First volunteering experience in a little suburb town

In Cairns I was struggling with finding a job, but via workaway I finally managed to secure a volunteering position as an all-rounder for 2 weeks in a small hotel in the Cairns suburb called Yorkeys Knob.

Friendly and relaxed owner

The owner of the hotel was the relaxed mid-fifties man called Peter who had already travelled a lot with his backpack, including in Europe. Together with his Peruvian wife Romy, he runs the small hotel Villa Marine. He explained me that in former times, the hotel business run much easier. Today, there is much more to consider.  The pressure of competition is high, especially how you market yourself on the internet matters, whereas in former times you just put an ad in the yellow pages and people flocked in.

Both of them were very nice and even drove me to the nearby shopping center from time to time. In the suburb itself there was a supermarket, but there the prices were totally overcharged. When I once took the bus to this shopping centre, I was the only passenger from the start to the end stop. This practically was like a private taxi.

Crocodiles and jellyfish make swimming in the ocean dangerous

The suburb was easy to reach by public bus. There was only a coffee shop, a supermarket, tiny restaurants and most of the other buildings were hotels or holiday flats. Is is more frequented by Australian rather than international tourists. The Villa Marine was only a few meters away from the beach and it was surrounded by patches of rain forest. The beach was not really beautiful, as people could only bath in a small place over which a net was stretched. To swim outside of this area would endanger your life, as there  salt water crocodiles lurk and jellyfish drift, the most poisonous animal of the world. But it was nice to take a walk along the beach where I encountered dozens of dog owners with their dog.

Waking up to the rainforest sounds

The Villa Marine consists of 9 self-containted units with their own living room with kitchen, bathroom and terrace. In the beginning I had to share the unit with another German. But already after a few days he had to leave because he got a job offer in Sydney. So I had the 3-bed room for myself! What a relieve after having to share my room for more than 2 months. The overnight stay here would cost more than 100$ / night. Private rooms in Australia and New Zealand do cost a lot.

There is also a small pool where I used to swim after work. I liked the beautiful peace and quiet that reigned there. When I arrived there, I felt as if I was in the middle of the jungle, listening to monkey-like sounds from the nearby primeval forest. A little later I found out that this was the kookaburra, a bird that makes its fellow creatures aware of its own presence by making sounds like laughter. I also heard the strange sounds of the local bush turkey very often.

I especially liked the fact that you felt like you were in nature because of all the green in the facility and the sounds from the surrounding primeval forests. But on the other hand, you were not too much integrated in nature. This means that unlike in a simple hut in the jungle, you did not have to worry about being bitten by mosquitoes, as the units were provided with many mosquito screens. You could easily drive to the next supermarket and had access to fast internet.

small simple jobs

I had to work 5 days a week for 5 hours per day. And the work was pretty relaxed. So it never really felt like work, but more like doing sports in tropical air! Often I had to set up and clean the rooms. All the pillows had to be put in the exact angle, the towels folded and the bed sheets spanned in the right way, so that everything looks neat and tidy as the guests here have high standards. My other tasks included: mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, trimming plants, taking out the garbage, operating the whipper snipper or even designing a logo. Once I even had to bury a bird that perished on the property.  I also was asked to help painting the second building of the hotel owner and to straighten the driveway, which was churned up by the rain, with a spade.  All these were not difficult tasks, but sometimes I really started to sweat, as the sun hit down quite hard. The rain, which I had the 2 weeks before, barely occurred anymore. Once I was asked to chop a tree stump, but I only used blunt force and in the process two axes broke.

Great first volunteering experience

The weekends I could enjoy as I wanted, so on my second weekend I visited the small hippie town Kuranda in the rainforest and went scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef. For both trips Peter could offer me discounts and the encounters I made with koalas and sharks belong to my strongest memories of Australia (which is written about in separate articles).

After 2,5 weeks I had to leave the Villa Marine as there was no more room for me because of the Easter business. I was a bit sad to have to leave this little idyll. I spend just the right amount of time there because in the long run it would have become a bit lonely. Mostly families spend their holidays in this hotel and I was the only employee. It was a great first volunteering experience! After that I finally started my big round trip through Australia for 3 months.