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Published: July 19th 2006
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Palm Cove Beach
Ignore the colour of the sea Having been delayed by the weather on our sailing adventure we really needed to get to Palm Cove to sort that little wedding thing we have on. We are going to drive from Airlie Beach to Palm Cove in one go - definitely. We head off early and quickly get back on the Bruce Highway. A few kms up the road we come across yet another Big Thing. A big what? is the question. It was a kind of crooked egg shape and painted in greens and reds. We decided it was a mango, but with all the trying to guess we didn’t get a photo. Our guidebook later confirmed our suspicions. Perhaps we should read it in advance?
The road was long as usual and we had to press on, but I had a pressing call of nature. The rest stops can be far apart so I was glad to see a public loo sign come up in a town called Home Hill. We entered the town and started to look for the toilets from the road. Eventually we saw the centrepiece of the town - a huge modern building looking quite out of place in a small town
Double Island
A pretty backdrop like this. It was called the Comfort Zone. Forgetting my immediate needs I had to investigate. It turned out that it was actually the public toilet! How’s that - the facilities and the tourist attraction in one!
But we must press on, so onward to Townsville. We were going to stay a couple of days here, but we decided to check it out on the way back south. All we need is something to eat so we head off the highway into the suburban shopping centre. It’s closed. Hang on, it’s a Monday afternoon? Even the supermarket was shut. Then we remembered it was a public holiday - the Queen’s Birthday no less. But why is everything shut? Surely it is a prime shopping day and even the supermarkets are closed!!! If the supermarkets in the UK closed just because it was the Queen’s Birthday there would be riots! We managed to find a bakery open and bought a pasty and moved on. We have to get to Palm Cove you know.
We next stopped just outside Ingham. One of the great things about driving in Oz is Driver Reviver stops. These are lay-bys where some lovely people (usually the Lions) sit and make free tea and coffee for tired drivers and have a nice chat with you into the bargain. The coffee was a bit suspect but the chat was great (and there were biscuits too!) and we felt revived enough to press on - we have to get to Palm Cove you know,
As we headed north up through Innisfail we started to come across the devastation of Cyclone Larry. This cyclone came through the region, the biggest for 80 years, and caused millions of dollars of damage back in February. Many trees are still waiting to be cleared and many road signs have still to be replaced. There was even a few electricity pylons still down, though power has been restored. One of its biggest casualties was the banana crop where about 90% of Australia’s crop was destroyed. The good news is that the banana trees appeared to be recovering and I believe the new crop should be in the shops by November. At the moment though bananas are almost impossible to get hold of - and when you do they are expensive, as they wont import from abroad due to quarantine restrictions. This has lead to quite a few cases of ‘banana rustling’ along the state borders, so keep ‘em peeled.
Eventually we came to the city of Cairns, but we have no time to see it yet as Palm Cove it about 30 mins drive north. We eventually arrived at about 5pm and headed straight for the campsite. The site was bit rough looking which surprised us, considering how nice the town was. The woman gave Lins a load of grief about staying in a powered site “we only have room for one night - you have to come see me early in the morning to see if we can fit you in longer”. This was a bit of a problem as we don’t book into our hotel for another three days and my Dad was supposed to be staying on the site for the wedding - and they were booked for the rest of the week. This however is tomorrow’s problem. We checked in for the one night and I have to say I’m glad it wasn’t longer. The facilities were the worst I had seen in Australia (make that ever - we’re talking dirty, communal changing rooms for the showers and no sinks in the toilets to wash your hands - ewww) and we were determined to find somewhere better in the morning. We went for a sunset walk along the beach, and a sneaky look at our very nice hotel we will be moving too soon. The sea was disturbingly brown (not ‘azure’ like in our brochure) and churned up by the poor weather, and I can tell Lindsay is getting a bit concerned (OK, more concerned) that all our plans (OK, her plans) are not going to turn out as she wanted.
But apart from that we were in Palm Cove ready for our wedding, although we don‘t have anywhere to stay yet and there is only one campsite in town. We have a long list of stuff to do to prepare, but three days to sort it out. The weather hadn’t improved as we came up the coast, but it has most of the week to get better - which of course it will, right? But why is Lin scratching - are those sandfly bites all up her arms and legs? - OK, they’ll be better by the wedding too - I mean it is four days away right? Right!
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