Pictures : Chris, Barrie, Bob & Kaye aboard Wave Runner
Reunion - Maureen, Wendy and Kathy
We arrived here in Cairns 29th July after spending 4 days 60 km west of Cairns at Mareeba at a Motor Home get together called Christmas in July. We were there with about 250 other camper vans so it was quite a weekend. They seemed to have plenty of events organized including mini medical check ups where I did get my blood pressure checked as it had always been high since I came back from Timor. It was 120/90 which is just about normal again so life on the road can't be too stressful.
We even met some of our old NZ neighbors here and several other kiwis as we gravitated towards the TV in the pub to watch the All Blacks being trashed by the Wallabies.
After 4 days of this sort of socializing, especially with Chris and Barry and Kaye and Bob who live in Cairns, we came down to Cairns to meet up with our friends from NZ Kathy and Pete who are sailing off to the Mediterranean. They left NZ the same day as we did in May.
The following weekend our friend Wendy flew up from Melbourne for 4 days, and as we 3 gals have all been friends for 38 years it was good to catch up with all their news.
We called it the the 'fish pie reunion' as Kathy decided to make a fish pie as a reminder of all the ones we had eaten in our younger days when it was just about the cheapest meal you could make for a family.
After Wendy left, Allen and I headed further up north via Port Douglas, which has a fabulous stretch of beach known as 4 mile beach.
We then headed inland to Mount Molloy and up to Cooktown which is the furtherest place you can go up North without a 4 wheel drive. Its supposed to be fairly wild in some of those remote areas too.
We then had to return via the same inland road a trip of about 700 kms as the coast road south is still 4 wheel territory for about 40 kms and likely to remain so, as this is the Bloomfield Track which was the cause of such trouble in the 1980s when the council tried to bulldoze a road thu. The adverse publicity resulted in the whole area known as Daintree National Park becoming a World Heritage sight .
Once we came back to the coast road north of Port Douglas we headed thu Mossman to Daintree and Port Tribulation which is where the Bloomfield 4 wheel drive tracks starts on the coastal side.We also had to cross on the ferry which was like the one we went on down the Hawksbury river except that one was free whereas we had to pay $19 for this one.
At Port Tribulation the rain forest meets the sea but there are also the mangroves and the deadly midges which seem to have taken a liking to us! but we did brave an overnight camp there.
We then headed in Daintree Village which seems to be a big tour booking center and not much else. They also seem to have chopped away all the rain forest which seems a little strange.
Once more we came back to Port Douglas for the 3rd time as we really enjoyed it there.
We also called in at many of the Cairns Northern beaches which are all lovely.
Cains itself has no actual swimming beach but they have made up for this by putting in what is called the Lagoon which is a man made beach with sand and a grassy area and lovely changing sheds with hot showers. They also have free gas BBQs all the way along.We have spent quite a bit of time around here as Kathy and Pete are also moored in at the Marina.
We have been very fortunate to be able to camp in the Marina car park because they are there so its been great to spend so much time with them.
We also have been on the social scene with our "new friends" Chris and Barry and Kaye and Bob and they have been a delight to meet and we have have some great socializing with them.
As if all this socializing wasn't enough we had other friends from NZ staying here who had been trying to get hold of us and they couldn't reach us. By the long arm of coincidence we were at a huge shopping mall, Stocklands and Allen actually bumped into them. They invited us to a BBQ that night with Johns brother and family where we were made to feel very welcome, given some lovely seafood, fish, prawns and Morton Bay Bugs, which taste a little like lobster or crayfish - delicious.
All in all we have had a very social month and it's been great. Only drawback is no time for writing blog updates.!
