Step 103 Port Douglas – Cairns 77 km's

Wednesday 10^th August

Moving on today but touristing along the way. Starting with a very scenic drive along the coast.

There's that nervous smile again

The brochures have all made the “world famous” Skytrain sound appealling. Despite the fact that it is a 7.5 km cable car ride. We all know what cable cars mean don't we? That's right heights!

Ever the dedicated editor in chief, I have decided to squash my own (and Di's) fear of heights in order to provide a better insight into the region for you, our dedicated followers. As the tour motto goes: What could go wrong?

Despite the appalling signposting and directions we manage to find our way to the cable car terminal and a few deep breaths later we are on our way.

To be honest it's all very civilised and the views, right from the start are stunning. Heading up and away from the coast, in front is the rain forest and behind is Cairns and the Coral Sea.

There are two stops along the way to the end of the ride in Karunda.

The first is deep in the heart of the rain forest. As with the Daintree experience its all been very well done, with a boardwalk getting you up close and personal with the flora. No fauna on this walk.

Second stop: Barron Falls. I'm starting to wonder about the effort we put in to see Jim Jim Falls. This is the second falls in a row now where you are delivered to the viewing platform without a one hour rock climb. No that's not true, I wouldn't have missed Jim Jim for the world.

For some reason the scenic railway train reminded me of the movie Von Ryan's Express
Is it just me or does Frank Sinatra get further away from catching the train each time you watch it?

Back on the cable car and I am seriously wondering how they got the poles and cable in to build this thing. This is seriously dense forest and seriously steep hills.

Helicopters. That's my conclusion. Big helicopters.

We saw a lot of these particular trees
as we sat swinging in the breeze

I'm starting to think about that steepness and denseness of forest even more when the cable car grinds to a halt. Well there's no grinding, but it has stopped. Eventually an announcement comes over the speaker in the gondola (gondola, that's the technical name for the little bubble death trap we are swinging precariously in at the moment) “Don't panic, we know what's wrong. Our best people are working on rectifying the problem as we speak. We'll get back to you if it's going to take longer than we thought.” Oh well, I feel a lot better now. Not. Even after they repeated the message in six languages.

After what seems a long time, but is really only 5 or 6 minutes, we are on the move again and make it to the end of the cable at Karunda. 

 Maybe it's not actually the end of the cable, I think the cable loops around, but it's the end of the outward trip anyway.

Karunda is an old hippie haven that has become a bit of a tourist village. That means lots of arty farty shops, lots of coffee shops, restaurants and souvenir shops. But it's got a nice feel to it. Seems like everything feels good in the tropics. Well in the dry season anyway. Not sure I want to be here in the humidity of the wet.

It's a pleasant little spot though and we had a nice couple of hours strolling around and sitting down for lunch. Finishing off with an ice cream. More traditional flavours today of english toffee and indulgent chocolate.

Now that's how I like my croc's
small
and stuffed

Steve getting into the arty feel of the town
attempts another artistic shot

Australian country town
Irish Pub

 Relaxed and fed it was back on the cable car for the return journey. A little less exciting on the way back and we make it all the way without any unscheduled stops.

The drive through Cairns, or the outskirts anyway, is a not so pleasant reminder of city traffic. I lost count but I think there were 47 sets of traffic lights to get from one side of Cairns to the other (and we didn't go right into the CBD) . All of them were cleverly synchronised (as always) so that we caught everyone of them on red. Good job I am a relaxed kind of guy.

Not sure if it was the way we came in or what, but there was a distinct lack of supermarkets on the main road and as you will recall from the last blog the cupboard is a little bare. We ended up stopping at one that was in the DFO centre. Nervously, for me. But this being unemployed has changed our shopping habits and we just hit the supermarket and moved on.

Our stop for the next two nights is the Cairns Coconut Holiday resort, and its huuuuuge. It should have it's own postcode. Loads of caravan sites, loads of cabins, two swimming pools, tennis court, mini golf, outdoor picture screen, minimart, restaurant, even petrol pumps. All in the standard (for up here) tropical setting.

Given all our touristing today there's just enough time for wine o'clock, dinner and a quick read before the day is over.

Thursday 11^th August

Well the plan was to catch the bus into the city of Cairns today and have a look around, but:

• the park is so nice
• the front gate is such a long way away (to catch the bus)
• there's a swimming pool beckoning
• we can always check out the city on the way out of town tomorrow

So, the chosen sin for today is: sloth.

It's a victimless crime really. A bit of reading, a couple of phone calls, the swim, a soak in the spa where's the harm in that. Just to avoid any lingering guilt I got Di to have a look at seek.com for a job. There, we achieved something, but it kind of took the edge of the day for Di. Particularly since she actually put a job application in.

My goodness, wine o'clock already. Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Gotta love the tropics