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We drove from Townsville to Cairns a distance of about 340kms because we didn't really have anywhere we wanted to stay in between. We had already decided to stay in Cairns for a week and we chose to go back to the same park we were at last time. The park is Sunland Leisure Park and it isn't anything special and probably in a rougher part of town and I had read in the reviews that they had a lot of trouble here not long ago. There is a huge permanent population at the park and I think that might have been the issue. Nevertheless, we liked the park and it's position so we thought we would take a chance on it. I had booked ahead so it was a fairly easy process booking in except for the fact they weren't signed up for the QR system so I had to fill in all those pesky forms. We were given the necessary paperwork and found our site, unfortunately there wasn't a lot of room to back in but we finally managed to to do this and set up for our stay. Today is Mother's Day and I had a call from each of our children wishing me Happy Mother's Day which was lovely but as an extra something special I chose to have Chinese take away for dinner, I found a restaurant in town and we drove in to choose and pick up our dinner. The food wasn't excellent but it was ok and I was feeling the love. It was an early night because our moving day is always quite exhausting and it was very muggy and it had sapped most of our strength.
We had planned for today to be a bit of a work and booking day. I needed to strip the bed and catch up on washing and Robb was going to clean the car out. We also needed to do a bit of shopping and book an appointment at a hairdressers for the two of us. We had trouble finding a hairdresser but eventually managed to get booked in for tomorrow. So shopping taken care of, our appointment booked and washing on the go we drove into the information centre to book our Skyrail Trip. We had taken this last time we were here and loved it and wanted to repeat the experience, we had all this in place so drove back to the van to finish up on the jobs we wanted to do, I wanted everything out of the way so that we could just enjoy the rest of our time in Cairns. We finished up all our jobs by about 3.00pm so I sat down to catch up on my photos and blog feeling pretty happy that we were well organised for the rest of the week.
Our hair appointment today was for 10.00am and we managed to get here a couple of minutes early. They weren't too busy so both Robb and I were led to our seats where there was a lovely young lady to take care of Robb and I had a lovely young man to look after me. I handed out our information cards that our hairdresser from home had written up so that we get the same treatment everywhere and they were happy enough to follow these. We were there an hour and a half and then because I had enquired about camera stores in the area, Allan my hairdresser, led me up the lane to a camera store he had seen there. Unfortunately they couldn't help with my request but did suggest a couple of places for me to seek out. I didn't want to spend the time today on following this information up but we might do this later in the week.
We jumped in our car and drove to Atherton Tablelands, probably another 1+ hours outside of Cairns. We had taken this drive last time we were here and had visited quite a few of the food outlets on our way. Our first destination was Gallo Dairylands where we planned to have a look around and then to purchase a cheese platter for lunch. Unfortunately they weren't open and we were both very disappointed. We had planned to stop on the way home at another couple of outlets and the first one on our trip was The Humpy, Nut World, thankfully this was open. We called in here and they have a fantastic range of local produce and fresh produce. We had a look around the whole outlet and then decided we would try some of their hot nuts. A lovely lady, we think the owner, came to serve us and we tried a few varieties of Macadamia and Peanuts. We chose a couple that we both liked and after a productive conversation with the lady serving us we purchased a couple of packets, one a honey roasted Macadamia that Robb particularly liked and the other a Wasabi peanut that appealed to me. Our next stop was Coffee Works at Mareeba where we decided to have lunch, we chose a muffin each and a cup of hot chocolate, both were good but I was suffering from sugar overload as I eat very few sweets and it took me most of the trip home to recover. We had planned to stop at the Ice Creamery on the way back but both of us were full and didn't feel like it. We were back early enough to sit outside and enjoy the evening before going in for dinner.
Today we had booked for the Skyrail attraction, we had taken this trip last time we were here and it was a highlight for us so we wanted to repeat the experience. We were booked in at 9.15am to travel to Kuranda on Skyrail and then to return at 2.00pm on the Kuranda Railway. We arrived a bit early and there weren't too many people ahead of us and it wasn't long until we were in our gondola travelling up the side of the mountain. Our first stop was at the rainforest walk, we didn't do this last time so we were keen to take the walk this time. It was a short but pleasant stroll along a man made boardwalk and we were surrounded by a beautiful rainforest, there were some magnificent huge trees here, one in particular was 400 years old and mammoth. Back on the gondola and onto our next stop which was Barron Gorge Falls, this is quite a sight and never fails to amaze. Through the rainy season there is so much water falling that it quite often sprays up to the viewing platform which is hard to comprehend when you are standing there because you are so far away from the falls. Our final stop in the village of Kuranda. Before we hopped off the gondola they take a photo of you inside and last time the photo wasn't very good but this time it was excellent so we bought a copy of it.
Kuranda is a small village with a market type atmosphere, apart from a few shops the merchandise is mainly items you would find at your local market and there and quite a few coffee shops and cafes. There is a Butterfly Sanctuary and a couple of wildlife centres but we didn't visit any of these as we didn't really have the time we needed to do that. We walked up and down the main street stopping to go through some of the shops until we arrived at the Kuranda Hotel at the bottom of the street and opposite the walkway back down to the Skyrail and Kuranda Railway Station. We had lunch here and a couple of drinks before walking down to the train station to catch the 2.00pm train for the return trip. We ran into our neighbour in the caravan park we are staying in, they had just arrived and were just heading off to the village, we had a quick chat before they moved on. The train ride back to Freshwater Station is very pleasant and there are announcements of special interest points as you go along, this train line is an engineering marvel and you can't help but be impressed with the construction when you see the terrain they were working in, especially with the primitive tools they would be using when the train line was constructed. The ride is about one and a half hours and when we arrived at Freshwater there was a bus waiting to take us back to our car at the Skyrail office. From here we drove directly back to our van.
Thursday we had planned an easy day, so for the second day since we had set of on this adventure we had our coffee at home and a bit of a read, I normally read a book a week but it has taken me 8 weeks to read two books and I really miss it as an activity. After coffee we drove to the closest shops and took care of our shopping needs, we have an excellent IGA just a couple of streets down from us and they have a fantastic deli which we spend a bit of time wandering up and down the aisle selecting fresh produce from the very wide range they have, we did a quick stop at BWS as Aldi in Queensland doesn't sell alcohol because of their strict alcohol laws and you can't find an Aldi store up this high in Queensland anyway, so all stocked up we headed back to the van. I had a few jobs to do when we returned and then I prepared lunch. After lunch I settled in to sort the few hundred photos I had not had a chance to edit yet because of the slowwwww internet here, this took me the remainder of the day apart from the few breaks we had. One of these breaks was to have a swim in the pool at the park, the gate is 30 feet away so we didn't worry about taking towels and just walked over and jumped in, it was very pleasant and we stayed there pretending to swim but generally just floating and sitting around on the benches, it was very refreshing though and when we returned to the van we just sat around in our swimming gear for the remainder of the afternoon. One of the maintenance men was clearing up the palm branches that had fallen in the area so we asked him about some very noisy birds we heard every night. The first time we heard them it sounded like someone screaming but then we realised it was birds calling to each other but we are used to only hearing birds up to a certain time of night and then starting in the morning just before the sun comes up but these noisy characters are calling out to each other all night, apparently they are Curlews and I did google them and we haven't seen any through the day so I am not sure where they are hiding.
Friday we were going to walk around the Esplanade finishing our time with lunch at one of the many cafes and restaurants along this beautiful area. We drove down to the top of the street with a plan to drive down and find a parking spot as close to the restaurant area as we could get. Unfortunately they are doing a huge amount of walk to the road, I hope they are extending the parking spaces along here as it is really difficult to find a park and last time we were here because part of the road is one way we found ourselves driving around the block a few times before finding somewhere to park. We had to detour and come back around but luckily there were a few spots along the ocean side, I think most people would have been directed elsewhere so it was our good luck. We parked and walked over to the water park that runs along the side of the ocean, the water park is huge with the main pool having an infinity pool affect and around this there are various spraying water parks and areas for younger children. Last time we were here the area was completely packed out with all the tables and seating occupied and it was even difficult to find a spot on the grass, this time there weren't as many people but it is obviously a very popular area. When we reached the end of the boardwalk we crossed the road to walk along the restaurants to find something that suited us, we ended up stopping at the third restaurant we came to because it was a seafood restaurant and had some great lunch offers, also the guy out spruiking was quite amusing. We found a table and Robb ordered the three course special and I chose the two course menu which we both enjoyed. After lunch it was nice to walk back to our car to walk a bit of our lunch off before hopping back in the car and driving to our favourite deli to choose a couple of cheeses to have for dinner tonight, we don't need two big meals in a day. Our lunch had gone down by the time we returned and it was very warm so we thought we would visit the pool again, it was very pleasant and we stayed there until the school children came home and decided to use the pool, there is a large permanent population in the park with young families and we can hear them from our van and they have lots of fun over there. We had some good news today from the park at Wonga Beach we wanted to stay at, we had stayed there last time and it is really convenient to Port Douglas, Mossman Gorge, Daintree Village and Cape Tribulation, and we are able to find a spot there for the time we want.
Today is our last full day in Cairns, I am feeling a little bit sad about moving on but Robb assures me I feel like this every time we move from one place to another. We are not going far tomorrow just one and a half hours up to a park we have previously stayed at, Pinnacle Village at Wonga Beach where we have booked in for four nights but I think we have an option to extend because there are quite a few things I want to do while in the area. We had planned to visit the Cairns Aquarium this morning, we had visited last time we were here but it is a very pleasant experience and worth doing again. We had coffee at home and then set off around 10.00am. We were lucky and found a park out the front of the entrance and it was easy to purchase our tickets and then we were on our way. This aquarium is pretty easy to negotiate as there is a distinct route around all the exhibits. We stopped at every tank and most times found the creature we were looking for and of course I took a photo. We spent a bit of time at the large tanks which you can view on two different levels, at one point we sat and meditated enjoying the ambiance, truthfully, we just wanted a rest. We were surprised when we exited the Aquarium to see that we had spent two hours there. It is well worth a visit if in the area.
Tomorrow we move onto Port Douglas, or to be exact Wonga Beach but it is our Port Douglas stop. After here we start moving across the Top End, there is not a lot to do up here apart from when we stop at Karumba and then Darwin.
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