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Published: November 9th 2008
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An early start to catch a flight to Cairns, via a transit stop in Gove. Gove is an airport, where the gate means the gate - quite literally access to the plane is through the gate in the fence. Baggage collection is not that hitec either, consisting of placing your bag on a trolley. As with most of the disproportionately large airfields in the area, Gove is a relic of WW2 and seeing as the journey to reach it along the mostly unsealed Central Arnhem Road is 430 miles from Katherine the airport makes a handy shortcut.
We were looking forward to luxury accomodation in the upmarket beach retreat of Palm Cove, just north of Cairns. The north of the river backpackers “hospitality” car was available as arranged at Cairns International - a snappy 4 litre Ford Falcon with plenty of space for the backpacks and backpackers. After the ‘roach experiences in Darwin, this venue comes highly recommended - give Pauly a ring and book your room and airport pick up!
If only finding a decent hostel was that simple … the reality is you find friends to emigrate - preferably somewhere warm. The new accommodation was in an
Opal Reef
Divemaster Pauly on board Haba ready to take to the water apartment on a resort - view of the golf course included in the “mates rates” and a 5 minute walk to the beach. I have the first night experience recorded as a quiet night - so clearly that wasn't the case. A pub crawl in Palm Cove isn't that complicated mind - Surf Club, Apres Beach Bar and the Palm Cove Tavern - repeat route when ready. The Surf Club is the local hangout - no shoes, no shirt, no service - but only after 6 o'clock! Of course those in the know merely lean over the bar and pull out their spare thongs, without wasting any valuable drinking time.
We slipped into TFNQ time - a walk on the beach past Clifton with no sign of Big Al. Tennis was abandoned at 6-6 to avoid dehydration, but despite drop outs the invitation to play indoor cricket in the league at the Shark Cage never materilaised - perhaps due to a strict one pom per team rule being in place. Mates rates came through on the skyrail to Kuranda, before we went for a backpacker night out in downtown Cairns. Miranda was on her best behaviour at this point,
Yungaburra
Waiting in vain for a platypus so there was no dancing on the tables. She made up for this later in the week by winning a limbo dancing competition at the Apres Beach Bar to cap a night of sporting success. John and Poolmaster Pauly held the table at the Tavern until 3.30 am, despite the former not being able to either play pool or stand up in the later stages of this feat - the wonders of Carlton Mid Strength had not been discovered at this point in the trip.
Tourmaster Pauly sold his “Atherton Tablelands experience” well. He spoke of lazy sunny afternoons in luxurious crystal clear hot springs. He spoke of unparalleled platypus viewing at a not so secret location. We signed up immediately. Alas the platypus were too shy to make an appearance and the Innot Hot Springs could only manage a trickle of water in between the cow shit and the caravan park. It was a day of the highest town in Queensland - Ravenshoe, the highest pub in Queensland - top pub in Revenshoe, the oldest pub in TFNQ - Peeramon, the widest waterfall in Australia - Millstream Falls, the highest mountain in Queensland - Bartle Frere and possibly
Port Douglas
4 Mile Beach the largest Mango winery in TFNQ at Mareeba. The tourmaster threw in a random drive through a banana planation as a value for money extra!
Divemaster Pauly's reef tour was with Haba (www.habadive.com.au), which is more of an up close and personal experience than you are going to get with Quiksilver these days. Haba visit two separate reef sites, so we weren't anchored in the same place all day. We even had a whale sighting on the return.
Despite no indoor cricket, we made our debut at a new sport of barefoot bowling at our "home" club, the Marlin Coast at Trinity Beach. The competitive price of AUS$5.50 included full instruction and a sausage sizzle. In a bid to encourage new participants to the game, the only rule appeared to be don't bring your beer on to the green. On our last two nights in Palm Cove, we had more sophisticated entertainment. Firstly there was an evening meal at the Boat Club at the interestingly named Yorkeys Knob. The last night was spent encouraging an inept and overpriced cane toad called Monty to claim glory in the evening's big race at the Novotel resort. Alas all the other
toads were on top form and the lazy amphibian sought refuge from embarassment in a harsh disqualification.
We left Cairns on the 9.30 McCaffertys in the morning for the destination that is the East Coast backpacker circus.
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Tot: 0.059s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0323s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb