Crystal Cascades

Monday, 29th July

The rain has stopped, the sun is shining, the birds are tweeting …

Sunday was a beautiful morning, so it was time to open the barber shop – only had one client, though, who didn’t pay much! Following a trip to the supermarket, I decided to attempt some biscuits in the turbo/convection oven and was quite pleased with the result, considering I had to guess the weight of the butter. The biscuits have been disappearing, so they must have been okay.

Himself surprised us all this morning!!! After thinking about washing the car for a few hours, he made the momentous decision to actually move it to the car washing area – and turn on the hose. We now have a nice white Pajero again.

Early afternoon saw us taking the air (very humid air, actually) as we strolled the path to the Crystal Cascades, along with a number of other locals and tourists. The Cairns Council are upgrading the area and the path has been resealed since our last visit. There was more water than normal (to us, anyway) cascading over the rocks, with plenty of black bream to be seen in the water, but no turtles. There was also plenty of water running over the track in places, probably due to the recent heavy rain. By the time we returned to the car, I was beginning to feel a blood transfusion may be necessary owing to the large amount of midgies.

The highlight of the afternoon was listening to a concert by Shan Deng on ABC Classical Live – an hour of beautiful music by a talented pianist.

We have had new neighbours move in behind us and, unfortunately, they did not seem to read the paragraph in the park rules which states there will be no noise after 10.00 pm. After listening to them and their visitors talking loudly all evening, at 10.45 pm it was too much for me and they were politely asked to keep their noise down and remember what time it was! Monday morning, I was thanked by a number of others who had also been disturbed.

Monday dawned to a beautiful, clear and warm day – typical of what we expect at Cairns. After complaining for a few days about the drain smell emanating from the wash basin and shower plug holes, a large bottle of bleach was purchased and the sullage hose sealed off. The result, after flushing, was neither pretty nor pleasant smelling! Our sinks now drain much faster, too.

It being such a gorgeous day, we headed into Cairns central after lunch, our main excuse being replacement bathroom scales. After supposedly gaining 3 kg in 3 days, I felt the scales must be faulty; this has been proved by the new ones (phew!). With the US Navy in town this week, the usual backpacker numbers around the Lagoon had increased dramatically.