We’ve really made ourselves at home over the last couple of weeks in Cairns and have taken the opportunity to travel up to Port Douglas regularly visiting Four Mile Beach and the picture perfect town. This has lead to a few relaxing beach days and finally getting some time to play around in the water before the stinger (jelly fish) season starts in a couple of months.
Since buying the car we have started looking for work much more seriously and whilst searching we have taken advantage of the spare time to do a little volunteering. with this in mind we took a short drive to the edge of Cairns to have a look around the local RSPCA centre so Nicola could scope the place out and see if she would like to volunteer there. After managing to prevent me from bringing home 2 dogs and 3 kittens I felt particularly inclined to rescue, Nicola applied as a volunteer.
That evening we drove to Port Douglas to attend a Mexican themed birthday party for one of Nicola’s cousins housemates. It was a great night getting to know a few new faces and a comfortable amount of alcohol was consumed before the Tequila came out, we attacked a Paper Mache animal and crashed in the spare room. The next morning we had Breakfast at Mango Jam, a great little restaurant in Port Douglas, before heading back through the ranges to Cairns.
We used the Saturday as an opportunity to explore the two markets in Cairns. After a walk along the Esplanade to the Lagoon public swimming pool we walked around the Esplanade Market before heading into the town to visit Rusty’s Market, a larger, predominantly food market. It was our first experience in North Queensland where the humidity had started creeping up and we took the opportunity to sit a while under a shady tree on our walk back along the Esplanade.
That morning was also the day that Jason, Nicola’s brother, arrived in Australia. Having not heard from him since he landed, we were a tad concerned when we received texts from Nicola’s relatives in the evening who were asking if we had any means of contacting him. Sam and Emma had taken him to the train station that morning and had not heard from him since. They, having eventually resorted to informing the police and begin combing Brisbane for him, luckily saw the funny side of the situation when Sam found him asleep in his room! We had joked he probably fell asleep somewhere in the city, but nobody had realised he had made it home before the jet lag kicked in!
The next Sunday I took a trip up to Port Douglas to do my first volunteer shift on the preservation steam railway, the Bally Hooley, whilst Nicola went along to her volunteering induction at the RSPCA in Cairns. I started the morning jumping back into my retail shoes by selling tickets at the main marina station before spending the rest of the day helping and learning from the train guards. On my last trip of the day I was even treated to a ride in the cab.
In the last few weeks we have spent a bit of time looking for places to stay and work as well as cooking on a Tuesday and Thursday for Moira and Jim. We had been awaiting Jason’s arrival to crack on with our to do list as there was a lot that we wanted to do with him. We managed to catch a film at the cinema for the first time since Brisbane, spending an evening watching Mission Impossible: Rogue State.
Finally Jason arrived in Cairns and we picked him up from the airport and drove him up to Port Douglas. We took the opportunity to stop off at one of the beautiful untouched beaches along the way and at a lookout where we were not only treated with gorgeous views of the ranges but also watched a paraglider floating up and down along the coastal road. Once in Port Douglas we grabbed lunch and a hat for Jason before heading over to Stinger Park to fulfill the tradition of watching Paul’s boat come in.
After giving Paul a wave, we made our way for a couple of drinks at On The Inlet, which is also becoming a tradition of new arrivals, where we watched the 5pm Grouper feeding. The Grouper fish has been frequenting the restaurant bar for over 20 years and is around 2 meters long. It was entertaining to watch the feeder try and pull the fish in closer for a better look using tow rope as fishing line. Eventually Paul and Auntie Shaz joined us to toast Jason’s arrival.
That evening Paul once again invited us all along to a work colleague’s party and we happily went along for a few drinks. It was another great evening and made better by mine and Paul’s new game of introducing me with a fictional persona. On this night I was a hitch hiker from Cairns who he had only met the night before but was now living with him rent free and we almost had them believing that Jason, Nicola and myself had hand sailed from the UK, if it wasn’t for Jason’s laughing!
The following Sunday I found myself back at the Bally Hooley as a train guard. One of the duties of the guards is fire watch; checking behind the train to ensure that we haven’t cause the dry bush to alight. This can happen due to coal falling from the loco or just from the heat on the dry bush. On my first journey out of the marina we spotted a small tuft of dry grass catch fire. After stopping the train, which involved waving the iconic red flags, I took a leisurely 300 meter sprint to douse the fire. I do not like to use the word hero, but I expect to receive keys to the town shortly. Whilst all this action was taking place, Jason and Nicola had taken the earliest train into town to visit the Port Douglas Sunday Markets and to have a spot of lunch before returning on the last train out of the marina.
The next day we took a trip out on to reef with Quicksilver where Paul works as a lifeguard. It was another great day filled with snorkeling and taking a trip around the reef on a semi-submersible boat. We also decided to take a ten minute helicopter tour around the reef from the pontoon, which was pricey but worth every cent! You really can’t appreciate the scale of the reef until you see it from the air!
That night we held another BBQ on the beach to celebrate Jason’s arrival before heading back to Cairns.
A Ginger Down Under
9th September 2015