First thing we did when we woke was check if the public toilets were open. They were! We got a wash and headed for our hostel. They let us leave our bags with them - checkin wasn't until 1:30. We went woolworths and got enough food and drink for the rest of our stay in Australia then, after dropping our food off at the hostel, returned the camper.
With this camper you have to wash the outside before returning it so we went to a hand car wash. We didn't have a clue what to do. It was like the car wash in Morrisons petrol station but no instructions and no tokens. We found out that if you pop a dollar in the machine and select something you have 60 seconds..... putting a time on Lee's cleaning.... he doesn't do half a job. He likes to make sure its done 'properly'. I left him to it but kept counting down the seconds with every new coin I put in. (I did the rinse in 1min) Anyway when we got to the camper office they gave the car an inspection, took our petrol receipts and told us everything was fine (it was a relocation so we didn't have to pay to hire and they gave us $150 towards petrol). We'd managed to get it there in 1 piece without any accidents woo hoo! That's the worry when you've got a camper. The insurance is about $25pd which reduces your excess but loads of things aren't covered in the insurance so there's no point getting insurance. It would have been up to $2,500 if we had have damaged the car.
With that weight lifted we went back to the hostel to check in. We were staying at Caravella backpackers. They had a tour desk at reception and the first thing I noticed was the price of the silverswift tour. That's the one we booked online, directly through Silverswift. Online, for 3 dives, it was $264pp through the hostel it was $227pp! That means we were charged an extra $74 for the two of us! So I rang and cancelled and booked through the hostel. I asked if they could price match first and they said no. I've never known it to be more expensive going direct through the operator? Apparently you can get other tours cheaper through your hostel.
The hostel was nice. It had 2 big kitchens, a swimming pool and our room was a double room with a fridge and shared showers. This hostel has a shower block and toilets on every floor! It costs quite a bit for wifi so We just got it for Lees iPad and updated some pics to the blog, checked emails and the bank then went for another wonder around Cairns town then early to bed... Scuba in the morning!