Sunday 22nd February 2015
Our alarms were set for 3.40am! But, we both beat them, and got sorted and breakfast very quickly. We were on the road for 4.15am in the dark. Along the quiet, but by no means deserted streets of Adelaide.
Last job was to fill up with petrol at the United Garage just outside the airport – the fuel cost $44.99 – 37.59 litres at $1.197 a litre.
Trip 1401km.
At the airport, we dropped the car at the Thrifty garage and dropped the key in the box – Final trip 1402km.
This all meant we were checked in with bags gone before 5am. The airport is fairly busy. There are three planes out at six am and several just after. There isn’t a Priority Pass lounge in our terminal, so Sue had to buy some very expensive water and also got a morning paper. The lounge area at gate 25 is very busy but we only had a short wait before we boarded into seats 1a and 1b right at the front of the very full plane. There is an off duty pilot next to us, and he appeared to be fast asleep well before we pushed back. Our plane is an Airbus 320. Push back was exactly on time at 0600, wheels up was 0610. It was still dark for our take off to the south and we quickly swung round and headed up country. Our flight time is 2 hours 47 minutes and we have to put our watches back half an hour so that we will land at 0830.
An on time landing after an uneventful flight spent snoozing and reading – I had forgotten that the fare I booked included and $5 food and drink voucher – this was covered by their special offer of coffee and a banana muffin for $5 so we enjoyed one of those. After we landed we went straight to Thrifty desk, which was in the baggage reclaim area. There was no queue so we were sorted immediately, by a very efficient agent who didn’t try any big sell on upgrades or insurance. Once we had done that we went to get our bags from the carousel and went outside to the Thrifty parking area. The first thing that struck us was that it was hot and very humid – almost Floridian.
The car was a Kia Cerato S, on a Victoria plate – 384TBO with 46,861km on the clock.
Once I had familiarised myself with the car we drove into the centre of Cairns and parked up on the Esplanade near the Hilton and a tourist info office. As it is Sunday, street parking is free. We had a brief look in the tourist office, but it wasn’t an official one and was geared for selling trips and excursions. There are two big cruise ships moored in the city centre – the Royal Caribbean -Rhapsody of the Sea – this boat had been subject of a local news story when it was caught in the path of Cyclone Marcia, – http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/rhapsody-of-the-seas-photos-show-storm-hitting-cruise-ship/story-fnizu4n5-1227237231375 the second ship was a smaller one called The Albatross, which is apparently operated by a small German company called Phoenix Reisen.
Walking into the town centre which was just waking up early on this Sunday morning we saw some trees with literally hundreds of flying foxes hanging from the branches – they were unbelievable noisy and quite smelly – they were easy to photograph in the trees but we had several futile attempt at snapping them in flight and then gave up. We made use of the very clean public facilities on the main street then went to Woolworth’s for a coffee.
As we walked back to the car we noticed along from waterfront that the sea was very cloudy and very high over grass, we guessed this must be some aftermath of the recent cyclone. Setting off agin we drove north along the coastal highway. The cloud has burned off it is now very hot . En route we stopped at a viewpoint, then drove into Port Douglas. It was only just after 12, but we found The Meridian hotel very easily and managed to check in lovely apartment 19a. There is a nice cool underground car park with a lift to our apartment on the second floor, which is a bonus.
The complex is very luxurious and the fixtures, fittings and the pool are top notch – we have a nice two room apartment with a kitchenette and huge fridge, which is nice. I was surprised to find that we had to pay for wi-fi! $20 a day, with discount if you had it for the week. Before we unpacked properly, we drove to Coles in the shopping area and stocked up on drinks, bread, fruit, cereal – salad items for lunch and other essentials. Next door to Coles in the very upmarket shopping area is a Country Target, which ironically has free wi-fi.
Back at the unit. Sue made lovely ham and cheese cobs with really nice crusty cobs we had got. We also took the plunge with internet, paying $40 – I am afraid what used to be a luxury has now become an essential. Once we had eaten we had a walk over to the beach, which is only a couple of hundred metres away just past the Port Douglas motel, which looks cheap and cheerful and also does free wi-fi!
Sue had a chat with the with deckchair man, he offered us a special deal, but we aren’t stopping very long. We could see millions of tiny sand balls all over the beach below the tide line, there were also lots of tiny crabs diving in and out of small holes – the chap explained that the crabs dig down, extract some nutrients from the sand, then throw it away, so all the balls are created by the crabs. There was a netted off swimming area as this time of year there are lots of jellyfish, known as stingers. All along the beach there are warning notices about them and each notice has a bottle of vinegar attached to it, to pour of stings. I went into the lovely warm water and had a bit of a swim about inside the net. Sue sat on the beach and chilled, but did manage a bit of a paddle.
Back to the Meridian, we decided to have a walk into town, it is only a shirt distance, but would have been too far to carry the bags full of liquids and food. We eventually made it back to Coles and got Weetbix that we had forgotten and treated ourselves to an ice cream. There was still some warmth on the sun when we got back so we had a nice swim in the hotel pool. It had lovely warm water.
As the sun went down, we went back upstairs and got changed. Sue also did some washing, as the hotel provide free washers and driers. Once we were sorted we went out for a meal. It was dark at 7.30pm but very warm still. We walked up and down Main Street. there are lots of places to eat some very expensive and some closed, as this is their off season.
After some debate we settled on a bar / restaurant called Rattle and Hum. I had a lovely prime rib , which surprisingly was chargrilled not roast, as it is in the US, and it was on medium side of medium rare but very nice. Sue had the local speciality fish – Barramundi, pan fried with mash and veg – all very nice. Because we were walking, I had a pint of Carlton Mid and Sue had a wine. Very good meals – the cricket was on the TV – India look like they are going to beat South Africa quite easily.
Back at the apartment, we chilled and settled down
Trip 77km
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