THE CAIRNS CHAPTER

      We arrived in Cairns late afternoon on Friday the 20^th and checked in at Cool Waters Caravan Park. We found a site at the very end of the park, right in front of a forest patch with palm trees and lots of other vegetation.  It appeared to be a very quite spot, but as it turned out we were to discover that the nocturnal species keep you awake for hours.  The first night we did hear and see a shadow of an animal snooping around our tent. The following night the “thing“ was making a lot of noise and was suddenly inside our tent.  It looked like the biggest rat we had ever seen!   It eventually departed and the following day we were advised that it was a bandicoot, which mentally was easier to deal with.   Apart from this little creature there are bats,  birds and who knows what making all the noises throughout the night.   We were lying in bed staring up at the treetops through the net and feeling as if we were in the jungle somewhere.

     The main reason for staying in Cairns for a whole week was to visit our friend Michelle, who is dealing with some serious health issues.  It was so good to finally catch up with her and all three of us have had some very enjoyable times together, visiting Port Douglas and dining out.

     One day was dedicated to horse riding in the rain forest up in the mountains of Kuranda. The young couple operators had abandoned a city life and IT career to set up Billabong Horse Adventures and live their dream. Great tour in spite of Graeme suffering from a sore ass the following day.

     Yesterday Graeme and I had a great MC riding day, going up to Daintree on a winding beautiful road.  There we changed mode of transport and took a river cruise on the Daintree river and encountered some salt-water crocodiles in the wild. It was a fascinating experience.  We then continued our MC ride up another mountain to the Atherton Tableland and what a ride!  We continued through Mareeba, and then back towards Cairns again.  The Atherton Tableland is very beautiful and a very fertile area with mango trees, pineapple, banana, tea plantations and of course sugar cane. 
How much sugar do we eat in this country???

The weather has been very kind to us, sunny days and high 20’s and we are starting to develop a nice tan.  Today was a real highlight as we went out to Green Island and snorkelled along the Barrier Reef and saw beautiful corals and colourful fishes of all kinds. Our time here is coming to an end too soon. There is so much more to explore,  but time is limited and we have to start making our way towards Alice Springs for the HOG rally at the beginning of September.

We have enjoyed staying in one spot for a week. Setting up the trailer tent and packing it up again is time consuming even though we are getting better and better at it.  We may be escaping household work at home, but we are just exchanging it for another type of work. Keeping order in a tent is a skill we are yet to master.