Cairns. A More Tourist Destination Than We Expected

Dear Adventurous Reader,

Cairns was our coastal destination for a few day of no-travel. We had planned to setup in one spot and enjoy a leisurely swim and take it easy for a few days. It started off bad.

No Miller's at the Moment

We separated from the Miller's this morning. They drove off ahead of us to get to Cairns and get some work done before heading off on a boat for a few days.

Joash said: "I miss Elisha. I am happy that we get to see them in a few days."

Getting There

We left the free camp at Toomula and headed north on the highway. The scenery was magnificent. The road swayed between the ridges of rainforest covered mountains. We went up small hills and down longer descents as we made our way through small towns.

The road was slow and the air was sticky with humidity. Sugar cane grew by the roadside, in some places it was harvested, it was cut and placed into trucks that were talking it to narrow gauge trains. We caught a glimpse of a few trains, under load, delivering the harvested cane to their destination - wherever that was. The boys were excited to see trains in motion.

We moved forward through the heat without a destination.

Arrival, of Sorts

We got to Cairns under pressure. Not place to stay, in a hot car, with boys who were five days ago in Alice Springs. We have been moving too fast and we all wanted to unwind.

After an Escalated Discussion we drove aimlessly through Cairns to find a park. The boys all whining in the back about letting us stay at a Big Four resort, that was not going to happen. Eventually we found the park, a marvellous water park on the waterfront called Muddies. We guess it is there because of the stingers and crocodiles in the ocean.

The boys cooled off and I tried to find a reasonably price place to stay. As it turns out, if you want to be disappointed by your stay in Cairns just let me choose a place to stay. No rainforest, no play park, no silence.

Make Do With What You Have Got

So we are getting by. The camp kitchen is nice. The pool is shaded, so the kids have been swimming lots. We are close by to the Boardwalk in a rainforest, which we walked in the third morning of our stay.

We returned to the water park the second day to meet half of the Miller's before they went off on their next adventure. They boys had a wonderful time running through the water park together.

I think we are all enjoying that the car rides are to the shop or to a watermark and do not consist of a few hundred kilometres. So to complain about our situation would be silly, in a few days we have some good things planned to go and see, so we will enjoy what we have and look forward to the rest.