GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE CHAIRS

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While packing up the next morning Andy discovered a redback spider making a web on our roof. This had been our first sighting of Australias poisonous creatures - well it was a sighting for Andy. I am very grateful that he dealt with it first and told me about it later!
We drove the short distance to Mossman Gorge. We walked through the forest and across the Rex Creek Bridge before finding a crystal clear river to have a paddle in. There were some very inquisitive fish in the river. They swam right up to us and looked at us expectantly waiting for some food. “If only I had my fishing rod” Andy sighed “ I bet they wouldn’t take much catching” I’m sure I could detect a look of relief from the fish…. I guess it was their lucky day :o)

Later that day we went back into the mountains. We had spotted a place called Faulty towers on the map with a camp spot next to it. The idea of spending the night in faulty towers amused us so off we went. Assuring us that we had enough petrol to make it Andy started the 50km journey. The road turned out to be a lot steeper than we thought, so halfway up with the petrol disappearing quickly, we had to turn around and coast to the bottom for petrol.
Our second attempt at getting to Faulty towers went much smoother. We reached the top and were a little annoyed to find that we needn’t have turned around. There was a petrol station that was not listed on the map. Better to be safe than sorry I suppose.
We spent a good 30 minutes searching for the camp spot and for Faulty towers but could not find neither. Disappointed not to be spending the night at faulty towers we drove towards the coast.

As it was getting dark we found ourselves in Cairns. We found a campsite about 2km from the city centre and booked in for a couple of nights. We were having a peaceful evening until our Italian neighbour came home and decided to pick a fight with his other neighbour. He was swearing and throwing his arms about. It made for some interesting evening entertainment. The poor guy who was being shouted obviously didn’t speak Italian and looked as clueless as we did about what was going on, however we all clearly understood the last word the man shouted as he walked away - not something I would repeat on here though!

We were woken quite unpleasantly in the morning. There was a group of lads parked near to us who had been out on quite a heavy session last night - how they got up so early I don’t know. The were all sat round in a circle while one played the guitar. Normally this wouldn’t have bothered us, but the problem was that he only knew three cords and insisted on playing them over and over again. His friend then joined in with his didgeridoo, which must have been quite a recent purchase as his efforts only produced noises which sounded like wounded animals. This all continued for about 2 painstaking hours. I can’t say we were sad when they packed up and left.

Looking at the map we were now stuck for places to go. South would be the direction we were going to be travelling with Gemma and Kieran, to the west was the mountains we had just come from and we had already travelled as far north as Hilda would take us before the roads had become impassable to all but the best 4 wheel drive. We decided to stay in cairns and check some places out so we knew our way around for when Gemma and Kieran arrived.
The week was spent the week relaxing by the pool, and cycling around town checking out the bars and restaurants. One evening Andy sat on his chair and him bum went straight through to the floor. This meant that the next day we had to pack up the van and drive around the camping shops in search of a new chair. He tried many chairs, some were too hard, some were too soft but unfortunately there was no chair that was just right. When Goldilocks and I returned to the campsite it had been raining pretty hard for about an hour. It was probably not our wisest idea to leave our bedding on the airer while we went out! Setting up in the rain is never the most pleasant thing, so when we were finished we were a little grumpy. Not for long though. Our mood was soon lifted by the sight of a man with a long grey beard walking around the campsite with a golfing umberella, wearing nothing but a pair of Speedos - now that’s not something you see every day!
That night we decided to stay up later than normal. We were getting used to our early nights and early mornings but Gemma and Kieran would soon be arriving and so would Christmas so we needed to practice staying up late.

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Photos

All because he didn't want his photo taken!
If you look through the following 5 pictures like a flick book you can really see him dancing! :o)

Visitor number 2
I think he looks fed up at having his photo taken.