Well, got up nice & early & packed up the camper to take it to the man to fix the sink. Which he did – and we were finished by 8.30!!! not at all sure why I had to have it to him soooooooooo early – but its done now. Luckily for me there was an o’brien glass place just down the street – so I wondered down there & they could plug my big stone chip in the windscreen – he said it was just inside the size that they can do that with – so it WAS a big chip – but I can’t see it any more. Then, as I had so much time & I was in Cairns, I found someone to put some new tapping screws in one of the anchors for the camper. This actually took the longest – as the bloke wasn’t there to start with & then he had to go get some longer screws – but in the end, after fluffing around with it for ages, he only charged me $20 – and gave me lots of info about the Cape & where to go & what to do – so that was money well spent. Great bloke too – so it was lovely – sensible and happy to do a bit & didn’t want to bleed me dry – I do love it when you find people like that.
So, I spent the most of the day trying to get these things done. The bloke at the last place strongly suggested I find the Cape York Adventurer’s Guide book written by Ron & Viv Moon – so I set off to find myself a copy of that. What was left of the day soon got eaten away on this little task – I was sent all around lots & lots of shops in Cairns – one way to see the city I suppose. Eventually, someone suggested the map shop and sure enough – there it was. So I’ve got my reading to do for that. Just enough time left in the day to have walk along the Esplanade (didn’t think it as nice as Townsville’s Strand) and a look through the night markets (amazing how things don’t interest you when you have no spare money and no chance of taking things home) before heading back to the caravan park. When I got back there, there was a group of blokes who had just ridden postie bikes from Cooktown to Cape York and back to Cairns – they were raising money for something – they looked tired and dirty and as if they’d had a ball!!! Which they had apparently. They were from Mackay & were heading home the next day – I think they were a bit sad their adventure was over.
Thursday I went to Kuranda – which is a village in the mountains – in the rainforest. I went up on the Skyrail (cable cars over the rainforest canopy – amazingly beautiful and just a little bit scary!!) Luckily I was on the ground when they had some trouble with it – they had to shut it down for a short while – but got it back up & running soon enough – and I was “trapped” at one of the stations – which had a lookout to the Barron Falls – so there are worse places to be stuck for an hour or so.
Skyrail - it was scary when the wind started blowing the cars around!!!
The village of Kuranda was nice enough – I had been here when I was in Cairns years ago. So I was quite disappointed in the markets – as they were HUGE years ago – but only about 1/3 the size now. I remember not being able to get around them all when I was here last – definitely not a problem this time. Probably no biggie anyway – as I have no money to spare & no room – but it would have been nice to browse.
I did go to the Butterfly Sanctuary at Kuranda – and spent a lot of time there – partly because it was just nice – thousands of butterflies just flying around, landing anywhere – including on you – very serene & nice – and partly because I wanted to get a photo of the pretty blue one and the pretty green one – both of which have ADHD I’m sure – cause they would never just sit still!!! I came close – but didn’t get great photos of either.
Returned to Cairns on the Kuranda Scenic Railway – which is a rail line cut through the mountains and gorges of the hills that the Skyrail went over. There’s 15 tunnels and a heap of bridges the railway goes over – and goes past the Barron Gorge water falls & Stony Creek waterfalls – so that’s waterfall number 10 I think – for those who are counting. The railway line was mostly done by hand a long while ago – it was quite a feat of engineering – a big deal in Qld – and for Australia too apparently. It was good fun – lots of glimpses of great views!!! Everytime you’d see something – by the time you clicked the camera all you got was a shot of trees or cutting – even though the train seemed to be going very slowly!!
I spent the next day in Cairns washing, organising, doing some trip planning (reading the book I’d taken so long to find). A quiet day.
So, in the end I spent 4 nights in Cairns – Tuesday, 9 to Friday 12 August – leaving town on Saturday 13 August.
margiecrimmins 