Heavenly Beverley : Ten Days Of Semi

My last post predicted a race to the finish line before we departed on our Queensland trip. I suspect I minimised our pace somewhat. What ensued was a frantic sprint from a GP appointment to my meeting with Alex's new Local Area Coordinator (who actually seemed to know what she was doing!), further excavation of my lower leg and back along with prolonged zapping of other bits by the delicious Daram and the fitting of Michael's fifth crown by expert dentist JJ the day before we flew out.

Then there was the gnawing anxiety that -

our plane would be delayed or cancelled
our luggage would not come with us
our luggage would go elsewhere - or -
our luggage would disappear into an alternate universe!

And although our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until almost midnight, we chose to travel to the Big Smoke before sunset so we could pass through the forest without encountering any kangaroos. I had been nervously checking alerts concerning our flight all day and there had not been any unpleasant surprises by the time we enjoyed a quick dinner at the "King and I" Thai restaurant, followed by my first birthday cocktail at the Guildford Hotel,

After navigating the way to our long term carpark, maneuvering Lily into her position for the next six weeks and lugging our sizable collection of luggage to the bus shuttle stop, we collapsed onto the bus seats, only to learn that we had to change shuttles to reach Terminal 3 - our blast-off location. After seemingly travelling hither and yonder, we arrived at Terminal 3, only to discover our flight was delayed. The departure time was changed from 11.55 pm to 12.20 am to 12.40 am, before we finally left around 1 am.

Four hours later, we descended into the warmer climes of Cairns. We travelled to Kev and Kerri's house in suburbia, luxuriated in tea and coffee and gratefully slept from mid morning until early afternoon. Later, we travelled to O'Shea's Bar at beautiful Machans Beach for a stroll and another cocktail in honour of the day of my birth. Returning to Kev and Kerri's, we enjoyed a splendid dinner before retiring back to bed.

The next day was all about Romeo, our cheap and cheerful camper, who turned out to be about four hundred years old with over five hundred thousand kilometres on the clock. After a mammoth session of extra cleaning and instruction, we set off in Romeo to fill his cabinets for the next six weeks. After a slight catastrophe trying to drive Romeo into the undercover carpark at Cairns Central - he was too tall! - we found a street park and prepared to launch forth into the supermarket.

We staggered out with a monstrously full trolley a couple of hours later. We were spent for the day. Early the next morning, before our excursion to Kuranda, I packed the groceries away into Romeo's pantry with a lot of satisfaction. Then, we proceeded to the cable car/Skyrail at Smithfield to travel over the mountains to the village of Kuranda in the wet tropics hinterland. The Skyrail was a truly fantastic expedition, not scary at all, and we then proceeded to potter around Kuranda for a pleasant few hours, including a wonderful lunch with vino at Riley's Café and Bar. The "house" Shiraz and Sav Blanc blew us away - stop at Riley's when in Kuranda.

The Heritage Railway trip back to Cairns was underwhelming, and that is being kind. Our original departure time had been changed and we ended up being crushed onto a later train into sardine class with an extremely vocal European extended family. Eight people were crammed onto two benches that should have seated four bums. This trip was not inexpensive, we were unable to enjoy the scenery and we were severely disappointed.

Fortunately, our spirits were restored by a delicious dinner at Pho Viet restaurant with Kerri that evening. When in Cairns, eat at Pho Viet!

Two mornings ago, after a marathon packing of Romeo, we set out for the wilds of Cooktown. Upon arrival, we found ourselves parked behind niece Rebekah at the local servo, bumping into oldest nephew Chris in the servo shop and meeting a lass named Julie Hillhouse, whose babies had been delivered by brother Simon in Bundaberg back in the 1980s...

After arriving at the Cooktown Caravan Park, we quickly had a light dinner and retired to bed. We did not wake for twelve hours...