Cairns

The trip to Cairns became one of our longer drives after I finally remembered what it was I wanted to visit in Ingham. when we arrived I saw a sign to the Wallaman Falls, which I had visited last time I was up there. What I didn’t remember was that it was an additional 50km each way to get there, but no big deal and it was certainly worth it once we got there. The falls themselves are over 250m straight down!
That evening we arrived at Robyn’s and it was fantastic to catch up with her again. Robyn is a friend who had moved from Bunbury to Cairns a few years ago and she has a lovely place ideally set up for the climate.
Next day we visited the Cairns Foreshore which was completely transformed with markets all along it. The foreshore itself is very different to what we are used to due to the massive tidal movements, resulting in acres of mudflats at low tide. It is quite incongruous to find a beautiful boardwalk alongside the mudflats at low tide.
The foreshore itself however is brilliantly designed with great kids play areas and the necessary swimming area given the amount of time the ocean itself is not available.
It was Port Douglas the next day and I was surprised that no one had decided to cash in on the Skase era with some sort of bad taste Skase ride (although it would probably consist of paying for a ride that never actually happens if it was to be true to form ), possibly it is still too raw for many people to be appropriate. Port Douglas was in the grip of markets that day, many of which were the same as ones we had seen the day before, but what stood out most was the number of bead/jewellery places. Due to a big day planned for Monday we kept the remainder of the afternoon nice and quiet.
Next day was all about the Great Barrier Reef. My cousin James is a Skipper on the Ocean Freedom and organised for us to go out on his boat. The conditions were a little rough, but this was the case for the whole time we were up there and he had figured Monday was going to be as good as it got.
The trip was fantastic, especially seeing Jimmy the Skipper ion operation as against my memories of James the little cousin. Max once again had an absolute ball snorkelling while Harry once again found it all a little overwhelming but at least this time got to see everything from the glass bottomed boat rather than missing out again.
The highlight was probably the atmosphere of the boat due to the crew’s relationships with each other. James (as Jimmy) later on told us that every new crew member was trialled with the boss then including all existing crew members in the decision on whether they were to be offered ongoing positions to ensure harmony was maintained – vital I would think in a situation where everybody is working long days in an environment where you are on show pretty much the whole time and there is no capacity to escape from each other.
The trip back into the harbour was also special as I took the boys into the cockpit for most of the time and they got to  spend it sitting back in the captains chairs as we bounced over some reasonable sized swells.
The following day we once again designated as a bit of a rest day, although Liz needed to get some shopping done and I needed to find an auto electrician since the second battery was no longer charging which wasn’t good as it is what I run the car fridge off. We had also organised to have dinner with a school friend of Liz’s – Rob Rutten.
Rob also helped by putting me in touch with an Auto elec. who helped me out on the spot. It ended up being one of those $100+ jobs that required a 50c part, not unexpected as it was always likely to be a faulty connection. While we were organising all this we also had a call from some people who had been following our trip through Liz’s blog. They also were looking at doing a similar trip and had the same van also being pulled by a Pathfinder, so we organised to meet up with them for afternoon tea.
Di and Terry ended up being a lovely couple and great hosts and we spent the afternoon comparing notes. Once we had finished up there we were due at Rob and Tania’s – so our rest day ended up being quite busy.
It turned out that Rob had started at Muresk the year I finished so we all had a little more in common than originally expected and once again it was lovely to meet people Liz had known well before I ever knew her and see the affection she is still held in. Since leaving Muresk Rob has set up his own IT business http://www.ruttentech.com/. It always interests me how diversely the future career directions of Muresk graduates are.
Next morning it was time to leave Robyn's and effectively make the turn for home (albeit still with many miles to travel and diversions to take). While we had been there the kids had got really interested in jewellery making and Harry had managed to find a kit for sale in a garage sale next door so we had some additional items to take with us. Before we left we found a very large frog just outside the back door which turned out to be quite unwell. On  of Robyn’s close friends has set up her own little frog hospital in her house so it was dispatched of to her place, with the kids getting to meet some of the other patients.
Then finally it was time to be off, with Robyn being very much missed, especially by Harry who had adopted her as another in his list of ‘spare’ grandparents.