love the job, the owners are great and the other staff are pretty cool. There is not much to do out here unless you have wheels so we are hoping to buy a car within the next couple of weeks.
Till next time.
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