Soggy Tablelands

Saturday, 27th July

Trinity Inlet with water and sand - and crocodile warning

Sleepy spoonbills

Wide awake pelican

The Navy is back in town (not that they really left!)

Misty Lake Barrine

Morning tea

A walk in the jungle

Kauri canopy

Johnstone River

Muddy Nerada tea

I had a rude awakening early yesterday morning when Himself “was being attacked by a bird” and kicked out hard – only it wasn’t a feathered bird that he connected with; the bruise is definite proof! I’m not sure whether to invest in a new caravan with single beds or a roll of duct tape.

After another “mothering” attempt, we headed for the boys’ toy shop, Masters, and their heater specials. With panel heaters on sale for $39, the opportunity to replace the broken panel heater at home was too good to refuse (plenty of room under the bed as we don’t have to carry novels this year, thanks to Kindle). The poor salesman couldn’t understand why we would want to buy a heater in Cairns (probably why they were on sale) and it was just too much for him when we said we were taking it home to Tasmania.

Next stop was Rusty’s Market to stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables for the coming week, before heading to the Esplanade for a stroll – not forgetting the ice cream! As we passed the RSL, we noticed that their renovations had been completed so decided to treat ourselves to lunch. The stroll back to our vehicle was at a much slower pace! We even stopped for a while and watched the HMAS Choule as it sailed into the harbour.  The Cairns Council have been bringing in sand and forming a small beach along the edge of the mudflats – it looks very nice when the tides is in! Crocodile footprints will probably be more easily seen, too.

The rain returned overnight! We had arranged some days ago that we would take James and Maureen with us to the Yungaburra Market, which is only held once a month. Thinking (hoping!!!) that the weather would be better on the Atherton Tableland, we set off nice and early and quickly climbed into thick cloud. The cloud turned into rain once we reached Kuranda and continued on and off – mainly on – until we reached Yungaburra. There were lots of people and lots of stalls, lots of mud and lots of puddles. We huddled under our umbrellas underneath a tree for ten minutes, took a democratic vote, which was passed unanimously, returned to the vehicle and headed to the tea rooms at Lake Barrine for a late morning Devonshire tea. During a break in the weather, we had a quick walk to the kauri trees, dodged the muddy puddles and returned to the car. We were lucky to have a Ulysses butterfly fluttering around the car for some time while we tried to decide where to visit next. Such a pity they wont fly slowly or sit still with their wings open – it would be lovely to actually get a photo. Our next stop was at the Nerada Tea Plantation for a quick tour of their information centre and gift shop; the rain continued. As James had been wingeing all day about wanting an ice cream from a new place new Mareeba, we finally gave in and stopped on our way back to Cairns. Although the ice cream was reasonable, we all agreed that it wasn’t a rival for our favourite Movenpick. As we were returning to Cairns, we suddenly realised we had forgotten to visit the Avenue of Honour, which had just been opened at Yungaburra! We all blamed the weather.