Blogs from Northern Beaches, Cairns, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Following on from my previous theme of walks around Cairns, I decided to return to one local to me called Earl Hill. This was a track I had used many years ago when training to tackle the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea. At that time, the track was quite steep, with high step ups, which I needed to train for Kokoda. I would go up and down it about 3 times, with my back pack, to strenghten my legs. Over the last couple of years, the local Council has completed a lot of work on the track, taking out many of the high steps and putting in a more zig zag track. This has made the track much easier and the steps which have been installed are very good. A surprise on the way up, ... read more

Day 1: Made it to Cairns! The last flight (Auckland to Cairns, 5 1/2 hours) seemed to take forever. It was awesome having a window seat though because the plane flew right up the east coast of Australia and I watched the Great Barrier Reef out the window the whole flight. I've probably slept for 3 hours total in the last 2 days. The coffee in Australia and New Zealand is unreal! They only have espresso based coffee, no drip stuff. You can get the regulars: cappuccino, latte, etc., but they have a drink here called a "flat white," which is a shot of espresso filled with milk (similar to an americano, but with milk instead of water) Tomorrow is checking out the town, explore a bit and see what happens!... read more

We didn't have long in Brisbane so after the bus tour we thought we'd do a museum - but they closed on Mondays! So we went to a very pretty park for some lunch and a nice lady gave us a little tour which we enjoyed. Brisbane seemed a very pleasant city but unremarkable, known for Castlemaine XXXX. Our train, 'The Spirit of Queensland' left in the afternoon and took 15 hours to get to Proserpine. We were in the first class section so we had lovely big seats with TV which then made into a bed at night - just like airline business class. They brought our food to us as well so we were comfy and well looked after and saw plenty of kangaroos on this trip. Proserpine is just over half way to ... read more

Yes in true Top Gear challenge fashion, I have found the two greatest driving roads in the Australia, at least. Not in a Ferrari, Lamborghini or Aston Martin, but a knackered ten year old Ford Futra stationwagon, with the most dim-witted automatic gearbox possible. From humble beginnings etc... From our rest-stop at Saunders bins, we continued north up past Cairns, to the only free campsite in north Queensland called Rifle Creek. To get there involves driving up the Captain Cook Highway as far as Port Douglas, but the fun bit is the 28km of World Heritage section of the highway. It combines the tight twists and turns with the most stunning coastline you can imagine, twice as good at sunset. The second amazing road was the mountain road from Port Douglas to Rifle Creek. It's mainly ... read more

Alarm went off at 06:00 and was straight in the shower bleary eyed. Tea and remainder of the bananas and on the road for 07:10 Warm Melbourne day even then at 22 degrees and and saw dawn over the M80 airport road just before the queues! Was sweating a bit but the queue didn't last long and had dropped off the car by 08:15. Security was quick so had time for a big brekkie large muffin to share between us with coffee. The flight to Cairns with lunch passed quickly and gained an hour in time difference (Queensland has no Summer Time). As we stepped off the plane the humidity and heat hit us. Was sweating properly when we collected and loaded the hire car - another upgrade - thanks Europcar. The dashboard said 33 degrees ... read more