Business Class Trains

Had to be up early again as our tilt train was leaving at 9.15am as we had to exchange our train vouchers for tickets and have been told to be there 90 mins before. So we set off from the Koala at 8am and walked 2 blocks along and 3 down to find that the entrance to the Train Station via a shopping mall was closed as the mall didn’t open until 10.30am so we had to walk round the other side of the building.



It was funny to see Bob and Lyn also looking like backpackers pulling their luggage. After approx 35 mins of sorting out our vouchers (took some time as we had booked tickets for other people) we boarded the train into our business class cabins. The seats were similar to the business class flight we had took in that they had little tv’s in the arms, loads of leg room and waiter service – i could certainly get used to travelling like this!! We bought a breakfast package and settled down to watch the towns pass and various movies as we wouldn’t be arriving in Airlie Beach until around 6.30pm.

Fitzroy Island

We had booked mum and dad on the cape tribulation tour for today and as we had already done this tour a few years ago we had decided to take a trip to Fitzroy Island and do some snorkelling. We arrived at the harbour at 9 and waited to see which boat we would be on. At 9:30 we boarded the Thunderbolt,



as we climbed aboard, the captain asked us if we had filled out the disclaimer form, “What disclaimer form?” is asked. It turns out that this boat can go quite quick so we had to sign that we had no medical conditions. The captain started the 4 250hp engines (thats 1000hp) and we slowly left the harbour, as soon as we where clear the thunderbolt went like thunder. After 30 minutes of excitement we arrived at Fitzroy Island to pick up our snorkelling gear. We headed round the coast of the island and stopped at some shallow coral, it was very clear water and there where lots of fish.



I had taken my underwater case for my camera, I took loads of great photos underwater, then one of the other people on the trip shouted that he had seen a turtle, so we all swam over to see and sure enough the was this dude just cruising, I got some fantastic photos of him.



We grabbed some lunch on the boat and headed to another bay on the island for more snorkelling. At about 2pm we headed back to Cairns. When we got back to the main land we spent the after noon wandering around the shops. That evening we met up with mum and dad for dinner. We had a look around the night market before heading back to the hostel.

WaterFalls and Castles

We got up early to get our tour bus, which stopped outside our hostel. As we got on the bus the tour guide introduced himself as Wiley.



The next 30 mins was spent dashing around cairns pickup more people for the tour and dropping some people at the train station where some people were going on another tour. Our first stop on the tour was Lake Barrine, about 1 hour south of Cairns, but we had to climb up to the tablelands in the bus, the road up there when it was first opened in 1926 had 612 hairpins and was only a single track but in 1959 the road was widened and straightened, so now it only has 216 hairpins. Lake Barrine is a volcanic crater lake, its fed directly from rain water (no streams into the lake) which makes the water very clear. We had a tour around the lake on a boat showing us the flora and fauna.



We were told that if we were very lucky we might see a platypus, no such luck for us. When we docked we got free scones and tea after about 30 mins it was time to get back on the bus, next Stop was the Curtain fig Tree, three trees which had fallen on to each other and a fig had grown around them making it look like one tree.



The next place we visited was Milla Milla waterfalls, now we had been disappointed in Malaysia by the lack of water in the waterfall but this was amazing it was picture perfect, but the water was too cold to go swimming in.



We visited a few other waterfalls all very picturesque, we even had lunch next to one of the waterfalls. After Lunch we headed to Paronella Park which was home to a Spanish man who built a castle there. It was a beautiful place the castle had become derelict but the grounds where fantastic. The best bit was the guided tour as the guide told the story of Jose Paronella and his family.








When we got back to the hostel we waited for a few minutes until Mum and Dad arrived after flying in from Ayres rock. That evening we headed to a Italian restaurant which had been recommended to us by our tour guide.

Cairns

We had to catch our flight to Cairns via Brisbane at 11pm, if you have visited Aus, the sheer size of the place always amazes. We flew for 3 ½ hours to get from the west to the east coast with the wind behind us. We arrived very early in Brisbane and had an hour before our connecting flight to Cairns left. Another 1 ½ hours on a plane, and we arrived in Cairns. As we got off the plane it was nice to be in the heat, 26C at 9:30 in the morning. We got a free transfer from the airport to our hostel, Koala Beach Resort. It was too early to check in to our rooms, so we left our bags at the hostel and went for a walk round and to grab some brunch. Tj and I had been to Cairns about 4 years ago, and nothing much had changed in that time. We finally got checked into our room and chilled out. Later that evening we went and found a curry house and had a great meal, then we decided what activity we were going to do tomorrow. We had been to a few tourist info places in the morning and got loads of leaflets on what to do. We finally picked a waterfall and tablelands tour which we booked and then headed back to the room as we had another early start.