The Rock

People have a tendency to think that Uluru is ‘just down the road’ from Alice Springs. The thing is, nothing is ‘just down’ the road in the Outback. It’s 199km from Alice to the Erldunda turn off and then another 250 odd kms to the Rock. Crazily though, the 5 hours sped by and we found ourselves saying stupid things like, ‘It’s only 550 km! Everything is relative. I brought lots of stuff to read, watch, correct and listen to on this journey but I’ve done very little of any of it because the ever changing, ever staying the same scenery is too fascinating. The one minute that I looked down at my book, Geoff spotted a huge goanna sitting on a rock and I missed taking its photo. You’ve got to keep your eyes peeled in the desert because it’s full of surprises.

Newbies that we are, we were tricked into thinking we’d spotted Uluru when Mt Connor came in to view but it was just a teaser for the real thing. About 50kms from Yulara we got our first real sighting of ‘The Rock’ and it was every bit as exciting as we’d imagined it ; a huge red monolith, rising up out of the desert. So red and so big that you could swear it was some sort of plastic coated marketing trick. The red soil gets redder as you approach Uluru and the desert is covered in what look like Truffula trees. It’s a world that I never knew existed.

We checked into the Ayer’s Rock Resort at Yulara. This is the only place you can stay that is close to Uluru. It’s a bit like a desert version of a Disney Resort with 5 different levels of accommodation ranging from camp sites to the ridiculously over priced ‘Sails’. We were in the Emu Walk apartments, mid range and the only 2 rooms left (or so we were told on the phone but I think this was a ‘book me now’ scam because there seemed to be plenty of rooms empty). The apartments were fine, roomy and with a kitchenette for self catering. There are several restaurants to choose from but there’s also a supermarket with remarkably fair prices so it’s easy enough to cook for yourself. The pathways around the resort are a treat in themselves because you share them with all kinds of wildlife, especially lizards and all sorts of interesting looking beetles.

The first thing we did was race back to our cars to get out to Uluru to watch the sunset (Uluru MUST DO no 1.) We joined the cavalcade of other tourists doing exactly the same thing, paid our $25 park entrance fee and lined up alongside the hundreds of others jostling for the ‘best’ position to take photos of the changing light on the rock from about 5kms away. The light show was just as promised with the rock changing from red to gold to brown. The park closes not long after sunset so then everyone jumps back in their cars, coaches, campervans and drives the 20km back to Yulara.

Next morning we were up at 5.30 am to tick off Uluru MUST DO no 2; the sunrise. Same cavalcade, same jostling, just a bit colder. Some people have bought their breakfast with them, some have clearly defied park rules and slept there overnight. We took in our fill of the morning beauty and then raced back for our (included in the room rate), buffet breakfast.

The kids were keen to try some camel riding so we filled the rest of the morning with a trip to the camel farm. Paid money, rode camels, probably don’t need to do that again!

It’s hot in Yulara at this time of the year so a mid day siesta is imperative. Luckily the Ayers Rock Resort has 4 swimming pools so there’s no lack of places to cool down. We did a bit of a circuit of the expensive pool, the caravan park pool and the backpacker’s pool before deciding to stick with the one closest to our room.

Uluru in the twilight is a magical place. With most of the tourists back at the sunset viewing circus, the walking track was virtually deserted and we had the whole beautiful rock to ourselves when we visited again that night. When you actually get close to the rock, it’s a ‘whoah’ moment. The sheer size of it is overwhelming. You have to lean your head all the way back to see the top and the colour is a crazy orange, red, brown, gold conglomeration. We drove the entire perimeter, stopping at different points of interest for a closer look. Alone in the gorges and the gullies it all felt a bit ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ and I kept waiting for a bunyip or a tiddalick to appear.

Next morning, while our own Forest Gump added to his belt of impressive running tracks by running around the base, we hired bikes and rode the 15kms from the Cultural Centre. This was a surreal experience, similar to the feeling I had riding around Washington DC. It felt like such a normal thing to be doing right then but at the same time it was so exhilarating and breath taking that it didn’t seem real. The only downside to the experience was at the Mala car park where several AAT tourists were being congratulated, by their tour guide, on completing a climb of the rock. Given that they were standing in front of the ‘Please do not climb’ sign, I found this quite confronting and disrespectful. Thankfully so did the majority of other people standing nearby and the upside was meeting some lovely people from Finland with whom we had a conversation about the need for global respect of culturally significant sites!

 

After another siesta we made the 50 km trip over to Kata Djuta (The Olgas). This is also an impressive rock formation although I didn’t find it as spiritually moving as Uluru. This may have been because it was 37C by the time we got there and so the Valley of the Winds was closed to walkers and we had to share the shorter gorge walk with several bus loads of others, including the AAT group that I’d found so offensive earlier in the day. Florence and Yuri managed the heat well considering neither of them have experienced this sort of extreme before.

Uluru is mesmerizing and it keeps drawing you back, so despite being a bit weary from the bike riding and hiking in the heat, we went back for another, crowd free, twilight visit. This time we walked down to one of the gorges that we’d missed earlier. There was a group of rich people down there competing with the flies over their 5 star, white table clothed, hors d’oevres. That all seemed a bit pretentious and silly to me but I guess tourism is the name of the game and I’m sure it seemed like a great idea when they booked the tour. For anyone who hasn’t been up here yet, don’t worry about the ‘extras’. The rock doesn’t need any frills.

Alice

I’m not sure what vision I had in my mind of Central Australia. I think I expected it to be barren and harsh and hot. I certainly didn’t expect it would be so beautiful!

Alice Springs is amazing. A little oasis of a city, built along the banks of the (usually dry) Todd Riverbed. The colour palette here is different to anything I’ve seen before. Photos and paintings don’t do it justice. It’s like a lemon Instagram filter has been applied to everything and you would think that would make it look wishy washy, but it doesn’t. It’s a calming palette of ochre and gum green; tans and golds and the odd bright red splash of Desert Pea, all overlaid with the deepest blue sky that turns to purple after dusk. We were just gob smacked by the beauty of the place.

The racial divide here is obvious and some issues are clear in the police presence, the razor wire around many of the properties and the alcohol restrictions, (the day we arrived we were warned to be off the street by dark if we were carrying alcohol), but this is not what defines Alice Springs and we did not feel at all unsafe during our visit.

We arrived in Alice late in the afternoon, with little time to do anything but check in and get some groceries. After the aforementioned warning, we scurried back to our accommodation (the Desert Palms where the green of the incongruous palm trees was strangely out of place), and then found food at the local RSL where, as luck would have it, it was 2 for one night and we ate like kings for half price!

We spent our first full day in Alice walking into town via the Todd riverbed. It’s hard to imagine what this looks like when it actually has water in it but at the moment it’s a broad, sandy basin covered in a variety of acacia and eucalypt. We wandered around the main shopping areas, particularly the art galleries as Lyle searched for the perfect piece to take home. The shops in town were strangely quiet. I’m not sure whether that was due to the time of day or whether there just aren’t that many people here. We spoke to some of the local aboriginal people who were selling their paintings in Todd Mall. It occurred to us that this was the first time we had heard aboriginal people speaking in their native tongue and we wondered how long it might be before the dialects of our indigenous people are lost forever.

In the afternoon we visited the Reptile Centre so Florence could do some snake handling. They have a nice collection of NT reptiles, including a resident goanna called Ruby who wanders around the building like a pet cat! We got to handle a couple of lizards and a great big python.

We watched the sun go down from the top of ANZAC Hill. What an amazing place to view the city and our second spectacular Outback sunset.

Obviously with 4 teachers on board a visit to the School of the Air was a must do and so that was our first stop the next morning. I expected this to be interesting and it was. We watched a couple of lessons through the observation windows and listened to an informative talk about the students, the program and its delivery. What a wonderful organization, delivering a full curriculum to kids spread all over the Top End. With the advent of the internet, they are front runners in ‘blended learning’. Like all government schools they are way underfunded, especially considering the extra services they provide. They’re dependent on fund raising to make up the shortfall so we did our bit by donating some books and buying a few things we totally didn’t need.

School of the Air

We drove a short way along the Larapinta Drive for a picnic lunch. This part of the West MacDonnell Ranges is very accessible to first world tourists like us; sealed roads, man made walking tracks, flushing toilets and plenty of signage. I don’t think the human interference makes any difference to the wonder of the scenery though. The majesty of Standley Chasm and the multiple layers of colour at Simpson’s Gap are spectacular and, unlike so many other natural wonderlands, there was no rubbish and no graffiti.

Standley's Chasm

Simpson's Gap

Too soon it was time to pack up again and head down the Lassiter Highway.

Two days in Alice is like speed dating with the Outback; it’s just enough to let you know you want more.

Road Trippin'

Road tripping really isn’t my thing. Melbourne and back in one day is a stretch for me. So it was with some trepidation that I agreed to a 12 day round trip to Alice Springs during these holidays.

While we were at the Grand Canyon in 2012, we realised that we've neglected a couple of big ticket, bucket list items in our own country. So, last year we snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef and this year it’s time to visit ‘the Rock’.

With our favourite travel buddies, Lyle, Mark & Maddy and a couple of our gorgeous exchange students, Yuri & Florence in tow, we set off on an adventure.

The trip from Mortlake to Adelaide is a fairly familiar one and pretty enough at this time of the year. The South West is a carpet of golden canola that gives way to pretty vineyards as you pass through the Coonawarra but beyond Adelaide was new territory for all of us. Here the farming turns into olive groves and hot house tomatoes and caged hens, serviced by giant rows of wind turbines marching like triffids over the horizon. It's still green and lush, with no hint of the desert that lies beyond.

Port Pirie is a stopover rather than a destination. We got there just in time to have a quick wander in town before we grabbed some cooked chickens from the supermarket for dinner and settled in to a handy 3 bedroom cottage at the Travelway Motel.

From Port Pirie to Port Augusta it's a short drive alongside the Spencer Gulf. As you leave Port Augusta, you start to get some feeling of the vastness of the outback but it’s only when you’ve been driving for five or six hours through the desert that you really start to appreciate just how empty this part of the country is. Passing the Flinders Ranges on our right hand side we saw our first 'Outback' sign.

The Stuart Highway is a red band of civilization that joins Adelaide to Darwin. The scenery is unchanging. Red dirt and bush scrub; the sides of the road littered here and there with ‘deflated’ animals; cattle, kangaroos and the odd camel. Signposts point to homesteads 40 and 50 km off the beaten track, leaving you shaking your head with wonder at the resilience of the people who live in this barren landscape.

We drove the 6 km off the highway to visit Woomera, a once thriving army base of the mid 20^th century. This purpose built town is almost empty now but the remnants of its heyday remain. A space museum, civic theatre, area school, and street after street of (mostly) empty 60’s style bungalows. There’s even a bowling alley and a baseball field, legacy of the US army troops who lived there at one stage. An information centre reveals the history behind this quaint place and a look at the local newsletter reveals a lively community still exists out here in the middle of nowhere.

From Woomera we pushed on, arriving in Coober Pedy just as our onboard fuel computer indicated we were out of gas! Coober Pedy is a giant mullock heap and looks like the set of a Mad Max movie. The main street is a collection of opal shops, some shabbier than others. We stayed in an underground hotel, a test of resilience for my claustrophobic husband. It was a weird feeling to be in a room without windows (and not much air!) Apparently the temperature is a constant 24 C all year round underground. I’m sure that’s great in the Winter but it was a bit warm for comfortable sleeping. We watched the sunset from the top of our motel and for dinner we bought pizza from Jack’s and it absolutely lived up to its reputation as the best in town.

We were on the road again early the next morning and it soon became apparent just how vast this country really is. It’s 688 km from Coober Pedy to Alice Springs with just a couple of roadhouses in between. Coming out of Coober Pedy the landscape is interesting because of the opal mining. Thousands of pointy mounds of sandy dirt of varying sizes lay testament to unsuccessful attempts to find the beautiful, opalescent stone that the area is famous for but within a few kilometres we were once again in the scrub. Despite the sameness of the landscape, there are also differences. The closer you get to Alice, the bigger the trees get and the more ‘normal’ the scenery. This is what I was expecting, what I remember from childhood text books and Albert Namatjira paintings. Red dirt, rocky outcrops and gum trees; the MacDonnell Ranges providing the purply grey backdrop.

With only short pitstops at Marla and Kulgara and a 130 km speed limit in the Northern Territory we made great time and arrived in Alice Springs mid afternoon. How bizarre to have made it to the very centre of the country. How weird to be this far away from the ocean. What a relief to have survived the 3 day drive. How nice not to be driving anywhere tomorrow!

Island Time

I'm not sure how we ended up booking a trip to Vanuatu these holidays. I think we were looking at a ridiculously cheap deal to Fiji which actually turned out to be too good to be true and then to alleviate the disappointment of not going there I went on an internet hunt with our meagre mid year budget and ended up in Port Vila.

Anyway, with the weather we've had in Victoria lately the thought of a tropical holiday was very enticing and so, here we are at the Pacific Lagoon Apartments, on the edge of Erakor Lagoon. For those of you drooling green slimes of jealousy, I must add that it is actually raining and there's a fresh enough breeze that I wish I'd bought some long sleeves but it is a far cry from the misery of Mortlake.

We took a 7am flight from Melbourne via Brisbane with Virgin. I was surprisingly happy with the Virgin service. Extremely pleasant check in staff and flight attendants, delicious banana bread as a snack on the way to Brisbane and an even more delicious gourmet sandwich on our way across the Coral Sea. The only downside was the dickhead in front of us who insisted on reclining his seat the full way back - who needs to do that on a 2 HOUR flight? Thankfully he was sitting in front of Taine, not me or he would have had some nasty knees in the back!

From the moment you step off the plane and into the Port Vila airport you are on 'island time'. Here is the perfect place to wind down because no one will allow you to move at any speed! The lines to the immigration windows snake around a tiny room like a deceptive Disneyland queue and the silly sods who dressed for their Melbourne departure were sweating profusely by the time they get to the front.

The local currency is the vatu, some of which we tried in vain to access from the ATM at the airport. To pay for a taxi to our accommodation we exchanged the $100 AU in our wallets for $8500 vatu. There's just a fleeting moment where you feel really rich with those $1000 notes - till you realise that the taxi will cost $3000. They drive on the right hand side of the road here so there was a certain sense of American deja vu as we hurtled out of the airport on what seemed like the wrong side of the road. This feeling was exacerbated by the fact that we seemed to be driving head on into the oncoming traffic most of the time, as we overtook everything in our way! And then there's the issue of the unmaintained roads. The pot holes are so big I thought I was back on the Hopkin's Highway! There was lots of horn tooting and swerving but in a totally non aggressive manner with the drivers exchanging high fives and big waves. No road rage in island time.

The manager of our accommodation is an expat Aussie who came for a holiday 5 years ago and didn't go home. ( It's not hard to see why!). In another example of island time, he dropped whatever he was doing and took us in his car for a drive around town to find an ATM and a supermarket. This proved to be a lengthy exercise because most of the ANZ machines were having island time of their own! Eventually we did get some money and managed to buy some food for dinner. By Aussie standards, the supermarket made our local IGA look flash, but we were able to get some sausages and locally grown bananas.

Port Vila is an assault on the senses and an oxymoron of 3rd world meets 1st world. Ute loads of islanders crowd into the back of pick ups as they drive past the construction of monolithic new resort and conference facilities. The produce market, where the native women sell bananas and taro and coconuts and sleep under their stall tables at night because it's too far to get back to their villages, is next door to a Billabong outlet. A game of barefoot soccer takes place across the road from the harbour where a multi million dollar cruise ship sits at berth. The city/town sits amongst the most beautiful tropical jungle and the streets are covered in litter.

Our apartment manager told us that the going rate for wages here is $150 vatu an hour - almost $2AU. Kids here go to school only if their parents can afford it and the unemployment rate is around 50%. There is no welfare system on the island so extended families are very important. Given that food costs as much as it does at home, the people here must live on a lot of instant noodles and taro. I'm glad we aren't staying at a 5 star resort when we are surrounded by so much poverty.

We caught a bus back from the supermarket. What an amazing system of beat up people movers this is. They pick you up wherever you are and take you to wherever you want to go for 150 vatu. Our driver was a rasta looking fellow called Chris who spent a lot of time leaning over the back talking to us and high fiving Taine rather than looking at the road. No drama though, the drivers coming the other way were doing the same thing and somehow managed to avoid hitting us! Chris has a great deal on round the island trips (as does every bus driver in Port Vila) but he seemed like such a genuine guy ( to the extent that he magically appeared on our patio to show us his brochure as we were eating our sausages!) that I think we will have to spend the few extra thousand vatu to go with him and his sister on Saturday.

I haven't taken many photos today. I've been too busy looking out the window in amazement and hanging on to the seat for dear life to be able to pick up the camera. I'll do better tomorrow.

In the morning I'm looking forward to walking the 50 paces to the lagoon and checking out some fish through my prescription snorkel mask. But only when I wake up. After I've had some island made peanut butter on toast. If I feel like it. Cause I'm on island time :-)

Heading North for the Winter

It's been a very long term and it's really cold at home so we decided to seek out a few days of warmth to recharge our batteries. With temperature being the motivating factor, the far north seemed to be the best destination and so off we went to tropical Cairns, to bask in a very temperate 26C, thanking our lucky stars that we had escaped the cold front that moved across Western Victoria the day we left.

We flew to Cairns via Brisbane ( 2 hrs plus stopover plus 2 hrs) with Virgin, who have definitely improved their service since we last flew with them back in 2005. The second leg in particular was quite comfortable and because of a short delay on the tarmac, Taine had time to visit the cockpit to get his travel book signed.

Captain Taine

The taxi fare from the airport to town was a very reasonable $21, (the same as it would have cost 3 of us on the shuttle) and we arrived at the Best Western Sheridan at 11pm. Knowing we'd be late arriving I went for a budget first night and so we weren't expecting anything flash from the hotel. Just as well! The place has certainly seen better days and could do with a really good scrub. Cracked tiles I can manage but I'm pretty sure the toe nail clippings in the bathroom belonged to a previous guest :-( Coming from mid winter at home, the tropical heat was quite a shock and we quickly realised most of what we'd packed would be redundant. We cranked the air con up to cool down the room and went for a quick walk to get our bearings and some water. Not much happens after dark in Cairns on a Thursday night so we were soon back & in bed.

The next morning we picked up our rental and headed to the Esplanade and downtown. The highlight there is the swimming lagoon, a beautifully landscaped, FREE swimming pool right in the heart of the city. What a fabulous idea! Taine and Geoff checked out the water while I people watched and tried to find at least 10 who looked worse than me in bathers. It's not a nice thing to do but it's good for my self esteem.

Cairns Esplanade

Then it was on to the Big 4 Coconut Holiday Resort, our home for the next 2 nights. This is a caravan park with the lot! Water park, swimming pools, mini golf, gym, jumping pillows, hire bikes, tennis court & outdoor movies. Seventh heaven for Taine who thinks it's the best place we've ever stayed! The climate in Cairns is very reminiscent of Florida and the Coconut Big 4 is like a poor cousin to a Disney Resort (but without Mickey and the endless soft drink refills!)

Waterpark at Coconut Holiday Resort

For dinner we drove back into the city to the Night Markets. These consist of the usual junk that you find at markets and if you were an international tourist you'd be able to stock up here on kitschy, aussie things to take home. For us the highlight was the Chinese, stack-your- plate seafood buffet.

On Saturday I made the mistake of trying out the exercise bike in the gym and returned my damaged back to 'cannot move without intense pain' status'. This put a bit of a dampener on my day but after a morning of park activities we pressed on regardless and went for a drive to Kuranda to check out the rainforest. Having done our fair share of both in other locations we took neither the train nor the cable car and enjoyed the scenic drive from the comfort of the rental. Kuranda is full of rainbow clothing and 'mystic' gem stones designed to empty the pockets of the tourists arriving by the afore mentioned modes of transport. We bought a bit of both and enjoyed a couple of extremely over priced, locally made 'bliss balls'. Just to make sure my back was truly wrecked, we walked down to the Barron Falls lookout and back and then I had to recline the car seat so I could lay flat all the way back to the park :-(

Kuranda Market

The Captain Cook Highway hugs the coast from Cairns to Port Douglas. In fact this grey, tourist moving ribbon is the only thing that separates the rainforest from the sea. The views are spectacular and while there are lots of named beaches along this 80km stretch, there are also literally hundreds of patches of deserted white sand for those who prefer a more secluded stroll or swim. We drove into Palm Cove for a look but couldn't get a park amongst the Sunday brunchers.

We arrived in Port Douglas in time for quick squiz at the Sunday market. Taine enjoyed squeezing and drinking some sugar cane juice and we wandered through the gazebos of 'new agers' selling environmentally& ecologically sound, organic stuff full of antioxidants & other expensive goodnesses. I actually heard someone order a blackberry & spearmint green chai latte. I think the back pain may be making me a wee bit intolerant to such nonsense and Taine was getting sunburnt so we grabbed some codeine and an ice pack from the chemist and booked (the last available) tickets on a cruise out to the reef for tomorrow. July is a very popular time in Port Douglas. The place is full of other Victorians fleeing the cold and so by the time I got around to booking accommodation for this holiday there wasn't a resort room to be found and we had to settle for the Lazy Lizard Motel! It's ok and cheap by PD prices but I'm sure I would have been in less pain if I was soaking in a warm pool with a cocktail in my hand. We paid extra at the Lizard to have breakfast included. I had nostalgic visions of a La Quinta bagel buffet but they delivered our breakfast the night before - some bread, mini boxes of cereal & some long life milk. Ha ha ha. DIY breakfast!

Crush your own sugar cane

No trip to FNQ would be complete without visiting the Great Barrier Reef but that's nearly what happened to us. Having not factored in that every second person from Victoria would be holidaying in Port Douglas during the school holidays, we left our cruise booking until we got here. We had ummed and ahhed about which boat to take for ages but in the end the decision was made for us because we got the last 3 seats on any cruise available for our 3 days here! The Wavedancer took us to the Lower Isles for a day of snorkeling and sunshine. Apparently they start thinking about canceling the cruises when the wind gets to 25 knots so the 35 knots that it was today would account for the giant swell we encountered on the way out. Luckily we were armed with travelcalm and while I'm terrified of heights, big waves don't bother me at all so the roller coaster boat ride was fun so long as you avoided all the poor people throwing up into their paper bags. It was our first snorkeling experience and Taine and I had lots of fun frolicking in the shallows while Geoff managed to get right across to the other island where the water was clearer and he could chase the fish with his hired, underwater camera. The weightlessness of the water was a welcome relief for my back and I was sorry when we had to get back on the boat for the wild ride home. We went to the Yacht Club for a dinner and had a lovely, old fashioned, counter meal in their outdoor dining room.

Snorkeling on the reef

The Low Isles 

Our last full day in FNQ was spent exploring the rainforest north of Port Douglas. We stopped at the Mossman Gorge and took the shuttle ($6). The walkway there is very reminiscent of the Otway Fly (but free!). The Gorge Centre is very well run and an informative place to stop and learn about the local aboriginal culture. The staff are very helpful and friendly. This stretch of highway also provides a great glimpse of the sugar cane fields. The cane trains are fascinating and I'm motivated to find out more about the industry when we get home. I'm really surprised their isn't a tourist market for farm tours etc.

Mossman Gorge

Cane train

From Mossman we headed up to the Daintree Village, a completely non event town devoted to taking money from tourists for one of the many boat cruises down the river. At least Kuranda had interesting wares at it's market. The Daintree Village market was actually someone's second hand junk shop! Unwilling to be ripped off further we drove a few more kms to have a look at the ferry that crosses the river for travelers going on to Cooktown & beyond. The queue was very long and we were glad we'd already decided to turn back at that point. On the way back we made a visit to the fruit winery. These guys make wine out of tropical fruit because it's too hot for grapes up here. I tasted my way through the list from lychee to mango. I'm not sure whether I liked the wine much but the owners were lovely and my back felt heaps better by the time I got back in the car ;-)

Taine was very anxious to check out the cane toad races so we went to the Ironbar Pub for dinner. The food was very disappointing. I ordered the barramundi and it was the size of a large fish finger. Taine's pizza was more plentiful but so long in arriving that we had to leave half of it in order to see the cane toads. We each paid $5 for a ticket top watch the toads. Of course to actually get to race one you had to bid for them in an auction and there were enough people there with far more money than our brains so Taine had to settle for a ring side seat. As the poor toads were pulled out of the bucket there were lots of racial and homophobic and sexist jokes centred around the names of the toads (Gay Freddo, Camel Toad etc) and considering it was the early show of predominantly families with kids I found the whole racing spiel a bit offensive. I got to be the 'assistant', writing the winners on the whiteboard (teachers always get the whiteboard jobs!) and the reward for that was a free stubby. Mind you, the toad man wasn't too sure about giving the beer to me. Not sure if it was because I'm old or female but he said I could give it to my 'old man'.

Cane toad assistant

Next morning we savoured the pretty coastal drive again on our way back to Cairns before our long travel day home. Geoff dropped the car off at the rental depot in pristine condition. Unfortunately the poor boy who then jumped in the driver's seat to take us to the airport wasn't quite as adept at reversing and ran straight into the front of the building !

Oops

All in all, it was a lovely, warm break from the winter of home and we left enough sights unseen to ensure that we have to go back again some time.