Wednesday, 7th March 2018
Yesterday evening we finally made it to the campsite outside Cairns – just in time before closing! The last part of the drive was really scary as we had sheets of rain coming down and visibility was next to nothing.
As it was raining so much, we decided to get our meal ready at the camp kitchen where other campers were also preparing their dinner – well I prepared my famous vegetable pasta with feta cheese and it just tasted great. Sat around a while and watched the rain while enjoying our glass of wine – the mountain at the back of the campsite kept disappearing in the rain. And then finally after washing up , we sprinted towards the camper van – the lawns were just like swamps – we sank deep into the slosh!!
Well we woke up and the rain had ceased somewhat, so we left the campsite and made our way to downtown Cairns – it would have been prettier in the sun – the long esplanade along the coastline; a manmade lagoon for swimming without any stingers around; loads of restaurants and shops along the esplanade and the harbour with all the boats that drove to the barrier reef .
By the time we had reached the harbour on foot, it started raining again and this time with strong winds blowing – a real mini cyclone Cairns!
It lasted for about 30 minutes and then it was back to a drizzle. We made our way back to McDonalds so that I could send off some emails and touch base with my social media and blog. At the same time, Gerry went looking for a trip to the barrier reef so he could go diving and after some time came back with some really good suggestions.
We both went to get more information from the tour agency – next door to Mcdonalds and decided on a trip the following morning. W had to be a the harbour very early – 7 am – and as our campsite was a good hour away from town, we thought we would stay in town. Then the tour agent suggested that we could leave our camper van on the parking area in front of the lagoon ( where we had actually parked) and as all the amenities are available we cold spend the night there as well and won’t have to get up eve so early to get to the harbour. Gerry was in for this – but I was somewhat hesitant – luckily there were other camper vans parked for the night too so we wouldn’t be exactly on our own.
Anyway we walked around and took in the – grey – sights – the lagoon now was full with people doing aqua gym to music and instructors dancing away the paces on a stage. We also aw a long line of Asian kids walking along the esplanade – all perfectly in rows – we wondered where they were off too and so disciplined!!
There are also BBQ areas where others were preparing their BBQ’d fish – the tide was out and various birds were digging into the sand for worms and other grub; a big pelican was just hanging around, just watching! By the time we had walked quite a bit, we were quite hungry and chose an Italian restaurant for dinner – Villa Romana – where Gerry had his Surf and Turf and i enjoyed a pasta frutti di mare – deliciozo!!!
After dinner, we walked a bit and found an indoor night market – lots of Aussie stuff here and it was fun looking around – Gerry got himself a real Aussie hat made of kangaroo leather and I got some small trinkets for back home!
And then back to the camper for a good night’s sleep and prepare ourselves for an early start tomorrow – it’s going to be a big day on the Great Barrier Reef!
