It was Wednesday night and we were on our way to the airport when Christine realised that she didn’t have any shoes. It was too late to turn back as we were on a tight schedule the plane was set to board at 8:50pm and it was already after 7. Christine had managed to score some cheap return tickets to Cairns and we were on our way to pack in as much Cairns as we could into the two days that we had.

The Flight

You know how I said we were set to board at 8:50pm, which is correct we were indeed set to board at 8:50pm with or without shoes, the airline on the other hand, they weren’t ready to board until after 10pm. This is how we came to be wandering around in the dark streets of Cairns after midnight, not the easiest without shoes. What did surprise me was the number of people who were out walking around Cairns at this time of night, they didn’t seem to be chatting much, they were just walking around in small groups. We had taken a taxi to the Rent A Bomb office where they had left a key in a drop box for us. We located the key, filled in the paperwork that had been left in the car and set off for our accomodation. The Rent a Bomb was a Toyota Corolla from around 2000, it had 5 speeds, variable intermittent wipers, a CD/MP3 player and air conditioning, it would have been close to the top of the range back in its day. It was painfully close to 2am by the time we found our accomodation and flopped in to bed. 

Kuranda Rail Experience 

We were still on a time schedule in the morning, we were booked in at around 8:30am to take the Kuranda Rail up to Kuranda, returning via the sky rail. We drove the DeLorean, I had nicknamed the old Toyota based on the time machine from the Back to the Future series, as driving it around was like going back in time, down to where the Skyrail bus would take us to the Kuranda rail station. It turns out the Kuranda rail station runs on the same time table as JetStar, we were booked in for 8:30 but didn’t get away until after 9:30. We used the wait time to knock over our Duolingo for the day. The ride was interesting and full of historical information a bit like the Toyota we were driving. We passed through a stack of tunnels and bridges that were all built by hand around 100 years ago, the workers even had to supply their own tools and shovels. We arrived at Kuranda just in time to catch the Skyrail back to the DeLorean. We asked the Skyrail guys if we could have an hour or so to have a look around Kuranda, they said no worries.

The Creperee

We wandered through Kuranda and found the creperee that Christine had discovered when she was doing her trip research. There we ordered an olive, cheese and other bits crepe , kind of like a pizza except that it was on a crepe base,  and a couple of hot chocolates. The food and drink was delicious and we finished just in time to make it back to the Skyrail terminal for our journey back.

The Skyrail

The view from the Skyrail was spectacular, the staff also encouraged us to stop and have a look at the falls from the new viewing platform at the half way point. This viewing platform was on the opposite side to the Kuranda Rail line, so you could look back at the platform on the other side. 

Port Douglas

We decided that we weren’t going to have time for a siesta as we needed to get up to Port Douglas for a cycling tour that Christine had booked in. On the way to Port Douglas the road follows the coast which is picturesque, rolling in all the way along the coast were these spectacular little right handers that made me long for a surfboard and a crocodile free environment. We collected our bikes from the bike shop, who armed us with a map of a great cycle route, and also let us know about a morning cycle tour that they run which takes participants out to a series of restaurants and wineries. The cycle route went for around 10km and took us around the sights and sounds of Port Douglas, the rout takes you back along the beach which stretches for ages. At the end of the beach there was a netted section where people were swimming and even surfing. Next time we will need to do the morning cycle tour with a swim and surf booked in for afterwards. We did however find a small cafe where we chilled and enjoyed a smoothie. 

After our smoothie we dropped the bikes back and then collected some bits for dinner from the Woolworths that was directly across from the bike hire shop.

We drove back to the accomodation, ate some food and then went for a siesta, now we were supposed to have a quick siesta and then head down to check out the Cairns Esplanade. With all of the action and lack of sleep over the last day or so, we were asleep as soon as we hit the pillow and didn’t wake up until morning. 

Green Island

We woke up nice and early feeling fully refreshed after a good nights sleep. We ate some breakfast, packed a day pack and drove down to the Cairn’s Esplanade to catch the ferry out to Green Island. We parked in a paid carpark that is near the ferry terminal. We had a bit of trouble with the tickets as the ferry company was under the impression that they had been emailed out, however they were not showing up in Christine’s email. The bloke manning the counter ended up printing them out and we wandered over to wait in line for the ferry to board. We were able to board the ferry at 8:50, but the ferry wasn’t leaving until 9:30. We used the waiting time to do our Duolingo study.

The ferry trip to green island was relatively rough as a 20 Knott wind was blowing through. The ferry staff sized us up for snorkel and flipper sets on the way over. They also let us know which sections we would be able to snorkel in. We arrived on the island with a couple of hours until we would need to meet back up with the ferry to return. We circumnavigated the island in around 20 mins. We decided not to pay the $60 to check out the oldest crocodile in captivity. It was lucky we did otherwise we wouldn’t have had enough time to go snorkelling. We snorkelled near the jetty for around an hour or so. There was a stack of sea life and coral to look at, it probably wasn’t as action packed as the Philippines but it was pretty awesome. 

Once we were done snorkelling we had enough time to shower off at the resort and meet back up with the ferry for the return voyage. 

Cairns Market 

We wandered down to a large fresh food market in the middle Cairns to collect some supplies for dinner. We went back to the apartment, had a siesta and then cooked some dinner. 

In the evening we made our way back to the Cairns esplanade and took a stroll. We wandered through the night markets and picked up a crepe with cream fruit and ice cream. We wandered down to a club that was supposed to be hosting a reggaeton night. We were hoping for a salsa and bachata night, however it had been cancelled. We shared a pina colada and then hit the dance floor. We were the only ones actually dancing, others were just stumbling around drunk and spilling drinks on the dance floor. 

We decided to head back out to the esplanade and filmed a dance under some trees that were decked out with fairy lights to a backing track of one of the local buskers playing the guitar. 

The Journey Home 

We got up at around 3:30, well I did, Christine was already up making breakfast, she had gotten up at around 3. We ate some breakfast and then packed our things into the car. The old Toyota only just started, I had to turn off the air conditioner so that it had enough juice to turn over the engine. I thought we were going to have to clutch start it for a minute. We made our way to the rent a bomb office, took our photographs and handed in the keys. The taxi arrived at 4:30 and took us to the airport to meet the plane. We had been unable to book in for the plane, but that was sorted at the check in counter where they booked us into the upgraded seats over the wings. I think the airline was expecting people to pay extra for those seats and was forced to release them when nobody did. 

Bookfest

The flight was relatively smooth and we arrived in Brisbane at around 8am. We took the bus out to the airport carpark and drove over to South Brisbane so we could go to Bookfest. We picked up a spot of breakfast at one of the cafes in Southbank before we went in to Bookfest. After breakfast we wandered in to Bookfest and hit the languages section. We found a stack of French stuff, and I finally got a copy of Hugo Spanish complete not only that it was actually complete and in great condition.