Wednesday 25th February 2015.
Up at 7.30am to check out after our usual breakfast of Weetbix and coffee. Apparently we have to empty all the bins in the unit as well as pack cases – this was spelt out on a note left under our door last night – it is to ‘help out the housekeepers’!. The only extras for us to pay at check out, were the pool towels and internet – two things I begrudge having to pay for.
Leaving the hotel, we drove up Macrossan Street. Then drove up Island Point Road to the look out up a very steep hill that is ‘not suitable for caravans!’ it was worth it, we got a great view of four mile beach. Back in the car and off to Quicksilver wharf. We arrived just before ten and all of the all staff were dealing with today’s departure, so we went to watch the boat go then went back in – they had found my glasses – a bit battered, one lens out but easily put right – great news. We had a look round the gift shops, but nothing grabbed Sue.
Clutching my glasses, we headed out of Port Douglas and south. We called at several of the villages / beaches on the way, (Oak Beach, trinity Beach and Yorkey’s Knob) just to have a look round but didn’t stop at any of them for any length of time. We drove right into Cairns and parked up at the official Tourist Info place. A nice lady (Sue) suggested the Mercure or any other near it, as they are a little bit out of the centre and likely to be cheaper. We drove to the Mercure and Sue went in. She managed to get a room for $139 for room 212. She also managed get an upgrade to an exec room because the chap dealing with her was a cricket fan.
Once that was sorted we had a drive back out to the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway. – We parked up and bought two return tickets for $73 each, we didn’t get diamond vision (glass bottom). We were a bit hungry so we had lunch in the Canopy Cafe, next to the gift shop. I had a steak and potato pie whilst Sue had Veggie stack – sweet potato, aubergine and other veg warmed up in the microwave plus cups of coffee.
The Skyrail is a 7.5km (4.7 miles) cableway in Barron Gorge National Park. The first stretch is from the station at Smithfield – 14 towers to Red Peak station then we had to change gondolas- From tower 15 to Barron Falls Station then Tower 28 to Kuranda at tower 33. The trip is above the canopy of the rain forest with views of the Barron Fall and over the Barron River to Kuranda Village.
At the village there are lots of shops, market stalls and Aboriginal art and crafts. We walked up the main street and the rain started, a huge storm; then it stopped and the sun came out – very Floridian, we headed back towards station and had an ice cream, then it started again – very heavy warm rain. Waiting for a break in the rain that didn’t come, we walked to the station, there was a short queue before getting on but only for a few minutes. On the way back we got off at Barron Falls Station, we walked along the boardwalk to the lookouts over the spectacular Barron Gorge and Falls. We also saw a Bush Turkey in the trees – it wasn’t bothered by the people at all. There was a bit more rain, but they had supplied umbrellas so it wasn’t a problem.
Back on the Sky Rail to Red Peak Station, there was another boardwalk with spectacular views and good explanation of rain forest botany. We went back down to the bottom with an English lady and then to the car. We drove to the hotel and before going to our room we told the girl reception that I have Accor Platinum card. She tapped the number into the computer and gave us each a free drinks voucher and two codes for free internet, that would normally cost $15 each.
Up to room 212 – it is very nice with settee and bath, the digital TV includes Fox’s cricket channel. We settled in a bit, then went downstairs and after a lot of faffing about in the business centre thanks to the crap net connection, we managed print off boarding passes for tomorrow. Once this was done, we had a drive out to Cairns Central Shopping Mall – Kmart, Target,Coles and Myer are the mall anchors. We split up and had a wander, unfortunately it was 5.30pm and most of the non-anchor stores were in the process of closing. It was still a good mall though, very big by Oz standards. I got two three dollar (£1.50) t-shirts from Kmart, Sue tried on lots of bits but nothing caused the plastic to come out. At Coles we got milk, pop, plastic dishes for Weetbix and sweet for later.
On the way back we decided to get petrol so that we can return the car full tomorrow.
At Caltex Cairns I put in 23.04 litres costing $29.93 @ $1.299 per gallon – trip 318
Back to the hotel to wash and freshen up. We then had a walk next door to the Acacia Court hotel for a buffet meal. We had a look at it before committing and it looked very nice. There were a lot of salads and the cold section also included huge King Prawns and oysters. The hot mains had nice beef, fish, chicken wings and lots of diverse dishes. Sweets were also included, so I had cherry cheesecake and Sue had banana cake. A nice meal and very reasonable price.
Back next door to our hotel to use our free drinks vouchers. I had a Hahn Dry Lager and Sue had G&T. Very nice for nothing – thanks Amex. Back in the room for diary and sorting. The cricket was very good Ireland chasing a big total of 278 made by the UAE, but they did it with three balls to spare to win by two wickets. The internet here is painfully slow and prone to frequent drop outs – we can’t complain as we got it for nothing, but if I had paid $30 for both of us I wouldn’t be happy.
Trip 319.
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