As mentioned last post, yes we are behind on posting our stories. I'm trying to catch up!
As I mentioned before, all the way up the east coast of Australia are these sugar cane fields - don't they look like ToiTois?
So - Cairns: Princess' family gathered in Cairns for a week, partly as a celebration of Daves (21st was it? ) birthday. 2 cars were hired to drive the group around, and I got to drive the Ford... MAAAATE! It was a 'free' upgrade - by that they meant that it waas free except all the extra insurance you were obliged to pay... grrr! A lovely car in any case.
So here is the family pic:
The back row, left to right:
Dave (Chris' brother), Gillie (Chris' partner), Princess (as noted on her top) and Lindy (Daves wife)
Alice (in front - Laurens mate), Rupert (Daves son, Princess' cousin), Lauren (Gillies daughter), Grandma Betty (Chris and Daves mum), Chris (Princess' dad) and some dork with a ball.
One of our adventures was to go on the Kurunda skyrail - a gondola over the rain forest. We parked the cars , and took a historic rail ride up the Kurunda ranges to get to the gondolas.
I think the rail had been used for mining, but now it was for tourists like us!
We had lots of fun onboard, and I took lots of photos with Chris' flash new camera. So many, in fact, that I smoked the battery before we even got to the skyrail - sorry Chris! As it was new, I think the battery didn't take the full charge.
The train stopped half way up the beautiful trip to look at this stepped waterfall - was very pretty. If you click on any of the pictures, you can go and see all the pics I took, but be warned, theres LOTS.
Once we got to the top, we spent a couple of hours look around the shops. Far too tourist-y for my liking - lots of trinkets and expensive food outlets.
When we did get on the gondolas, the view was very pretty, and Lauren gave us a detailed running commentary of the rainforest. She had been studying them recently, and knew all about the emergent trees, the canopy as well as the understory and forest floor.
Yes they are high, but I didn't panic too much. Honest...
This is us all waiting for the boat to head out to green island. This is just off the coast of Cairns, slightly north. This is a tiny island that has nothing but a jetty, a resort (and associated food/swimming shops) and a coral reef. it is a really pretty - and small - island!
We jetted across in this big 'cat - pretty comfy on the way over. Unfortunately, it was quite choppy on the way home - Princess and I saw a poor old Chinese lady loose her lunch right in front of us! Gross, yes. Ikky, yes. Funny in a "americas funniest home videos" kind of way... maybe ;)
We hired snorkels for the day and headed out to the coral - its is so beautiful! Finding Nemo, eat your heart out. A fun day of swimming, bathing, reading, eating and a touch of getting burned was had by all.
Our final day was spent at "the Babinda boulders" - a natural feature 50km south of Cairns. These boulders are formed in a valley, and the ones in the middle of this shot above are each about the size of a car - large! I was really impressed as these were all carved from the single large rock/earth.
The valley is an S shape and this is the tail end. During flood season the water level gets much higher.
We also visited a large fig tree, which was a little farther away then we had expected due to the steep nature of the road going there - but never-the-less we made it and went to have a look....
Once you see me in the picture its a bit more obvious how LARGE this thing is! It is really solid and I could climb up as high as I cared to venture. So yes it did take a while to get there, but I did get to have a good drive of the Falcon - a great aussie tradition! For the record, they are nice as big tank-type cars go, but I'd still rather have an Audi.
We both had a great time in Cairns, and so thanks to all the family who made it so enjoyable.
(and affordable, thanks :D )
As I mentioned before, all the way up the east coast of Australia are these sugar cane fields - don't they look like ToiTois?
So - Cairns: Princess' family gathered in Cairns for a week, partly as a celebration of Daves (21st was it? ) birthday. 2 cars were hired to drive the group around, and I got to drive the Ford... MAAAATE! It was a 'free' upgrade - by that they meant that it waas free except all the extra insurance you were obliged to pay... grrr! A lovely car in any case.
So here is the family pic:
The back row, left to right:
Dave (Chris' brother), Gillie (Chris' partner), Princess (as noted on her top) and Lindy (Daves wife)
Alice (in front - Laurens mate), Rupert (Daves son, Princess' cousin), Lauren (Gillies daughter), Grandma Betty (Chris and Daves mum), Chris (Princess' dad) and some dork with a ball.
One of our adventures was to go on the Kurunda skyrail - a gondola over the rain forest. We parked the cars , and took a historic rail ride up the Kurunda ranges to get to the gondolas.
I think the rail had been used for mining, but now it was for tourists like us!
We had lots of fun onboard, and I took lots of photos with Chris' flash new camera. So many, in fact, that I smoked the battery before we even got to the skyrail - sorry Chris! As it was new, I think the battery didn't take the full charge.
The train stopped half way up the beautiful trip to look at this stepped waterfall - was very pretty. If you click on any of the pictures, you can go and see all the pics I took, but be warned, theres LOTS.
Once we got to the top, we spent a couple of hours look around the shops. Far too tourist-y for my liking - lots of trinkets and expensive food outlets.
When we did get on the gondolas, the view was very pretty, and Lauren gave us a detailed running commentary of the rainforest. She had been studying them recently, and knew all about the emergent trees, the canopy as well as the understory and forest floor.
Yes they are high, but I didn't panic too much. Honest...
This is us all waiting for the boat to head out to green island. This is just off the coast of Cairns, slightly north. This is a tiny island that has nothing but a jetty, a resort (and associated food/swimming shops) and a coral reef. it is a really pretty - and small - island!
We jetted across in this big 'cat - pretty comfy on the way over. Unfortunately, it was quite choppy on the way home - Princess and I saw a poor old Chinese lady loose her lunch right in front of us! Gross, yes. Ikky, yes. Funny in a "americas funniest home videos" kind of way... maybe ;)
We hired snorkels for the day and headed out to the coral - its is so beautiful! Finding Nemo, eat your heart out. A fun day of swimming, bathing, reading, eating and a touch of getting burned was had by all.
Our final day was spent at "the Babinda boulders" - a natural feature 50km south of Cairns. These boulders are formed in a valley, and the ones in the middle of this shot above are each about the size of a car - large! I was really impressed as these were all carved from the single large rock/earth.
The valley is an S shape and this is the tail end. During flood season the water level gets much higher.
We also visited a large fig tree, which was a little farther away then we had expected due to the steep nature of the road going there - but never-the-less we made it and went to have a look....
Once you see me in the picture its a bit more obvious how LARGE this thing is! It is really solid and I could climb up as high as I cared to venture. So yes it did take a while to get there, but I did get to have a good drive of the Falcon - a great aussie tradition! For the record, they are nice as big tank-type cars go, but I'd still rather have an Audi.
We both had a great time in Cairns, and so thanks to all the family who made it so enjoyable.
(and affordable, thanks :D )
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