Gardens and Winnings

Thursday, 30 August 2012

Two sleeps left in Cairns before we start to head south.

Tuesday evening was very profitable – we (one of us, anyway) definitely enjoyed our final evening at the Edge Hill Bowls Club. With some time to spare before the start of the game, we decided to “donate” our three $1 coins to the club’s poker machines. Himself very quickly lost his money but somehow I ended up with five free spins (don’t ask, because I don’t know!) which resulted in a win of over $13. Needless to say, being rank amateurs, we were at a loss as to how to actually get the money out of the machine! Eventually noticed a small button right at the very top which said “Collect.” We now have more coins in the washing machine money box.

The actual bowls game went well, for one of us anyway. I played lead in a pairs combination playing against triples teams and our teamwork was so good we won the evening’s competition – a $30 meat voucher each. Les wasn’t quite so lucky and won the $5 booby prize.

Wednesday morning was spent at the hairdresser – a much needed trim was long overdue. The afternoon was spent having a “holiday,” with the weather being too hot and humid for much activity. To say farewell to Cairns, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner at Barnacle Bill’s Restaurant. A seafood medley and barramundi with prawns didn’t really leave any room for dessert. The balmy evening (25 degrees) added to the enjoyment.

Today we returned to the Botanic Gardens for another wander through the shady gardens – very pleasant, with many more plants in flower than an our previous visit, as well as many Ulysses butterflies flitting about. Cat headed off into the “jungle” looking for adventure, but wasn’t all that happy when he became entangled in the plants.

On our return to the caravan park, we stopped at the Whitfield Butchers to make use of the meat voucher. We now have eight meals tucked away in the freezer.

Tonight we are off to another classical concert, part of the Cairns Festival.

Snakes Alive

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

After all the excitement of seeing so many crocodiles on Saturday, Sunday did seem a little ordinary, but it was hot, though. We did spend a couple (or so) very pleasant hours late in the afternoon (aka happy hour) with Margaret and Chris – the time seemed to fly past very quickly as we shared our on-road experiences.

Monday morning we bid farewell to Margaret and Chris before sitting back in the shade for a while with a book. Les decided to have a walk along Freshwater Creek (this creek runs alongside the caravan park) while I settled for feeding stale break to the sooty grunters (fish) which live under the bridge across the creek. Being a bit sunny, the fish weren’t keen on coming out into the open but were happy to make giant splashes under the low bridge. After about 15 minutes of enjoying the peace, solitude and cool breeze off the water, I spotted an eel disappearing behind the large rocks on the edge of the bank below where I was standing. It was then I realised a head, with forked tongue, had risen from beneath another underwater rock directly below, looked around before sliding across the rock, under another before reappearing further up the bank – all this time the snake remained underwater. Using the internet for reference, it is possible the snake may have been an eastern brown snake but as I had not been the least bit interested in counting and measuring its scales, this is only an assumption. However, it was definitely not a python!

After lunch we drove into the city for a very slow stroll along the foreshore – it is most decidedly too hot to move too fast.

Monday evening we were again treated to a free barbecue by the owners of the caravan park, together with more entertainment from the “old” member of The Aztecs.

Today has been a bit of a laze about day for Les while I enjoyed the morning being pampered. Winter is no more in Cairns.

Daintree River Crocodiles

 Rex Lookout

 Crocodile Express

 Daintree River

 Barratt

 Rusty

Water Dragon

Barratt with a grass hat

 Hibiscus snack

 Lunch

 Lunch?

 Crocodile Wrestling

 Unnamed Crocdile

Baby Crocodiles

Mangrove

Saturday, 25th August, 2012

It’s official – snake season has arrived! Not sure what those dead things on the road/footpath have been, figments of our imagination? It’s also official – winter has ended (as if we hadn’t worked that one out, too).

Saturday dawned clear and hot – just the right conditions for a day in the Daintree. The drive along the coast between Cairns and Port Douglas was just beautiful, being early in the day and the air still being very clear. We had a brief stop at Rex Lookout (a good chance for a photo opportunity) before continuing towards Mossman. As we crossed the Mowbray River, just south of the Port Douglas turn-off, we spotted a large crocodile sunning itself on a mud bank in the middle of the river!

We didn’t stop at Mossman but continued straight on to Daintree Village (or Town). We decided to do a cruise on the Daintree River (and maybe see another crocodile) and were pleased to discover that Crocodile Express have a 12 month pass for free cruises with the purchase of one trip (cost us $20 each). Naturally, we opted for both the Upper Daintree and Lower Daintree cruises in the one day, instead of continuing the drive to Cape Tribulation. The Upper Daintree cruise left from the village and we headed down river (or was it up river?) and hadn’t gone very far before we met Barratt – he was definitely a big crocodile and had a fondness for eating calves if they came too close. Just round the next bend was Rusty, named because of the colour of her tail. We also saw another small crocodile – just a juvenile with a lot of growing to do. We returned to the landing along the opposite bank, keeping an eye out for snakes, but came across a water dragon instead, as well as the odd Ulysses butterfly. We were even offered a snack of native hibiscus – Cat wasn’t very impressed.

After a barramundi lunch, we drove to the ferry crossing to board the Lower Daintree cruise and search for more crocodiles. The boat driver (tour guide) this time informed us he was actually a botanist at James Cook University and he would much prefer to talk about the mangroves than look for crocs – he made the hour cruise last an hour and a half and was so interesting (he knew a lot about crocodiles, too, as well as many, many jokes!). Evidently, JCU (on the edge of world heritage rain forest) doesn’t offer a full botany course, merely subjects associated with the marine biology course. Apart from seeing three crocodiles, the highlight of this cruise was probably the nest of young crocodiles, about eight or nine of them.

Although it was after 4.00 pm when we departed from Daintree, we decided to have a quick drive through Port Douglas on our return to Cairns and can report that Port Douglas hasn’t changed – just as many resorts, coffee shops, bars and boutiques.

Awning

Friday, 24 August 2012

It was a bright and early start for BOTH of us yesterday as we needed to be hitched up and gone from the caravan park by 7.30 am. After such a hot and sticky night, this wasn’t really an issue. At least we didn’t have to worry about packing up our hoses and cords - a gecko hiding in the power box caused a little heart flutter for Les, and the gecko, too, probably

We were actually waiting for the caravan repair man to arrive and work and backed into the yard while he had his morning hit of caffeine and some breakfast. The new awning had already been inspected (three times!) and was ready to be installed as soon as the old one was removed. There were no problems attaching the awning – it slid into the slot without any trouble. We did make a comment that the uprights were the wrong way around, end wise, but were assured they were right. Of course, needless to say, when the nice man came to finish off attaching the uprights – they were on the wrong ends! However, all went well, the holes for the rafters were drilled in the exact positions and we were back on the road again after about 40 minutes and back on site shortly after 9.00 am. It was then we discovered that awnings are now six to nine inches (awnings are measured in imperial) narrower than the older ones.  The Swans flag still looks good.

The day was very hot and sticky and it was a pleasure to sit inside the caravan with the air conditioner going.

After another hot and sticky night, today was even hotter (32 degrees) and very, very humid. Any form of movement causes instant perspiration, but at least the washing dried quickly. A spot of retailing this morning resulted in some new cushions and this afternoon we restocked the frig and fruit bowl after a visit to Rusty’s Market. Bananas continue to be $1.99, tomatoes have risen to $5.99 and big avocadoes are $1.20, Papaya (red paw paw) was only $2.99.

Of course, being so close to the ice cream shop, we felt we should call in and do our bit for the economy. The owner knows us by sight now!

Concert Etc

Wednesday, 22 August 2012

Tuesday continued to be cloudy and humid, with some light showers during the afternoon – not good washing drying weather!

After lunch we decided to take a drive to Yarrabah, on the opposite site of Trinity Inlet – we have never been that way before. It was necessary to go nearly all the way to Gordonvale before turning east and drove through sugar fields, as well as taro and banana plantations, before meeting the sea. This was a rather beautiful section of road as we wound along the coast line, with views across the mangrove swamps towards the city of Cairns. There were some lovely little coves; archetypical tropical living for some lucky locals (not forgetting the crocodile inhabitants!). The road into Yarrabah was very steep (20% gradient) with, again, some spectacular views over the Aboriginal community towards the Coral Sea and Green Island on the horizon.

Tuesday evening we attended a concert by Avan Yu, the winner of the Sydney International Piano Competition. The 24 year old, Hong Kong born Canadian, treated us to a varied programme included Barcarolle Op 60 in F Sharp Major (by Chopin), Fantasy Op 17 in C Major (Schumann), the first six studies of Debussy’s Etudes Premier Livre (and some absolutely fantastic finger work!!!) and Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No 12. Numerous curtain calls resulted in two encores – Debussy and Chopin. Avan could certainly play the piano – he was nearly up to Shan Deng’s standard (unbiased opinion, of course) – and was definitely appreciated by the audience.

Yesterday’s humidity was fairly mild compared to today – very, very sticky. Of course, when it gets hot, the hot go shopping! Grocery shopping isn’t all that exciting, but at least the shopping centre was air conditioned.  Our new awning has arrived again (third time lucky, hopefully), so all the neighbours will get excited and think we are leaving again as we start to take down our screens ready for a very early start tomorrow morning.

Cairns Festival

Monday, 20th August 2012


Saturday evening and it was time for the Cairns Festival Parade – we joined the many thousands heading to the Esplanade with our stools and were lucky enough to find both a parking space for the car and a front row parking space for our stools. The balmy weather added to the enjoyment of the 58 floats entered by many community groups (and there wasn’t one fire engine in the whole parade!). The Japanese community had by far the biggest contingent of participants and floats, but the Chinese did have the dragon and dancing lions – a very close contest. (Unfortunately, a finger malfunction saw all the parade photos deleted from the camera.) The parade took an hour to pass us, then it was a mad dash to the waterfront to claim a front row seat for the fireworks. These were quite spectacular, especially the grand finale. A meal at the RSL was a very pleasant conclusion to the evening’s festivities.

We had planned to play bowls on Sunday afternoon and were quite surprised to find the green covered with players in uniform when we arrived at the club – definitely considerably more than the eight players we were expecting. Leaving the bowls in the car, we headed to the clubhouse to find out what was happening and were met at the gate and literally pleaded with to play. A tour group of New Zealand bowlers had asked to play a social game at Edge Hill and the club desperately needed a few more players. I immediately became an honorary Edge Hill bowler and Les joined the New Zealanders. We were very careful NOT to mention rugby! It was a little strange joining in part way through a game and discovering how different carpet plays during a very hot afternoon. We were even treated to afternoon tea between the two games (and didn’t have to pay green fees because we were “guests” for the day). To make the second game really interesting, the skies opened and we had a tropical downpour! Luckily I had my wet weather gear in my bag but nearly everyone else had to continue as they were – plenty of contestants for a wet t-shirt contest when we finally came off. My rink won our two games but the Kiwis won the day – just! We discovered later that the rain was very localised and confined to the area immediately around the bowls club. At least it was warm rain and not sleet.

Today was cloudy and humid, following a very warm night. A touch of retail therapy was called for this morning, followed by some more news exchanging with Margaret this afternoon.

Don Quixote

Saturday, 18 August 2012

Winter would appear to be officially finished in Cairns – we have had the two hottest days since our arrival and are actually spending more time in the air conditioned caravan than outside. Cat has started shedding again!

Thursday evening I was very pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a classmate from my high school days, as well as a work colleague (say Department, different building) from Devonport – Margaret, together with her husband Chris, arrived at Crystal Cascades after a few months on the road with the new caravan. We spent some time during Friday morning catching up on news of the last six years.

Friday was a fairly quiet day (too hot to do anything energetic), with just the usual everyday activities. However, the evening was spent enjoying a performance of Don Quixote by the Dancers’ Company of the Australian Ballet. This was such an enjoyable (even funny at times) ballet, with Steven Heathcote playing the role of Don Quixote. The two lead dancers were excellent and thoroughly deserved their three curtain calls. Unfortunately, one of the lesser lead males did come a bit of a cropper when he misjudged his landing after a series of jumps and fell flat on his face – he did roll out of the spill very quickly and back onto his feet. This was the first time we had seen this particular ballet and would thoroughly recommend it.

Today is Long Tan Day (or Vietnam Veterans Day), so we headed into central Cairns late this morning for a wander around the weekly market (the stalls were still the same as previous visits) and a spot of lunch before heading to the RSL for the service. Fortunately, we were able to find a shady spot and really felt sorry for the Navy colour parties, in full dress uniform, who had to stand in the full sun.

No new photos, so have included some taken recently at the Cairns Botanic Gardens.

Barron River

Thursday, 16 August 2012

Monday night’s entertainment turned out to be rather enjoyable – the performer was Col Baigent, a member of The Aztecs (Billy Thorpe obviously had a previous engagement). He obviously realised the age of his audience, didn’t turn him amplifiers up too loud, knew when to finish and could actually sing (none of which applied to the previous entertainer!). He is returning tonight for a repeat performance.

Tuesday morning, Cat said a fond farewell to London Bear when his owners left for Port Douglas and Ayers Rock. Tuesday and Wednesday were fairly quiet days – just the usual day to day activities, with bowls on Tuesday evening. We even had some rain on Wednesday but fortunately the temperature didn’t drop. We also had a small (well, quite large really) visitor to the awning late in the afternoon.

Today we headed back to Kuranda in search of the Barron River Boat Cruises. Evidently they have been operating for 27 years but we only learnt about them this week! The boat was very easy to find, being right next to the station. The 45 minutes cruise was just great – the owner/operator had a wonderfully dry sense of humour. We travelled down (or should that be up?) the river as far as the dam, with stops to feed the fish and turtles (with the black ducks doing their best to muscle in), look at the bird life and actually spot two crocodiles – one was sitting on a log and the other swimming along in front of the boat.

While it may have only been about 50 steps down to the river, someone put in extra for us to climb on the way back – at least another 500! We decided to have lunch in the tearooms at the station, which gave Cat the chance for a photo opportunity on the Kuranda Scenic Railway.

The Cairns Festival commenced today and runs for the next fortnight. As part of the festival, artworks are displayed along the Esplanade – known as Esplanart, of course. There were some really interesting and funky works, such as the Reef Circus, Dog Walk, Endangered Circus Performs, Salt Water Immigrants, Cans … Cairns, etc. Our favourite was probably the cans.

It was also nice to see that the spoonbills have now returned to keep the pelicans company in the foreshore mud, although someone seemed to be too busy watching a different species of bird near the lagoon to notice!

Trinity Inlet

Monday, 13th August 2012

Sunday was another typical Cairns day and most of the morning was spent socialising with an English couple on the site next to us (Cat very quickly made friends with London Ted and invited him for a welcoming beverage), with a walk after lunch. Happy Hour seemed to extend to nearly 7.00 pm!

Having heard so much about the Lake Placid Caravan Park, we decided to check it out this morning – we are more than happy with Crystal Cascades Caravan Park and feel we are in the best park in Cairns without a doubt. We also stopped for a look (along with a busload of Japanese tourists) at Lake Placid before driving on to the Barron Gorge and the power station. There isn’t a great deal of water coming through the gorge at this time of the year.

Today we joined James and Maureen for a cruise of Trinity Inlet (Cairns’ harbour) and decided we should all have waffles and ice cream for lunch and forget about the healthy diets for the day. Cat wanted to settle down on a “grass” couch after lunch for a quick snooze, but we convinced him that the boat wouldn’t wait. The two hour cruise was very pleasant and we followed the shoreline past the naval base and some cyclone casualties until we branched off into the mangroves on the hunt for crocodiles. Unfortunately, the crocodiles were feeling a little shy today.

Tonight we are being treated by the park owners to a sausage sizzle and entertainment.