DAY 1

Day 1 was mostly a travel day, we got to the airport at 5:30am for a 7:00am flight, the food was disappointing with both options containing nuts, on another note we found ourselves on the same flight as the Perth Wildcats for their second game in a semi final against the Cairns Tiapans.

This flight took us to Brisbane where we only had half an hour to get off the plane, find our next gate and board the next flight to Cairns, which we made with plenty of time as we followed the red shirts I don’t think the plane was leaving without them!

We arrive in Cairns to a phone call before we even get off the plane from the car hire company asking which flight we were on as she had noticed an incoming flight had been delayed, I said it’s all good we have just landed and will be picking up the car shortly. We picked the car up and headed up to Palm cove, but it wasn’t long until we made a stop at a local shopping centre to get some food as like I said the food on the flights were no good, burgers definitely hit the spot.

We arrive at our accommodation which was Peppers beach club, looks like a very nice place to stay, we have a spa on the balcony and it overlooks one of the pools which has sand and is set up to look like a beach. About half and hour after arriving our friends Nicola, Kane and Issy also arrive after their 8 hour drive up from Airlie beach and check in. The rest of the night involves having a quick walk along the beach front and finding somewhere to eat which was a pub called Apres.

Day 2 was a bit of a recovery and local expedition day to find out what is local and look for some good tours to book, after a bit of shopping in which Kelly bought a new swim top we all headed to the pool to cool down and relax for the rest of the day however Kane’s assessment of the pool is that it was too warm to be refreshing but enjoyed the swim nevertheless.

That night we gave Kane his birthday present for his birthday which was the week prior, a card which said something along the lines of ‘made to disbehave’, an Eagles premiership mug and a carton of Great Nothern Beer for us to share on the trip.

For dinner we went to the surf club and I got Pork Belly which was the Sunday night special, thumbs up for this meal for sure.

Day 3

Kane took us for a drive to Port Douglas, on the way we stopped at a place called Rex lookout, the views from this place were amazing and well worth getting the camera out. Our next stop was at a national park called Mossman gauge, the signs as we paid to go in told us about renovations happening to a couple of trails which was a bit of a bummer but what we got to see was still pretty amazing, getting my first taste to see what it’s like to walk through a proper rainforest, there were also signs advising no swimming in the streams also but as we stopped along one of the banks we found 2 couples swimming with music playing so we took the opportunity to also at least dip our feet in. Issy got to have a bit of a swim in the water so clear you could see plenty of fish but as she is a baby didn’t go far and was completely safe, the rest of us enjoyed the serenity with the runnning water and other peoples music playing in the background it was really quite peaceful but eventually had to move on and catch the bus back to the beginning.

We continued on to Port Douglas just in time for lunch so we walked around for a little bit looking for somewhere to eat until we found a pub which I don’t remember the name for a pub lunch. After lunch we walked up and down the main strip and did some shopping but really couldn’t find much we wanted to buy.

The trip back Kane showed us some other sights of Port Douglas like another scenic lookout and the marina. I noticed on the drive back how windy and scenic the roads were up here but I was later to find out that was nothing compared to some of the later roads I had to drive. When we got back we had another swim in the pool which would become a feature of our afternoons with Nik, Kane and Issy. Dinner that night Kelly and I went back to the surf club to make the most of a 2 for 1 dinner deal, I went the pork belly again because it was so good the first time but it was not as good unfortunately. Kelly has the risotto and said it was quite good.

Day 4 I got up stupid early and sat on the balcony to catch up with some paper work and e mail my boss a list of things I didn’t get to finish before I left. We were booked for a train ride up to a town called Kuranda then a ride on the sky rail over the rainforest back to where we started, it started as a bit of a shambles because Kelly and I put the address in our GPS but it ended up taking us to a nearby estate and telling us to get out and walk the rest of the way! Once we figured it out after some marriage bonding words we finally got to the sky rail car park.

After a short wait we caught a bus transfer to Smithfield to catch a train up to Kuranda, my initial thoughts were this was merely a way of getting up to be able to get to the Sky rail, but I couldn’t have been more wrong, this railway was built more than 100 years ago on the side of this mountain with stunning veiws in what must of been hellish conditions for the workers, in which around 30 people died building this railway, one section was a bridge over a gorge and next to a waterfall that you felt you could reach out and touch. The train stops at a lookout over Barron gorge with some of the most spectacular views and some epic drops.

Getting off in Kuranda after an hour and a half long train ride the days activities were already a little too much for Issy as she fell asleep in her pram but had to sleep on my shoulder for a bus transfer to the town centre as Kane had to get the pram on the bus.

We stopped at a marketplace first of all and one stall had a mesmerizing outdoor hanging ornament that I really liked for $50 (no thanks!) in this marketplace attached was a mini zoo that you could get photos with koalas, Kelly and I went in and got a photo and looked at the other animals but Nik and Kane had Issy asleep so they walked around the town while untill we were done.

Once we caught up with them they showed us around town a bit from what they had seen, I bought a bag of some really nice lollies that a store make, really sweet and chewy, we looked for somewhere to eat and found a crepé cafe, the crepé I had was delicious and Kelly and Nik made us jealous with their choice of chocolate drinks I can’t remember what they were but looked really nice, towards the end of eating Issy decided to wake from her sleep after about 2 and a half hours.As we left the cafe we saw a decent sized spider in web right by where diners were eating.

We made our way back to the sky rail for our journey back, stopping in this little alley with a few smaller shops that had some riskay paintings,we got to sky rail entrance with crossed fingers we didn’t have to deal with the pram being in the same car as us and also didn’t want to split up but luckily they let us put the pram on the rail car behind us.

The sky rail was an amazing experience (if you’re not afraid of heights) taking you way above the trees that have been growing for thousands of years, there are two stops, the first one has a little educational building and another amazing veiw over Barron gorge that has a see through platform making it feel like you are walking hundreds of metres off the ground, we noticed people swimming in a little natural pond under one of the waterfalls in the distance, I have no idea how they got there but it didn’t look safe. The second stop was at a platform in the middle of the rainforest where we got a little guided tour in a group that diminished into just us after everyone else left,we felt like we should hear her out as it didn’t seam like she going to stop talking anyway.

Just when I thought the views from the sky rail couldn’t get any better at the end of the ride you come down the side of mountain and the veiw of the ocean and surrounding raintree mountains topped all other views as captured in my photos, as we arrived at the last stop there was an automated tourist photo taken of us all, we had a laugh when the picture of the pram in the car after us came on the screen.We went through the gift shop and I bought a spoon for Mum and a couple of fridge magnets.

That afternoon when we returned I noticed the cleaners had stolen a shopping bag with plastic bottles we were saving for Nik and Kane 😡 then we went for another swim as per usual and had dinner at the resorts restaurant called lime and pepper, Nik had a bowl of prawns and Kane and I had a meat brisket dish from memory. Nik Kane and Issy surprised Kelly with her birthday present a few days early as they were leaving before her birthday, an hour massage at a hotel around the corner and a friendship card pack.

Day 5 I had a little sleep in to recover from getting up early yesterday morning, we met for breakfast and decided we would head into cairns for the day until the massage for the girls.

Kane dropped Nik at the shops to get her nails done and we met at the Cairns esplanade, we were hoping to have a swim at the pool but it was closed so we walked up the beach till we found a little kids water playground. Issy loved playing in the little water jets and even met a couple of friends.

Once we were cooled off we started a walk back to the shops to pick Nik up and we had to stop at an ice cream shop that had some interesting flavors, Kelly really wanted to try the Kinder bueno flavour so we stopped for an ice cream. It was a decent walk to the shops and when we got there they hadn’t finished Nicola’s nails yet so as we waited I bought a couple more fridge magnets.

Once Nicola was finished we started the long walk back through Cairns to the cars and were pushing it for time to get back in time for the massage, with maps telling us our arrival time was bang on 2 o’clock, since the voucher was still in our room I dropped Kelly off, went to get the voucher then dropped it off after they had gotten started, I went back to our room and had a rest untill it was time to pick Kelly and Nik up. Kelly loved the massage!

After picking them up we headed down to the pool bar and got a drink, Kane came down just before they closed and got a free drink! I got us a snack packet of chips for the pool which Issy had a huge interest in as you will see in the photo, they didn’t go down too well with her though and she coughed some up after putting too many in her mouth.

This was Nik Kane and Issy’s last night before they head home and Kelly decided some fish and chips on the beach would be really nice, so we set up a blanket and drinks on the grass bank, Nik and I went to the fish and chip some to order but smelt the Italian restaurant as we walked past and commented how good it smelt, we ordered and ate by the beach, perhaps we should have had the Italian because the fish and chips was a bit of a fail.

We finished the night the same way we had a couple of other nights with a few beers up at Nik and Kane’s room watching Survivor and watching to see if Issy was going to walk yet, she threatened so many times.

Day 6 had a sad start as our friends left for a long drive home, after breakfast we helped them pack and then they were on their way, it would have been nice to spend a bit more time with them but all things come to an end.

Today we went for a drive to visit Hartleys crocodile farm, the morning started with a boat ride in one of their croc infested man made lake that stops every now and then for the captain to feed some snappy crocs and give us a bit of information about the reptiles.

Next we made our way to a demonstration at the mini amphitheater with, you guessed it, more crocodiles, this included more feeding and information on how a couple of the resident crocs came to be at the farm, like Douglas who was brought in after being found at a Port Douglas golf course and Tin Tin who was found trying to break into the enclosure so the farm called the government and got permission to bring it in, one last story was about a croc from palm cove where we were staying used to be a resident on the beach which everyone knew about, but this one lady thought we was a statue and decide to give him a little kick to make sure (she found out the answer but also needed a fair few stitches for her troubles) and the croc got brought into the farm to live. This part ended with some people that paid a bit extra got to feed some of the freshwater crocodiles.

We had some lunch next at the restaurant with a deck by the croc infested lake, afterwards we made our way to the tour of the farm, Massive man made concrete lakes full of salt water crocodiles. We learned about the history and regulation of croc farming plus what they use them for and how much it is all worth (spoiler alert a croc skin handbag is worth upwards of 3 grand) so you can understand the money these farms can generate.

There was so much more to see, we had a couple of hours before the next demonstration so we browsed and saw all the other animal attractions they had, my favorite was the birds of prey walk through which Kelly didn’t join me on because of her irrational fear of birds, you will see the photo of a kookaburra having a bath in the photos.

The next demonstration was a lady showing off a few venomous snakes and explaining how dangerous their venom is, during this show it got to me how hot it was this day so we left towards the end to get a drink, there was a show after that involved demonstrating how powerful the crocodiles are, we wanted to get back for that but had to stop for a photo with a baby saltwater croc from the farm (which one day will probably be a handbag!)

We caught the start of the other show featuring Hagrid the crocodile and the handler was feeding him from the shoreline with no shoes on which looked very ballsy! They showed how they do a death roll also but what was amazing for me was the sound of the jaws snapping shows how powerful they really are. On the way out we thought it would be funny to buy Aaron a crocodile g string!

For dinner we booked in to go to an Aboriginal cultural night at a place called Tjapukai, the dinner was a sensational buffet meal probably the best meal of the trip, after dinner an Aboriginal man did a bit of a didgeridoo show. We then got taken outside for a smoke welcome ceremony where they gave us sticks to make tunes, painted our faces and sung while 2 volunteers got to rub sticks together to make a fire, once the fire was started the lights went out and they surprised us by flinging a stick that was on fire across the river which then set off a massive gas explosion and was quite spectacular.

The night finished with a cultural dance show in an amphitheater with the opportunity to have photos with the cast afterwards, I thought the night was very good and Kelly even said it was the best event on the trip but compared to Fiji I think the Fijians do cultural shows a lot better.

Day 7 was an exciting day as we would get to visit the Great Barrier Reef again although this time it was a lot further north. We had to be at Port Douglas marina at 7am, with Port Douglas being a 40 minute drive from our resort it was a very early start.

We got to breakfast when it opened at 6 but the blessing was getting to see a lovely sunrise, after a quick feed we were on our way, by the time we got there we were the first so had to wait on the deck, I noticed a group of 5 English tourists around thier early 40s with the same towels from our resort which is what caught my eye but I was later to find the reason for their visit which I’ll explain a little later.

After everyone had arrived we got taken to the boat and I was impressed that the staff would look at you and give you a stinger suit, then you go upstairs and someone up there gives you a snorkel and flipper, the impressive part is how good they guess everyone’s size, mine fit perfectly and so did everyone else’s.

So after a safety brief while the boat was heading out once we were in open water the 2 guides who later tell us they are marine biologists go round to chat everyone about any medical conditions they have and make sure you can swim (pretty important given what we were about to do!). When the female biologist talked to the Eshlish guys I was talking about earlier, I overheard them talking to her and heard them saying that one of their friends had cancer and they all chipped in to take him around the world to tick off bucket list things he had which I thought was really nice.

As this boat went for nearly 2 hours (it’s a long way out you can’t even see land!) the male marine biologist takes this chance to give you a few tips about how to get the best out of your day, to summerise he explains that if you try and see too much of the reef at once you won’t see as much because the wildlife see you and hide, but if you take your time give them a chance to realize you aren’t a threat everything will come out and also he said that they find the whites in our eyes as freaky. Kelly also got called up to demonstrate being a turtle so he could show the best way to approach one.

The next thing he wanted to talk about was about any fears people had, when he asked around the responses were jellyfish, stingrays and sharks. These were what he described as the most common. He explained first the box jellyfish although can kill in hours is a very shy creature and will shoot off and get out of your way before you even see it (so evasive that they find it hard to get a hold of one to study) people only get stung if they are cornered in a river system and can’t escape they have nowhere to go.

Stingrays he explained are only an anxiety brought on by the death of Steve Irwin and he assured us that they live on the sandy floor and only sting if you stand on one which is very unlikely, so the last is the shark which he explained they don’t actually want to eat us, they sence our strong magnetic field and are very smart creatures that won’t eat all of its food sources because why would you eat your only source at once to extinction, so basically contrary to the beliefs in films, they only attack sick seals or easy pickings, he also says humans are the only species to hunt our food to extinction. So the only people that get attaked by sharks are surfers because when they paddle on their board only the arms are in water so they only sence a weak magnetic field and look like a seal, and a weak magnetic feild means you are a sick seal, the other people sharks attack are spear fisherman who dive down and clip dead bleeding fish to their belt in which he said him and his biologist friends like to call them ‘natural selection’.

We reach the first reef and head into the water I tried to kind of follow the marine biologist because he seamed to know the best places to go since he probably snorkels here every day, this was my downfall as I lost Kelly and she went on to see a turtle so I learned a bit of a lesson there, other things of note I saw this snorkel was a white tipped reef shark and a stingray, plus plenty of amazing coral and other fish.

At the second reef before we got in the water the male biologist said we are going to split you into 2 groups, whoever wants to see what is really happening with the coral and learn what a healthy coral really is and what is not, come with me and I warn it will be confronting, If you are snowflake and want to bury your head in the sand go with the female and she can take you on a more light hearted tour.

Being the person I am wanting to learn as much about things as much as I can, we went in the hardcore tour, on this tour he showed us that all the colourful flourecant coral which there was a lot of are actually stressed and if the temperature didn’t cool soon it would bleach and eventually die, healthy coral isn’t actually too colourful is is mainly brown or a pascally purple colour. The confrontating facts he gave us was that over two periods during 2016 and 2017 about half of the worlds coral had died, and its due to the rise in sea temperature and the government is not doing enough to stop climate change.

Lunch was served on the trip to the last reef, only rolls, salad, tea and coffee while upstairs the girl biologist talked to us about different fish species, the last reef we saw another shark, anename with 3 clownfish in it and also got our photo taken.

I felt that this visit was soo much better than the last time we went to the barrier reef on our honeymoon, last time was a lot more commercialized where you have a lot more people and you just basically get thrown in to snorkel for an hour then get out, I recommend wavelength cruises as it has a lot less people and you learn a lot more about what you are seeing plus you get to see more due to the tips given on the way out.

That night we went to the Italian restaurant that smelt so good to Nik and I a couple of nights before, we shared garlic bread and a pizza with prawns on it.

Today we planned to go driving and discover regional far North Queensland with intention to see waterfalls and a bit more rainforest. I did a bit of research and planned a journey for us that would take up most of the day.

First we drove past Cairns and headed a little more south untill we got to Gillies highway, this is the most picturesque windy road that heads up the mountain to the Atherton tablelands, it’s probably the most dangerous road I’ve even driven and played on my anxiety a bit as one missed turn you could be rolling down the mountain plus Kelly was getting a bit of car sickness but it was the most stunning views I’ve ever seen while driving.

Our first stop was a place called Lake Barrine which is a decent sized lake that was formed from a volcanic explosion a long time ago, there we sat in a little café overlooking the lake and had a coffee as a bit of a break.

Next we started on bit of a waterfall trail and one thing I noticed was how this area was mainly farmland and where there was a waterfall a bit of forest was left around it, it was quite interesting.

The first waterfall we visited was Millaa Millaa falls, this had a platform over the water to get a closer look without getting in the water. The next waterfall was Zillie falls and this was the largest we saw, the path led us to the top of this one and we got close enough to see down to the bottom.

Last waterfall on our list was Ellinjaa falls and wasn’t too far away from Zillie falls, this was by far our favorite, from the carpark it had a very long walk down through the Forrest to get there, but when we did we found it was peaceful, had different levels to the waterfall and water was really clear, we actually took our shoes off and walked through the stream stopping to sit on rocks to enjoy the veiw.

Next on the list was to visit an old town called Yungaburra, online recommendations told us that the old architecture was nice which it was but it was getting to lunchtime and there wasn’t anywhere to eat anything substantial so it was only a short visit.

Lunch was planned for Atherton and when we got there it reminded me of Northam back at home, a country town that seamed bigger and was like a bit of a hub for surrounding towns farmers go to get their supplies, we had a walk up the Main Street and were going to eat in a pub but Kelly thought it was a bit dodgy so we went to the one up the road which gave us a good feed, after lunch I looked on my geocaching app and saw there was one across the road but couldn’t find it because there were too many people around to have a proper look.

We made our way back in the direction of home, planning to stop at Kuranda where we were the other day, I found out on the drive the car play can read out messages and you can reply by voice which I tried out to reply to a group message with my family.we found a ice cream factory and had to stop to try it, it was bit disappointing as they were buisy and it took ages to get our ice cream and Kelly said the flavour in her ice cream wasn’t very good.

We carried on untill we got to Kuranda, in the end we only stopped for a little bit, Kelly bought a pearl turtle necklace for herself and a koala one for Sienna so they could have friendship necklaces and we bought Dale a couple of shirts.

We headed back to palm cove but had to endure another windy decent down the mountain down a different route this time but was just as spectacular. When we got back to palm cove we had a swim in the tranquility pool at the resort where you have to be really quiet and pretty much meditate which was nice.

After our swim since it was the last night we thought we would give the spa a try, which was also nice and relaxing. Our last dinner was where our first dinner was at Apres, we had an early night after a big day of driving.

Today was a happy but sad day, it’s Kelly’s birthday! But it was also the day we were flying home ☹️ we had our last breakfast, last walk along the Palm cove beach then packed to check out, our flight out of Cairns wasn’t untill untill 4:30 but we had to check out at 10, and then we had to drop our hire car off at 11:30.

After dropping the hire car off at Cairns airport we went to the check in desk to see if we could check in our luggage this early, which we could thank god. We got in a cab and went into Cairns for a few hours before we flew out.

We tried a fish and chip shop for lunch, Kelly got a prawn basket and I had a burger, Kelly was really unimpressed with her prawns as some were a little black inside, after that we decided to get one more ice cream from the same shop a couple of days before.

We found a pretty good pub to have a few drinks from and before we knew it it was time to get an Uber back to the airport. On our flight from Cairns to Brisbane I started to write out this journal of our holiday and was interrupted by Kelly pointing out someone a few seats to the right coughing and sweating quite a lot, she told me to write down the seat number which was 20E by the way, as the corona virus is starting to get serious at this stage.

The flight from Brisbane to Perth was a packed large plane, pretty uneventful I watched the movie ride like a girl about Michelle Payne, then a documentary centered around Adam Goodes and the treatment of Aboriginal people which was very interesting, after this finished I watched a couple of episodes of young Sheldon and before I knew it we were back home.