OUR FAR NORTH QUEENSLAND HOLIDAY - CAIRNS

Hello, my dear friends, hope you are all ok.

It has been a while since my last short post announcing our upcoming trip.  And although we came back over a week ago, I was having difficulties getting back into the grove.  It was only a week but there were so many things that I had to attend to that I simply didn't have an energy to squeeze up my creativity juices and start writing.

So here I am to tell you all about this fantastic sojourn but first let me take you back to 2019.  I was turning sixty and my husband booked us a holiday in the upscale town of Noosa, also in Queensland (Australia consists of six states and two territories) but much closer to Sydney which, by the way, is in the state of New South Wales or just NSW.  Then COVID came and our Federal government shut all borders between the states so we couldn't go anywhere and had to cancel the trip.   Luckily,  we were issued with a credit for our airfares which is valid till the end of 2022.  

So we decided to take up on this credit and celebrate my 60+2 birthday by taking a domestic trip to Cairns and Port Douglas, two main and most popular for visitors cities in Far North Queensland.  It is an interesting fact that most Australians (present company included) prefer to have their holidays overseas rather than in our own country.   Those who are employed, are lawfully entitled for four weeks of annual leave a year which provides them with enough time to travel far afield and explore the world.

Having said that, both of us are still hesitant about travelling overseas, so having holidays in Australia sounded like a good plan.  Our itinerary was as follows:  we fly to Cairns using our credit vouchers, spend there two days then hire a car and drive to Port Douglas where we would be staying for four days, then drive back to Cairns and to board a fly back home to Sydney.

Although Cairns is bigger city in comparison to Port Douglas, both of them regarded as small town (population less than a million people).  However, visitors tend to spend more time in PD then in Cairns, the main reason being that PD is closer to two of the most beautiful natural wonders of the world, Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest.

When we check the weather forecast and I saw that the average day temperature would be about 32℃ and mostly sunny, I just chuckled as here in Sydney we were inundated by weeks of rain, cold weather and wind but nothing prepared me to the heat that greeted us as we stepped outside Cairns airport.  We hurriedly got into our rented car, switched air-con on full blast and drove off towards our hotel.  The first thing we did was discard our warm Sydney clothes, changed into light garments and went out to look around.  We stayed at Sebel Cairns Harbour Lights Hotel situated on an Esplanade in a nicely appointed one-bedroom self-contained apartment with a full view over the lagoon and nearby marina.

As a rule, I don't like small towns with their one main drag full of souvenir shops, burger joints and Chinese take-aways where everything closes down at 2 pm and everyone goes home and there is nothing to do and nowhere to go till the next morning and was slightly apprehensive of what would Cairn be like.  I was pleasantly surprised by how nicely the town looks.  

The streets were wide and very clean, the big leafy trees provide the nice shade from the hot sun.  There were lovely looking historical buildings, all nicely restored and preserved to their old glory.  Few really attract my attention, especially the one that is currently occupied by the Cairns Post, and the other - heritage listed the old court building converted into art gallery and perfomance space.

The highlight of our stay in Cairns was a trip on a Skyrail Rainforest Cableway.  Situated only 10 minutes away from the city centre, this magnificent structure built in 2019 spans over 7.5 km over and deep into Australia's Wet Tropics World Heritage Area allowing you to glide over this magnificent canopy of pristine jungle looking down over the magnificent tree tops, Barron Falls and Gorge and surrounding sparkling lakes.  

The journey ends at Kuranda Terminal where we disembarked and after a short stroll reached mounting village called Kuranda famous for its markets all over the world.  We were warmly greeted by the locals inviting us to visit their stalls crammed with locally made wares like hand-made leather goods, Aboriginal artefacts, wood, jewellery, clothes and the likes and cafes where we could sample freshly cooked dishes of the region such as kangaroo and crocodile stakes or burgers as well as big juicy tiger prawns, Redclaw crayfish and Barramundi fish and enjoy a cold and refreshing beverage.  

Need I mention that it was scorching hot up there and I had to wear a hat and apply 50+ sunblock to protect my face and arms😎.  At least it was not humid so it was bearable.  The place was buzzing with tourists jetting from stall to stall, local Indigenous people, the original owners of this land, blowing their Didgeridoos and wandering buskers entertaining the crowd.  We felt slightly overwhelmed and excited at the same time.  As we kept walking along the street, our eye were constantly drawn to the local flora and the beauty of local species of tropical trees and plants that we have never seen before.

Many years ago, when we just arrived in Australia, I had a taste of kangaroo meat and honestly, it didn't blow me away so when we stopped for lunch at one of the many cafes, I gave it a pass.  After lunch, we took a slowly stroll back to the cable car that would take us back to Cairns encountering a bush turkey along the way.

On both nights that we stayed there, we went out for dinner.  Being a controlling freak as I am, we did all the bookings in advance which proved to be a stroke of genius since every restaurant worth its salt was fully booked for days in advance.

On our first night we went to a restaurant called C'est Bone, Cairns only truly French restaurant "where French sophistication meets down-to-earth local charm". We dined on authentically French classic dishes cooked to perfection and served with a French flair.  I absolutely love French food and we both enjoyed it immensely.

The following night it was dinner at a restaurant called Ochre, situated on the Esplanade meters from the river bank where we enjoyed local prawns cooked in coconut crumb, served with mango chutney and superbly cooked steak (it was beef😋).

The next morning we checked out, loaded our suitcases in a rental and drove off to Port Douglas stopping at Rustys Markets to buy some fresh local tropical fruit for the road but that is for another post.

Stay tuned.

Until then,

Anna

xoxoxo