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Hello hello hello!! I’m baaaaccckkkkkk!!!
There has been lots happening - so thought it was time to put another post up. I am still in Cairns ... in enemy territory for tonights State of Origin match. Am not too confident I must say ... so I have decided to lock myself away in a (free) cabin tonight ... if for no other reason, than for my own safety!
So whats been happening? Yesterday I took the drive up to Cape Tribulation. That place is gorgeous! I had been trying to get in contact with a former employee of mine who now works at Cape Trib, the one and only Jessica “Fingerbun” Banks, however despite numerous messages, and attempts to call her, I had not had any success. So off to Cape Trib I went. The drive to Cape Trib takes in the spectacular coast road up to Port Douglas, followed by the Daintree River crossing. The Daintree River is reported to be crocodile infested, however I failed to see any of them on my crossing. Once across, I took the drive up to the Cape, and spent a good hour to and an hour and a half enjoying a
nice walk along the beach. Let me tell you a little about Cape Trib. You may have heard that Cairns is the place that the “rainforest meets the reef”. It’s not. Cape Trib is that place. The area is unspoilt, completely natural. You look one way and see mountains reaching into the clouds. You look the other way and you see unspoilt mangroves. You turn again and you see beautiful blue water. I could have honestly spent the rest of the day there. But I had places to go .... Cooktown. Cape Tribulation is also characterised by several rather amusing road signs, of which I have included some pics. This first is a “defaced” Cassowary road sign which is very effective in its outcome. The second is a warning regarding some very slow wildlife ... thank God I did not get stuck behind them as they were crossing ... I would have been there for hours!
The road to Cooktown from Cape Tribulation is 4WD only. I had done the Bloomfield Track once before on my last trip, and as I recall it was a harrowing drive. The JGG was up for the challenge again however. The difference on
this trip was that is was now the dry season. I did my last trip in the wet - surely the road was better in the dry ...???
There certainly were more 4WD’s doing the trip at this time of year. I followed a convoy of NSW registered 4WD’s for most of the track. The track is dusty, includes a number of water crossings, climbs over several mountain ranges (over which you can very much hear the engine straining to climb the steep terrains), and negotiations over several washouts. It was fun! And besides getting very bloody dirty, the JGG had no problems at all getting through to the end.
Cooktown is about 25kms from the end of the Bloomfield Track. It was getting rather late by the time I had got to this stage, and I had to get back to Cairns, however being so close to Cooktown, I had to complete the trip - so I decided to drive this last stretch. There is not much at Cooktown, but it is picturesque. LPG gas is also bloody expensive ... the most I have paid all trip ... 102.9c/L. This compares to the 63.9c/L I was paying
in Sydney just over a month ago. The trip back to Cairns was not via the Bloomfield Track, but back over the Tablelands to the west of the Daintree. This is a longer route, but totally sealed. In hindsight, the Bloomfield was a tamer drive! However, this was mostly due to the fact that I left Cooktown at 5pm ... having a 350km drive back to Cairns ahead of me. Oh well. Despite many many cattle on the road (two of whom were locking horns in the middle of the road!) and a sizeable stonechip in the windscreen of the JGG thanks to a passing road train, I made it back to Cairns at just before 9pm that night.
Now Cape Trib, and much of the road between Cooktown and Cairns is out of mobile range. So you can imagine my surprise when I received a voice mail message on my return to Cairns from none other than ... Jessica Banks! Timing is everything .... I had been within metres of her during the day and as luck would have it we missed each other. Well I could not come all this way and not catch up with Jess
... so today I did the trek back up to Cape Trib to catch up with Jess and her boyfriend at PK’s. We spent a good few hours together, and it was great catching up. Jess knows EVERYONE at Cape Trib. Any person that walked past, Jess would call out “Hi Mary”, or “Hi Jeff”. But there were a couple of people I knew that Jess didn’t .... the dutch! Would you believe that our paths crossed again at Cape Trib. I’m not sure Jess and Graham (I hope I spelled that right) could believe their eyes when I was off calling out to some strangers.
Tonight I am in my own cabin back in Cairns. Its the Decider in State of Origin 3 .... and not being overly confident (please let me be wrong!), I thought it would be safer this way. Good choice it seems, as due to some maintenance problems in the park, I ended up getting a full refund for tonights accommodation. Being an Unemployed Bum, a $69 saving is music to my ears!
Enjoy the pics .... and GO THE BLUES!!!
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Alissa
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Jess
Typical Jess! Always eating.