It’s Disgusting, You Won’t Need Moisturiser

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DAY 294


I cannot believe how well I have slept again, if I drank Hot Chocolate before bedtime I would think that someone is slipping something into it, when the morning comes it is hard to come round.

Andy brought me a cup of tea, but I got out of bed and joined him in the kitchen, where he was sat making a list of things to do, oops a reality check that as we are in one place for the moment we have chores that need doing. No rush but just handy to get some of them off the list so that we can enjoy our time in Cairns.

After breakfast and showers we decide to drive down to the Esplanade and find Tourist Information, it is already a hot day and the sun is shining bright. There is barely a soul around on the Esplanade and parking is easy, straight outside.

We wander over but before we find what we are looking for in tourist information we see a little shop attached, it is a shop that concentrates on saving the rainforest and the wildlife that live in the rainforest.

We have a look around this interesting little shop, but end up chatting to the lady behind the counter who we find out is British and has been living in Cairns for 8 year, since they first left England.

During our conversation we ask how she finds the summer months in Cairns, her response “oh, its disgusting! 8 weeks of rain and intense humidity, you won’t need moisturiser, you can just stand still and you will just drip with sweat!” Well great description, it would be nice to try that for ourselves.

In the shop we see toy Cassowaries, now we have not seen a real one as yet, neither did the Wallaby Wanderers, so we decide to have a bit of a joke with them. We bought a Cassowary, his name is “Sydney, with a Y, from Cairns.” He is quite shy and not really that photogenic, but if you upset him then he could do you a nasty injury.

Now we have mentioned before that tourist information has not been particularly crash hot in the places we have visited around Australia, that is to say until we got to Croydon and the helpful Eleanor, well now in Cairns we find a woman who is as equally as helpful she is a volunteer, she knows about the area, her and her husband have even been up to Cape York, so she furnishes us with all sorts of must do information.

Denise, chatted to us about the area with some passion and detail, she explained about the weather conditions that could prevent us from driving up to Cape York, but because she has done the journey herself she knows what to expect and tells us what to expect, however if we do this early October we should be ok, Denise tells us that the big rain does not usually come until around Boxing Day so we need to be clear of Cape York by then.

Our plan is possibly to do Cape York at the end of September when we leave Julies House in Cairns, we are told that we should have no problem at all taking the camper trailer, there are river crossings but they are not high at this time of year.

I asked Denise about a means to get back if by any remote chance the rains came early and we could not cross back over the rivers, she told me about Sea Swift (some one else who we met on our travels has also told me about Sea Swift) you can book a place to come back via Sea Swift, however it is booked up months in advance so if we were to get caught up there we may well be up there for a while.

I buy a new map, something more detailed for Cairns to use while we are here, in the meantime Andy gets chatting to someone else in Tourist Information.

We find out an interesting fact about Tourist Information, as we were talking to Denise about how bad some of them are she tells us that there are two different kinds, the yellow “i” logo are non profit organisations and are usually staffed by volunteers the white “i” is a profit making organisation.

Anyway, we wandered down the road to the pier and had a quick look around, there are plenty of boats in the harbour, the view of the mountains in the background. This part of Cairns seems to be very affluent, with the building of new apartment blocks and plush hotels, we even see a Louis Vuitton and Dior Shop.

There is a lagoon on the Esplanade a little bit like the man made Streets Beach that they have in Brisbane, but on a smaller scale. The funny thing is that the police station is right next door to it, outside the police station a man stands and plays the piano, I cannot remember what he played but he was very good.

We jump in the truck to drive up to the Central Shopping Centre, I need to pop into CameraHouse for a couple of things, strangely enough for my camera, however we chat to the salesperson and I cannot get either of the things that I want in there so I will have to look online.

After lunch we heading back home, we both sat for a while and read our books, but then I needed to get on with the blog, but in the meantime I looked for the equipment I needed for my camera online and found a website for a company based on the Gold Coast, I placed the order, registering my details, and giving my credit card information and then nothing seemed to happen, I have an account and it tells me that there is no order and I cannot telephone them until they are open again on Monday morning, so at the moment I don’t think my order has been successful and I need to check my credit card statement to see if anything has been taken.

Andy and I go out in the lovely tropical garden to take some photos for a special blog entry for the Wallaby Wanderers, we photograph Sydney with a Y, the Cassowary and then write up a special blog entry telling them we have seen our first Cassowary, we need also to find out when they will arrive in Darwin as we will send the Cassowary to them as a momento.

At 6.00 we put on our trainers to take our walk up to the top of the road, again all of the dogs start barking as soon as we near any of their gates, it is a perpetual chorus as you walk past, we see another woman walking up too, she is on a mission. Andy said to her “you make it look easy!” She was not convinced at that statement as she puffed past us and carried on, she was not far ahead of us when she made the turn at the top of the road we waved as she walked back past us and down. We were soon on our way back down again after a short rest at the top.

Back indoors and a few gulps of water later, we had a light tea. An unexciting evening, I watched a film with Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon, it was great to sit down and watch a film. A friend of ours Skyped us for a chat, but by 11.00 we were ready for bed, another late night and I have no doubt another good nights sleep.

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Photos

Police station
With caroline taking a photograph of a Pianoplayer right outside the Police station