A short trip to Cairns

This is more or less a combined update of a trip and some geocaching done on the way.

In February close friends from The Netherlands visited for the second time. The first time they'd been here was in 2001.  This time we had planned to make a trip to Cairns, but hadn't reckoned with tropical cyclones, although something which can be greatly expected this time of the year. So, the trip was a short one. We had a few stops at B&Bs and motels and such and we stayed only the one night in Cairns as the downpour was so bad that we would't have been able to do anything anyway.  So following are some pictures of the trip as well as those of the one and only geocache I managed to find on the way.

We left on Tuesday, February 2 and stayed the night at Tannum Sands.  The room was fine and we were even given breakfast in the fridge for the next morning.

View from the room

Breakfast on the patio

The next overnight stay was at the Port Denison Motor Inn at Bowen (if I remember well) and our room was close to the local pub where we had our evening meal and breakfast.

Our room at Bowen

We stopped in Cardwell for lunch.  Unfortunately I can only produce a grainy picture from Google earth:

We also visited the most beautiful information centre that I have ever come across.  Worth a visit! The following pictures were taken on an early trip by Frank and me to Cooktown in 2012, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to show them here again.

Even though the Bruce Highway was closed  between Tully and Innisfail because of an accident involving a big truck, we had a good trip via the backroads to Cairns.  We stayed at the Big4 Cairns Coconut Resort for the night.  Incidently we were given cabin no. 6 which was the same cabin we stayed in with Frank's sisters in 2001.  This time it rained when we arrived and it didn't stop raining.  We bought some groceries and the camping shop and had dinner at the resort's restaurant and changed our booking from four nights to only the one.  It was just pouring down and there was no chance that we would be able to do any of the touristy things that we had planned.  Besides, not knowing what the tropicl cyclone would bring, we wanted to be on our way back before the roads would have to be closed because of flooding, a regular occurance.

View from our cabin

On the way back we stopped in Airlie Beach and stayed the night at the Club Croc Hotel at Cannonvale. It must have been beautiful in its hay days, but it was very dated when we stayed there.  Drairy is the word that comes to mind and the airconditioning was not working while the air in the room was stifling.  Wel, it was only the one night, so we didn't worry too much.  Dinner and drinks on the pub's deck were great.

The hotel grounds and swimming pool

Our room

The deck

The next morning we spent some time walking through Airlie Beach and its numerous shops.  In 2001 we had been here too and also went for a boat trip to the outer reef.  My visitors loved to see it all again.  On the way back and out for the drive back to Bribie Island I wanted to spend a little bit of time to find a few caches, but wasn't very lucky.  The first one took far too long and I didn't want my 'muggle' friends to have to hang around too long.

Our next stop was again at Tannum Sands.  This time at the Palm Valley Motel.  Here we had a very roomy and light unit, complete with kitchen, lounge and dining area.

Bedroom

Lounge and dining

Dinner at the pub

The next day we made our way back to Bribie and I finally had another chance to look for a cache.  We were almost home (near Gympie), so I was happy to come home with at least one find!  We had to make a toilet stop, so I saw my chance and wandered off with my GPS in hand:

Chatswood Park