This week was our second and last week with Jason before he headed down to Adelaide to begin his solo adventures through Australia! It’s also our last week in Cairns before moving up to Port Douglas to stay with Nicola’s cousin Paul and so we have been using our time when not with Jason to sort ourselves and the car out before we go to Port Douglas.
Tuesday morning I dropped Nicola of at the RSPCA and she spent 3 hours walking dogs and one hour playing with two puppies in an air conditioned room. Obviously not all volunteer roles are equal and at no point was she required to extinguish any bush fires. I stayed home and did the hard work of job searching. That evening we went into Cairns to see animations which were being projected onto the library, accompanied by some poetry for the Cairns Festival.
Later in the week we drove up to Port Douglas to bring Jason to Cairns for a couple of nights. Once in Port Douglas we took advantage to spend the day at Four Mile Beach before heading to the marina for a spot of parasailing! We headed out of Port Douglas Marina on Uplift Watersports’ little yellow boat, “Duck”, before travelling a little north along the mangroves for a gentle lift up to look back along the coast and into Port Douglas. The team at Uplift Watersports were friendly and made us feel really safe. Aside from our quick dunk in the water the flight itself was rather relaxing and a great way to enjoy the scenery around Port Douglas and beyond.
The next day we headed south back to Josephine Falls for a refreshing dip and a few slides down the falls. It was Jason’s first trip down to the falls and he seemed to love it as much as we do and we stayed until he started shivering violently in the ice cold waters. We then visited Babinda Boulders, again without taking a swim, before heading back to Cairns Central for lunch and a spot of shopping. That night the three of us headed out into Cairns Starting the evening of with some cocktails and roulette in the Casino before heading back, passing through a couple of bars on the way.
I spent the Sunday, once again, volunteering on the Bally Hooley whilst Nicola and Jason stayed in Cairns to experience Cairns Festival. They took a walk around the Botanic Gardens which were host to the festival’s market complete with a range of displays and shows. They spent the morning exploring and had lunch before heading for a walk around the Centenary Lakes and heading home.
Seeing as we were up relatively early the next morning Jason and I took a drive down to the marina for a walk around and to see some of the large Sun Seekers which moor up at the far point of the marina. After a short while meandering around, contemplating which of the multi-million pound boats we were going to purchase we headed back to collect Nicola before heading for an afternoon swim in The Lagoon, Cairns’ public infinity pool.
That evening we returned Jason to Port Douglas where he was finishing up the last of his stay. Seeing as it was Sharon’s day off the four of us headed to Mango Jam for dinner before attending the world famous Cane Toad Races at Port Douglas’ Iron Bar. You are given the opportunity to bid to race a Cane Toad which you naturally have to kiss before you are allowed to race. With this in mind when I won the auction for Liberace’s Lad, racing in pink, I happily gave my name as “Sharon”. Surprisingly Sharon was confused by this, before going on to win the race and a prize pool of around $80!
Later in the week we were joined by a “puppy-hood” friend of Daisy who came to stay with Moira and Jim whilst her owners were on holiday. This lead to lots of dog walking and Nicola ensuring suitable dog-cuddle time was scheduled.
Yesterday, we headed back to Port Douglas for an afternoon of fishing with Jason before taking him to Cairns to drop him at the airport the next morning. We managed to catch a few Perch in and around the marina and had a good day’s fishing and socialising before heading back for our last night in Cairns.
This morning we were up early to take Jason to the airport and got to experience the thrill of holidaying as we were able to pass through security and into the domestic departures lounge to wait with him a while before sending him off. After a relatively unemotional goodbye we headed back to Cairns to pack up our belongings, clean our room and drive up to Port Douglas to being the next stage of our adventure!
A Ginger Down Under
12th September 2015