Tanks for the Experience Cairns

Here we go again lovely readers, time to read some more about our exploits in tropical Queensland.
We have now decamped from Palm Cove and located ourselves in central Cairns since Bec has some work to do here. However, Lucy and I don’t have any work to do except explore the region. Woohoo!
Sunday didn’t offer much in the way of exploration. After checking in to the hotel it was pretty much time for Bec to go and do some work, and for Lucy and I to find somewhere to eat. This we did with relative ease and even found time act like magpies and swoop around stuff that had been illuminated by colourful lighting.
Monday was a big day and involved driving through the mountain sized hills that flank one side of Cairns in order to travel inland to a small town called Atherton. Why Atherton? It had a crystal cave. Simple as that.
The drive to Atherton was jaw-droppingly amazeballs. The road climbed at crazy angles and twisted like the shoelaces on a four year old boy’s shoe. For thirty odd kilometers we navigated this breathtaking road. One for Top Gear? Yep! Eventually the road settled down and led us to Atherton. Within a few minutes of hightailing it out of the car we had paid the entrance fee, donned our miner’s hats and tried very hard to listen to some instructions. Unfortunately the Crystal Caves were all a mock up and not subterranean in any way, shape or form. This man made cave system was developed to exhibit one man’s life-time collection of crystals. However, this gentleman didn’t want his collection displayed in the usual, museum like, fashion. Hence the man made cave format, and in fairness it was done pretty well. There were dimly lit areas that required the use of the light on your miner’s hat, plenty of places to hit your head, tight passageways to navigate, crawlspaces to, erm, crawl through as well as a stack load of crystals to admire; and admire them we did since they came in so many colours, shapes, sizes and forms. It wasn’t what we expected but it didn’t disappoint. The planet can produce some amazing material and it’s easy to see why people collect this stuff.
After a quick look around a very small town, and devouring a cake and milkshake, we loaded ourselves in to the car and journeyed home.
Our drive back to Cairns was via a different route and would bring us out near the Skytrain cable car attraction we had been on earlier in the week, but it also brought us out by a museum I had earmarked for visiting at a later date; and that later date was upon us.
The museum in question was The Australian Armoury & Artillery Museum (every boy’s dream destination). A place dedicated to the machinery of ground based warfare from conflicts of the past. However, this place wasn’t about glorifying warfare since there isn’t anything glorious about it, instead this museum was about giving people the opportunity to come face-to-face with the man made mechanical beasts that played / play a massive part in human conflicts.
The collection was impressive too and stimulated a lot of thought into what the exhibits had been involved in. Some still displayed the ravages of war, whilst others were pristine replicas of man’s penchant for warmongering. Tanks, half-tracks, mortars, howitzers, artillery shells, flack cannons and anti-tank guns of all different ages, colours and sizes filled the museum’s bright, spacious and pristine display space. It was a time stealer and a joy to walk around and if I could’ve skipped around it I would have. Marvelling at these metal monsters was fascinating but had to come to an end. The time to leave for our hotel had come around. Our bellies were politely informing us it was time to consider sustenance of a different variety since food for the eyes isn’t always enough to get you through the day.
Bye for now.

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(Palm) Co-ver and Nearly Out

Hello again readers.
Today we Cassons had a day of unplanned mirth and merriment whilst enjoying some stunning scenery and wildlife.
Originally we had planned to go on a 10km, three- stage cable car ride above some of the local tropical rainforest followed by a scenic rail journey down through the rainforest, ending our journey pretty much where it began: the cable car station. However, along the way we discovered that we would be within walking distance of a couple of attractions we had earmarked for another day: Butterfly World and Bird World.
After a short drive from our apartment we found ourselves at one end of the cable car ride. Check in was simple and it wasn’t too long before we were in our upgraded cable car (the upgrade meant the car had a glass floor, wonderful for getting a birdseye view of the flora). Along the way there were two stop-off stations that had walkways to lookouts. These were beautifully done and led to some stunning views of this gorgeous region. The end of the ride left us in the town of Kuranda.
With nearly three hours to chip away at before our scenic train ride departed we decided to hop on a free courtesy bus and head off to Butterfly World / Bird World.
Both of the aforementioned attractions were of an enclosed nature that featured uncaged, free-flying wildlife. This wasn’t too much of an issue in when it came to butterflies, and having them land on you was mesmerising, blissful and even Heaven like. However, moving in to Bird World and having their free-flying exhibits land on ya was a different experience entirely. The biggest difference, of course, was down to what I call the ‘claw factor’ (butterflies have a claw factor of 0/10), tropical birds have a claw factor of 7/10). So, butterflies landing and resting on your head wasn’t a problem. Long clawed tropical birds landing and resting on your head was a totally ball game. Needless to say there were more squeals, screams, shrieks and wails in Bird World than there were in Butterfly World. However, both places were a real pleasure to visit.
The next port of call was a restaurant for a well earned lunch before walking to Kuranda’s train station to catch the scenic train. Like the cable car ride we had paid a bit extra and upgraded to a Gold Class experience. Unlike the cable car ride there was no glass floor, just comfy armchairs, free drinks, free finger food and some arresting visuals. Glorious stuff. This was one of those journeys and experiences that lasts much, much longer than their physical duration. A must do if you ever come this way.
Our journey’s end was neatly tied off with a coach trip back to the car park where our day began.
However, there was one more unplanned detour on the way back to our apartment. As we drove past a large field we noticed a lot of smallish shapes in it. Upon closer examination we realised the shapes were wallabies, and a lot of them.
So we steered the car in their general direction, parked where we weren’t allowed, locked the car and walked hastily to where the wallabies were. They watched us as attentively as we watched them but they weren’t marvelling at us as much as we were them. A few pictures were taken (by us, wallabies haven’t mastered the art of photography) before securing ourselves in our car for the five minute journey back to Palm Cove.
Day two in Queensland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jam-packed . . . . . . . . . . . . and . . . . . . . . . . . . done.
Bye for now.

Cairn(s) You Believe It

Hello Readers.

Time for an update, albeit a short one. Today we Cassons find ourselves in Palm Cove, Queensland. We have journeyed north for Bec’s work since she has some stuff to attend in Cairns from Sunday through to Tuesday. So we decided it would be a good opportunity to have a short(ish) family break either side of Bec’s work commitments to explore some of this tropical region’s attractions.

Today was all about getting here. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. We all got up on time, the trip to the airport was uneventful, parking was a cinch and queuing to check-in wasn’t that bad. The plane ride was just over two hours and followed by a thirty-five minute car drive to our accommodation in Palm Cove.

After checking in and unpacking we took a leisurely stroll along a very windy coastline to look for somewhere selling tasty vittles (which we eventually did and was served by a young woman from Ayr in Scotland).

A stroll back to our apartment via an ice-cream parlour rounded off the evening, and our first day in Palm Cove.

Lovely (like the two pale ales I had with my dinner)!

Laters.