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Island for a Day
 
ISLAND FOR A DAY Submit a Tale here | More Tales
Dad and I took a trip up to Cairns in Queensland, Australia in December '99. Because I love hostels, hostellers, and the whole hostelling experience, I arranged for us to stay at a couple of hostels while we were there. I wasn't disappointed and I think that my father (age 72 now) was pleasantly surprised, especially at the networking part. So many times fellow hostellers were able to provide the 'skinny' (his term, not mine) on what to do/see. The following account would never have happened except for a fellow hosteller's strong recommendation. - Diana Frye.

"Quick, wake up!! We'll miss the bus!" Dad shook my shoulder. We had to move quickly. We'd both been waiting for this day, which promised a boat ride from Cairns (pronounced 'Cains') out to Fitzroy Island. The boat ride was windy and bumpy and some of the school kids got sick. At the resort island of Fitzroy our guide gave us a quick instructional on what we needed to know to kayak from our island to it's uninhabited peewee brother, Little Fitzroy, part of the infamous Great Barrier Reef. We tried to steady our tandem kayak for each other as we got in. Then we were off.

The wind blew us to the island. We hardly had to pull a stroke until we reached the channel between the two islands. Then we had to paddle hard for every inch of progress that we made. As the wind and the waves washed us up onto the shore and spit us out onto the beach, we felt transformed from tourists into little Robinson Crusoes - our island for the day! We played on the beach, hiked up and around the island, watched the Imperial Torres Parrots on the wind currents, and played in the water. Amazed at the size of the giant clams and the colour of all of the other creatures down there, we couldn't seem to get enough. Even with the long daylight hours, the day was over too soon. As we headed back to Backpacker's Inn for our last night in Cairns before heading back to Sydney we were already trying to plan a way that we could come back for more. And I can't wait to see what the photos look like from Dad's underwater camera.