Back from Cairns

The Leader of the Opposition (my wife, not Malcolm Turnbull) and I are back from a great holiday in Cairns. And, guess what? Not a surgical mask to be seen at Brisbane or Cairns airport, on the shuttle buses or on any tour coaches, none. So there you go, it’s all a storm in the proverbial tea-cup.

Has anyone tried the Car Storage companies situated near Brisbane Airport? That’s where you leave your car (undercover?) while you’re on holidays, for a fee, and the company takes you to the airport and picks you up on your return. They’re as busy as a one-armed paperboy on a Friday afternoon, I can tell you. But it’s worth every penny for the comfort and security of having your car at your disposal ready to drive back home after your holiday.

The Jetstar pilot landed the plane like a butterfly with sore feet at Cairns airport and we alighted into warm sunshine. Temperatures were from 19c-28c the whole time. How to describe Cairns in one word? Beautiful, warm, sunny, relaxing, stress-free, no traffic. Sorry, it’s impossible to use just one word.

We devised a plan over the seven days of doing a tour every second day and strolling around Cairns and relaxing in the between days. If we ever got weary the local Sunbuses (same as our Coast buses) run everywhere and frequently. Cairns seems to have everything, big shopping centres, movie theatres, top-notch restaurants, lagoon beach (like Southbank) and a variety of tourist accomodation.

On one of our walks around Cairns we stumbled across the new Flu Clinic at Cairns Base Hospital. I don’t know how many bureaucratic heads got together at Queensland Health to invent this brainwave, but the Flu Clinic consists of a row of tents just inside the hospital grounds (see photos below).

A must-do trip is to travel to Kuranda by train and back by Skyrail. Fascinating. The railway, over 75 kilometres, from Cairns to Kuranda was carved out of the side of the mountains by pick and shovel, including the 15 tunnels. Apparently it was cheaper and took less manpower to build the tunnels than to cut away the hillsides. And the views are spectacular.

If you don’t like heights, stay away from the Skyrail. To sit in a “capsule” suspended metres above the tallest rainforest tree is scary enough, but wait there’s more. The “capsule” has to climb even higher to clear the numerous mountain ranges and hills. And just to top off the experience, if the wind is blowing too hard the power cuts off, and you’re left sitting in the swaying “capsule” sweating like Alan Bond at a tax audit.

The next tour was to Port Douglas and through to Cape Tribulation. Plenty of rainforests but not much of Port Douglas. Apparently for some reason we were off-loaded from out intended tour which included a couple of hours in Port Douglas and then a Daintree River cruise, and onto another similar but longer tour. But we did get to go on a Daintree River cruise and travel on the famous Daintree barge (carries about 25 vehicles at one time) and then up to the isolation and tranquility of Cape Tribulation. All in all, well worth seeing. It was the only wet day of the holiday and the rainforests were misty and spectacular.

Out last trip was from Cairns to Innisfail via the Atherton Tablelands through Yungaburra, Malanda, Millaa Millaa and Babinda. I will be covering this trip in a special article in the very near future as it deserves to be featured as the standout tour of our holiday. Click here to read the special article.

As we approached Brisbane the pilot informed us that is was 14 deg and raining. That statement was hard to believe because at that stage we were still above the clouds and the plane was bathed in bright sunlight. However, this turned to reality as we descended through the cloud cover and into greyness and rain. Welcome home.

P.S. I can’t let this pass without a mention. Amongst the other rip-offs at Cairns airport, or any airport for that matter, this one would probably take the cake. In the waiting lounge adjacent to a row of computers is a sign that reads:

Get on the internet in 2 easy steps:

Step 1.
Choose how much internet time you need:
10 minutes - $2.50 | 20 minutes - $4.00 | 30 minutes - $5.00

Step 2.
Purchase your prepaid internet card from the vending machine.
(here’s the kicker) NO CHANGE GIVEN.

____________________________________________________________

Flu Clinic at Cairns Hospital (and me looking on in amazement)