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

A geocaching weekend at Gunalda

Saturday January 24, 2015

This weekend Patricia and I are attending an event at Gunalda (Qld), approx 136km north of Bribie Island.  It's called: Gunalda Cacheup for the Newbies and it is organised by Patricia's ex-husband Keith, who's also a geocacher as you may have guessed.  

Because we log attended events here's my first logged cache of the weekend:

Gunalda Cacheup for the Newbies

We meet a few people that we haven't seen before as well as a few that we already knew.  It wasn't well-attended, but the reason may be that it was also Australia Day long weekend and a lot of people like to celebrate this by going camping or by taking part in the local festivities.

Straight after arrival we were directed to a few caches nearby:

Gunalda Show

cache is hidden behind the grass under the timber post

and

Gunalda Showgrounds

Accompanied by Heather and Trevor this was a
FTF for Patricia and me
(the FTF coordinates were given out to selected people at the event)

After we had found those two Heather and Trevor wanted to go and find all Colin's new caches in the area, so we went on a trip in their 4WD.  Trevor was the designated driver, Heather the navigator, I was a sort of secretary, keeping track of the list and making notes and Patricia helped with the searching.  It may be said that she found some without the use of a GPS!

Charles Watson Bridge

Open Spaces

Sexton Rd North

End of the line

Secret Mouse House

Cattle Ramp

Split Tree

One Tree Island

Power up

Woolooga Turnof

Next we found two hybrid letterboxes.  Nothing special, just a cache with the required stamp.  They have probably been placed so that people have access to this kind of cache in their area, because there aren't many around. 

Brooyar Post Office

Curra Post Offic

Stockyard Creek

After we'd finished the series Patricia took me to another cache which was located at Keith's former place of residence.  She guided me to its hide:

Number 11

That was all we did on Saturday.  Quite a result I'd say.  Afterwards we went to Keith and Pam's place for dinner and as we had been invited to stay the night we spent a pleasant evening with them.

Sunday January 25, 2015

Not many new people turned up, so Patricia and I decided to go and look for other new caches that had been placed for the event.  Most of them were Keith's, a few were hidden beforehand by new members.

For the first cache of the day I had to actually climb a tree after, to my horror, Patricia discovered the cache hanging from a branch! But..... I did and not in vain, because we could claim another FTF. When we'd set out to go caching earlier in the morning we did not realise that there still were a few FTFs that hadn't been claimed.

Highway 1 - Mango Tree

Looking happy, because I've discovered
 I am still fit enough to climb a tree!

And happy again when I discover a blank logbook,
meaning it's a FTF for us!

Highway 1 - Glenwood

And look!  Another FTF for us... :-)

Highway 1 - Kanyan

 Higway 1 - Glenwood School

Breathe In

For the Rest and Revive cache we thought we had to look at the actual location where the free coffee and tea was served, but we were wrong.  The cache had been moved to the other side of the road.  However, I thought it was a good idea to have a rest and a chat.  These volunteers are always so kind and lovely to talk to, so we had a (much needed) cool drink and a cup of coffee before we moved on to find the cache.

Rest and Revive

On our way to the next cache we passed the showground and decided to have a break from the heat.  Heather wanted to come with us to pick up a few more caches, so the three of us set out to do a few more in the afternoon.

road narrows

got you stumped

Another one for Patricia without a GPS
while Heather and I were looking across the road!

Dickabram Bridge

No Offence

And that was the last one of the day.  The shadows were getting longer and we a bit hungry, so we called it a day and drove to Keith and Pam's place.  We arrived a bit later than planned, because we got caught in a thunderstorm which caused a tree to come down across the highway.  Luckily passers-by in 4WDs removed it quite quickly and we could travel on.  We had dinner at stayed again for the night.

Monday January 26, 2015 (Australia Day)

Keith took me out early in the morning for another FTF close by, however, it turned out that only he could claim it, because Heather, Trevor, Patricia and I had found, and logged, the cache before it was published.  

Gunalda CITO for the Newbies

Kangaroos in the showground

Later on Patricia and I went back to the showground after having said goodbye to Pam, and since nobody else had turned up Patricia asked Keith to help us find a cache that had been eluding us the day before.  I found it, but I must say that I only did so with Keith's help.  I would have never found the trail towards it, neither would I have attempted the climb on my own.  The rocks were slippery from the rain the night before and the GPS would have been useless under the tree cover.  Patricia turned the car in the meantime and soon we were on our way back again.

Hwy 1 - Gunalda Pass Road

And that was the last cache of the weekend.  Monday was to be the CITO (Cache In, Trash Out clean-up) day, but Patricia wanted to go home and I didn't feel like doing the clean-up all by myself, so I promised Keith I would take a bag next time and do CITO while caching so I would do my bit.