Cairns and Surrounding Areas

Cairns – Port Douglas - Daintree – Sunday 17 July 2011

Woke to a beautiful day with overnight temps getting down to 19deg, a little similar to Canberra in January but this is July.  We headed off to Port Douglas early to have “Breakfast with the Birds” (feathered kind) at the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary, what a great experience you are in the whole enclosure and all these lovely cockatoo’s and parrots are there as well.  They are all very well behaved and leave you to your breakfast.  We had a tour through the enclosure feeding all the beautiful birds, a must do if you are in the area.



One of our Breakfast friends



Walking thrugh the rainforest enclosure

Somebody kept watching us

Mating Jabirus on their nest

After the morning there we headed for the Port Douglas markets on the beach front, nowhere near as good as earlier markets but Marlene still enjoyed them.  We then headed off up to the Daintree for lunch and a cruise on the Daintree River. 

Our cruise was on the Crocodile Express, we managed to see 3 very big and I must say docile crocs on the river and 2 baby crocs, one 250mm long and the other 600mm long.  They are something of beauty in the wild, and my guess is not so docile if annoyed.




Friendly Croc 1

 


Friendly Croc 2



The Croc Express

On our trip back to Cairns we dropped into the Mosman Gorge, a great boardwalk through the rainforest up to spectacular water falls.  Very busy place but worth it, considering that Mr Whippy Ice Cream van was there making a killing.

Ferns growing in the rainforest

We had left home at 7:30am and arrived back just in time to catch the 6pm news, it was a really good day out.

Cairns – Kuranda – Monday 18 July 2011

Up and going early again to catch a bus to the railway station to board the Historic Kuranda Train, it is a great trip up to the tablelands to visit the village of Kuranda.  The rail trip takes about 1.5hrs, passing through 15 tunnels on the way up. The village is a tourist haven with plenty of market type shops and places to eat. We wandered around looking at all the shops before catching the Skyrail back down the mountain to Cairns.  The skyrail is 7.5km long and travels across the top of the rainforest with 2 stop off points on the way.  It is a great deal of fun, with the opportunity to walk through the rainforest with spectacular views across the mountains and waterfalls.  Back down the bottom by 5:30 and home by 6:30 it was another big day, this is nearly as hard as working!

Train heading across 1 of the many Bridges

Baron Falls

Views across the valley

Skyrail heading down into Cairns

Cairns – Tuesday 19 July 2011

Rest day and clean up and grocery shop day today.  All the washing is up to date and the car and caravan have been washed ready to head off tomorrow.  We went into Cairns city to walk along the Esplanade and have a coffee, it is interesting to see all these people around the swimming pool and lying in the sun, the weather was just fantastic a top of close to 28 – 30deg.   We shopped for groceries and beer then back home to catch up on the paperwork, blog and tax returns.

Cairns Water ront Low Tide

Cairns swimming pool

Our Site in Cairns

Facts about the Trip so Far

We have now been on the road for just over 3 weeks, and yes it does getting tiring even though you are on holidays. 

We have been travelling north since leaving home, it is now time to turn left and head west for the next 6 weeks.

Distance Travelled: 3,994km                        Average Fuel Consumption: 13.9 l/100km

Fuel Used: 555.3litres                     Most Expensive: $1.58                   Average Fuel Cost: $1.50

Hours in the Car: 68:01 hrs