Cairns: Day Thirty-Four (22 November)

Our last day in Cairns. We sent some parcels home to England (including Zippy and Gerald, who would have preferred to stay in a warm climate) and then had a relaxing time till Miss Berry took us to the airport.

The flight to Townsville only took an hour - there was barely time for the grown ups to drink their complementary glass of wine. We took a taxi to the motel and had an early night.

Barnaby

Cairns: Day Thirty-Three (21 November)

It was a beautiful day in Cairns. As soon as we'd finished our errands we went for a walk along the Esplanade (which the locals call the 'nade) to see if we could find a nice fish restaurant for dinner this evening.

We also had chocolate ice cream at the best place in Cairns - Dolce & Gelati - before opting to have a Balinese takeaway at Miss Berry's.

Barnaby

Cairns: Day Thirty-Two (20 November)

We picked up the tickets for our trip down the coast this morning. It turns out the train isn't running on the day we want to go to Airlie Beach so we have booked to take the bus instead (like proper backpackers).

In the afternoon we went for a walk in the rainforest, which was lovely apart from the marsh flies.

Barnaby

Cairns: Day Thirty-One (19 November)

Hurrah, we finally made it to the famous Great Barrier Reef. There are tours from Cairns but we went up to Port Douglas and joined the boat there. Because of the cyclone, there was a strong wind warning in place (20 to 30 knots) so it was quite a bumpy ride.

It took an hour and a half to reach the part of the reef we were visiting, which has a permanent platform moored over it with an underwater observatory. We looked round this first and then went on a semi-submersible through the coral. The views were amazing even though it was a cloudy day.

Because of the clouds and the choppy sea, we decided not to go snorkelling or diving (they don't make diving masks for teddy bears anyway). We did send a postcard from the special platform post box though.

Barnaby

Cairns: Day Thirty (18 November)

Far North Queensland does not have Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter like we do; it has a tropical climate with a dry and a wet season. November is during the wet season so it was not surprising it rained again today. There was also a cyclone out at sea, which is why we have not been able to go to the Barrier Reef yet.

But we did visit Cairns' Botanic Gardens with Miss Berry and had a nice lunch in its cafe.

Barnaby

Cairns: Day Twenty-Nine (17 November)

We spent the morning in Cairns (and found Robb Street :-)) before heading out to meet Miss Berry’s parents. They live an hour’s drive inland at a place called Mareeba on the Atherton Tablelands, which is farming country. Miss Berry’s father keeps cattle.

On the way we visited de Breuy’s Winery. They make wine from lots of fruits other than grapes including mangoes, passionfruit and lychees. They also make tropical fruit port.

After a cup of tea at the homestead with Miss Berry’s Mum, we drove over the property. As well as keeping cows, the Berry’s run a restaurant called Ringer’s Rest, where people who have been on a balloon ride can stop and have breakfast. A Ringer is the Australian name for someone who rounds up cattle, like an American cowboy.

We headed back to Kuranda for dinner and to see a popular Australian singer, Missy Higgins, in concert. The show was so good we bought her CD.

Barnaby

Cairns: Day Twenty-Eight (16 November)

Another quiet day in Cairns today sorting out travel plans so I thought I'd show you some photos from our visit to Koala Gardens yesterday.

Barnaby

Cairns: Day Twenty-Seven - Afternoon (15 November)

We caught the sky rail back to Cairns. It goes right over the rainforest and we stopped and had a ranger walk on the way. The ranger showed us some of the rainforest food that people can survive on, including a witchity grub, which is a bit like a fat white worm. I decided my ice cream was enough to keep me going until we had fish and chips for dinner at Miss Berry’s.

Barnaby

Cairns: Day Twenty-Seven - Morning (15 November)

Out on a trip today! We took the steam train to Kuranda, a village in the mountains above Cairns. The line was built by a Mr Robb and takes one and a half hours. On the way the train slows down so people can take photos of Stoney Creek Falls and Barron Falls.

After lunch, we visited Koala Gardens, which is a small wildlife park with wombats and wallabies as well as koalas (and freshwater crocodiles, lizards and a turtle though I wasn’t so keen on seeing those). When we got there the koalas and wombats were asleep (they do that a lot) so we had an ice cream before going back. They were very cute, especially the 10 month old baby who was climbing everywhere just like a human toddler.

Barnaby

Cairns: Day Twenty-Six (14 November)

It is Schoolies Week in Australia next week when all the Year Twelves go away to celebrate finishing school. (They have their summer holidays in December and January because they are on the opposite side of the world to us and all the seasons are opposite too). This made our travelling plans more difficult because lots of places were full up but we got there in the end

We celebrated with another delicious ice cream .

Barnaby

Cairns: Day Twenty-Five (13 November)

We hadn’t booked the next stage of our trip when we were in England so today we had to go to a Flight Centre in the centre of Cairns and arrange how we were going to get to Sydney for 13 December. We knew we needed to see friends in Townsville and near Coffs Harbour and we had to decide where else we would like to stay on the way.

Afterwards we had lunch and explored more of Cairns. The area along the sea front is especially nice.

I got to see Home & Away again:-).

Barnaby

Cairns: Day Twenty-Four (12 November)

We had a lie in after all our early mornings in Kakadu. It was lovely to be in a home not a hotel and Miss Berry looked after us really well. Her house is some way from the centre of Cairns so we took a bus in and sent emails from an internet café (which arrived this time – hurrah).

We also had a yummy chocolate milkshake before heading back to Miss Berry’s and saving all the photos we’d taken since the start of our trip in South Africa.

Barnaby

Cairns: Day Twenty-Three (11 November)

Remembrance Day and because it is a short flight from Darwin to Cairns we were able to go to a service at 11am. Afterwards Miss Berry drove us to Port Douglas to see the beautiful four mile beach and walk around the markets.

We had lunch on the seafront and then drove backs to Cairns for a family BBQ at Miss Berry’s, which was lots of fun.

Cairns is in the tropics and is on the edge of the rainforest and it did (rain) just as the BBQ was starting so we all had to move inside. The food was more like an English BBQ too:-).

Barnaby