Well, the next day was all about recovery, naps, journal writing, and swimming.
The day after, I felt it was time to move on. I was a little sad to be leaving, possibly related to the come-down from all that shit I did.
I packed up, gave a hitch-hiker a lift to the next main town, but didn't want to plunge back into the hectic mayhem of a big city, like Cairns with its 200,000 people.
I wanted to go camping in a national park, of which I know there are many in the area, but all the information I got was that the old turn-up-and-self-register system has been replaced by some stupid shit involving an account, pre-booking, internet, phone calls and credit cards.
So, I found my way to a private nature park where I paid cash and spent a few days. The mountains here are granite, and there was a stream to swim in, although with better pools than this one.
There are plenty of wallabies here, carefully trained to manipulate tourists into buying bags of wallaby food. I didn't, sod 'em, little buggers should get jobs.
After two nights here, I went to Cairns, stopping on the way at this touristy waterfall (this is the end of the dry season, give it three months and this would be roaring).
I also stopped at Kuranda, a village that has become the hippy location of the north. The markets there sell everything with rainbows, every kind of hemp product (except, you know, the
real one), crystals, clothing, etc. Even "diet soap" - "the more you wash with it, the thinner it gets!"
They have a mini-golf course in the rainforest.
I bought lunch here, the hippy interpretation of eggs on toast, here named a "breakfast crepe". Ok, Sundae, this is for you:
With the home-made lemonade it came to $20, a bit pricey, but
!! There's fried mushrooms in there as well.