Day 15 & 16: 17th & 18th May 2023

We didn’t plan every day we were in Cairns as we wanted a relaxing holiday too. When collecting our hire car, we were advised about a couple of local drives taking us over the mountains, through the rainforest and on to see yet more of this wonderful country.

We also wanted to see platypus ❤ and had been told by a friend of a very good viewing point. So we set off to combine a driving tour with hopes of seeing a platypus, ever hopeful of seeing this elusive little being we packed the picnic and set off.

We climbed up through the rainforest (in the car, not on foot) to Karunda, where we had been for shopping and the scenic railway. We went on to Atherton, stopped for coffee and continued on our way in pursuit of platypus. We stopped at 2 viewing stations, waited, ate some snacks. Even the smell of cheese and ham crackers failed to alure them out. Having waited and waited we set off again.

We had driven past what looked to be a lovely historic village, so we decided to break up our platypus trip with a small divergence into here. We had found the Herberton Historic Village. It was a great pioneers village set around an old mine shaft with a miners shack that was lived in until 1964!

We got talking to a couple who were cooking over coals using pioneers cooking recipes and methods. It was at this point we nearly ditched the picnic and tucked into damper (a massive chunk of heavy bread) and beef stew. They were telling us about local birds and horror stories about a croc in the sea close to their home and another friend going missing when out fishing. The noises heard by the friends were prescriptive of a croc attack. That confirmed that we will be swimming only in the pool, not the beach!

Around the beach at Trinity Bay are shark nets. Yes, my British friends, shark nets! They look like this

I have seen lots of people swimming in Trinity Bay so I will tickle my toes into the water before we depart on Sunday, but a toe in the water will more than suffice…

Again, I digress… after consuming the rest of our picnic we (the other half, of course) drove us on to our final platypus viewing point. We park up, camera in hand and waited. Nothing. A turtle came to say hello and you could see “things” moving under the water but that was it. Nothing.

Nothing other than the birds screatching above. I looked up and did a double take as I had seen bats. Not little bats as we get in the UK, these were gigantic bats, almost the size of a labrador, well, maybe a Cairn…

These bats, I think, were mega-bats, otherwise know as flying foxes. The other half managed to get these pictures. If you want to know more about these odd creatures then click Here

With bats in my brain, it was time to retire for the night and look at googled pictures of platypus.

We were awake bright and early Thursday morning and had taken our, now regular, morning walk along the beach by 8am. The picnic was packed and we set off, headed to Port Douglas.

At home in the UK, we pay about £1.50 for a litre of unleaded petrol. We just loved filling the little MG hire car up this morning, as we paid 1 dollar 78 cents a litre! A mere £32 to fill it up. That equates to about 95p a litre! However, let’s not talk about the distances Australians drive. Us Brits really are very spoilt having everything on our doorsteps. The guy in the Indian motorbike store the other day, rode 5 days to a bike show. Yes, 5 DAYS!!!

Today, we had to purchase a suitcase. A 106 litre suitcase. Somehow, somewhere along the trip we have accumulated rather a lot of stuff. No matter how much I sit, lie or jump on my hand luggage its not going to all squish in.

That will be our project for Saturday afternoon, packing the suitcase… this is, of course, the “our” that is “the other half”. He is expert at such things and if I interfere, I get told off so, things are easier left to him that can squish a lot into a little space.

On the way back, we could see smoke in the forest and as we got closer the fire had extended down to the road side. See the video below taken as we drove along. There were temporary road signs out, saying smoke hazard. None of the locals seemed stressed so we followed suit and drove on.

We needed a few bits from the supermarket, so called in and got my nails done too. These things happen when you stop for “only a loaf”. Nails, prawns and beer, just happen…

Banana plantations are common in this area and on the side of the roads are these carts. It’s all very novel! You help yourself to bananas and drop 2 dollars into the box.

All shopped out, it was back to Trinity Bay to think about where we have been and what to do tomorrow.