KM 8415 to 8733 – Cairns and Cape Tribulation: A Reunion and a „Masturbation-Mobile“

After our diving trip at the Great Barrier Reef our thoughts were actually already more in New Zealand than in Australia. However, if you bring back your rental van prior to the expected date, you don’t get anything from your rental company except maybe a polite smile if that. So we decided to hang around a bit longer in Australia’s Northeast, not the worst area in the world to kill some time…
After short stops at Crystal Creek and Australia’s highest waterfalls (Wallaman Falls, 278m) the last stop of the Australia leg of our tour was Cairns, the local capital for partying, diving and funsports. However, as our credit cards start shaking just hearing the words "partying", "diving" or "funsport", we decided to make the best of our last days in the campervan and head further north. But not after celebrating a great Anglo-Austrian renuion with Matt and Kath, whom we had first met in Chiang Mai and had travelled with for almost a month through Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. They too were getting a campervan and altogether we headed towards Cape Tribulation, the Australian east coast’s northernmost accessible point (without a 4WD, that is) that is famous for its lush rainforests that reach right towards the beach which apparently is a quite rare phenomenon worldwide (at least that's what all the guide books say).
Talking about Matt, Kath and their campervan: There is an abundance of rental companies in Australia besides the big ones like Hertz and Budget (which are definitely not “budget” at all). The probably funniest (and mostly cheapest) is “Wicked Vans” which offers quite old, but still functioning vehicles that are not only cheap but also feature all sorts of cool designs: We’ve seen the Elvis- and the Superman-Van, the Blues Brothers-Mobile, a police Van, a Guitar Hero-Van, a Nirvana-Van, etc. Apart from the design they all feature funny sayings on the back, either matching the design (“We’re on a mission from God” on the Blues Brothers-Van, “Sex Police – Spread’em!” on the Police-Van) or just some funny sex joke (usually politically highly incorrect... gotta love it!). However, as Matt and Kath unfortunately had to find out, there’s also Wicked vans that feature only sayings and I leave it up to you if they’re funny: Their van was just plain white van with huge letters saying „I don’t masturbate... YEAH, RIGHT!!!“ on the left side, „I’m still a virgin... YEAH, RIGHT!!!“ on the right and „I don’t think about gay sex... YEAH, RIGHT!!!” on the back. Medium-funny at best, if you ask me... But unfortunately they had to stick with it, at least for the coming two weeks.
So we headed to Cape Trib along another great costal road. And the destination also was as great as promised: Forests, beaches, the sea, all right next to each other – if you wouldn’t know it any better, you might think you’re on some tropical island.
Also, with our reunion we had a great chance to freshen up on all the card and drinking games we had been taught in Southeast Asia and to “slap some more goon”. By the way, even though it’s not essential to actually understand the whole “Slap the goon”-thing, we found out why it’s called “goon”: Apparently “goon” is the Aboriginee word for “pillow” and the cheap wine in bags is called like that because some Aboriginees blow some air in it after emptying the bag and use it as a pillow. Considering the “pillow-quality” in some hostels not such a bad idea…
After our reunion time in Cape Trib is was quickly time to say goodbye again, as Matt and Kath were heading south in their Masturbation-Mobile and we still had three days to kill in Cairns until our flight to New Zealand. Doesn’t sound too bad, but it was actually quite challenging, considering we didn’t want to invest our money in any alcohol. Kind of like being in Bangkok and trying to get around without taking a Tuk-Tuk ;-) However, we of course eventually managed to pass the time somehow, with the help of the local cinema and various internet cafés… On the other hand, sitting in New Zealand now writing this and thinking back, we might have better invested that time and money into the search for warm clothes…