After such a fabulous day at the Zoo, we were on a high and asked the guide to recommend a bar for a celebratory drink and evening meal. His recommendation was absolutely top shelf.
Our guide, despite talking like no other person I have ever met before, knew the perfect place for real ale drinkers. He suggested Felons. it was a good walk from our hotel and located under Brisbane’s Story bridge.
We arrived well in need of a drink. Both of us have over the years partied, discoed and staggered home late at night and are now both too old and fat for those kind of nights out, so at first, we found the bar area too loud and like a party we both would have enjoyed 30 years ago! (yes, 30 years ago!!). The other half is a tad deaf and with music playing, he is very deaf so we went in search of a quiet corner. We found one and plonked ourselves down. The menu was a delight but one of these very modern, scan the QR code jobs (these frustrate us both and it can end up in an argument so I am learning to press buttons slowly and speak loudly!)
We refer to Felons now as Fabulous Felons, the beer was great, food good and we ambled in the midnight warmth back to our hotel.
Our early flight to Brisbane took off as scheduled, we feared another day locked inside an airport but, thankfully it wasn’t to be. We arrived at Cairns, which is quite a small airport by comparison to Sydney and Brisbane, were met by our driver and chatted all the way to our apartment at Trinity Bay, north of the airport. This driver was originally from the UK but had stayed following a back packing trip when he was in his early 20’s, he was now retired and did driving jobs to keep him out of the grandchildren’s way.
We settled in and took a walk around. It was about 29 degrees so very warm for us Brits but some locals were in coats! Our driver had recommended we eat in one particular bar, we walked in and straight back out, it was too noisy by far. We ambled down the street complaining about our creaking knee’s and ended up in a lovely bar eating steak and ribs!
We took a short walk down the beach road and retired for the evening.
The following day was a free day. (Saturday 13th May) We collected the hire care and went shopping. As we were/are in Cairns for about 10 days or so (ish) we decided to do a “big shop” and had a wonderful time wondering around Coles (the Tesco of Australia) seeing all the different products. And something monumental happened, we (me and the other half) didn’t have a cross word. We didn’t argue about who was pushing the trolley, or where I put heavy things on squishy thing, he didn’t “grab” the bread and I didn’t skip an aisle – it was a very civilised shopping trip.
For those uninitiated with my life, I am extremely lucky and don’t have to go food shopping, nor do I cook. I can cook but the other half is retired so has more time than me. Food shopping is something Chris and I do very differently, he has a list and shops meticulously for every item, placing each item in the trolley in the order that it will be required to go on the conveyor belt, thus making it easier to pack said items at the other end. What? I don’t have time for that, chuck it in, forget half of it, make it up as I go along and then once home, forget what I purchased so, get Deliveroo to Deliveroo the forgotten and missing ingredients or better still our local pub/restaurant does takeaway Sunday roast (a left over from covid and my idea of heaven!)
I digress… back to Cairns. Our shopping trip was heralded as a success, we returned with much shopping (and beer). We had driven past a cinema that was showing Guardians of the Galaxy 3. This is part of the Marvel set of films and Guardians 1 and 2 were excellent. If, once again, I am talking to the unaware then please explore more here
We packed the shopping away, consumed some of it (not the beer) and went back out to the cinema, we chuckled our way through Guardians and laughed and cried too – a really good watch if sci-fi is your thing.
We were up early the next day (Sunday 14th May) as we had another exciting day planned. We were going to the rainforest. Cairns is surrounded by some of the worlds oldest rainforest. To read more about this area and its forests see here.
In particular, we were visiting these areas
and Rainforestation
then we were coming back down the mountain on the railway.
We made our way up to the rain forest via coach, this is not being lazy but it was part of an organised trip, you go up to the rain forest by coach and come back down by train, you can do both, go up and back by coach and/or train but we opted one of each to see different things.
The rainforest experience was excellent, we were taken through the forest on a 1944 army duck. Not the quacking kind of duck but one of these:-
I took lots of photos (see below) we saw a big pregnant spider (a Golden Orb) I took a photo of her, I took several but she is so well camouflaged you can’t see her (the other half says I probably pointed the camera at the wrong tree, such are my camera skills)
We were then treated to an aboriginal experience, digeridoo playing, spear throwing and one we were deemed capable of “having a go with” a boomerang. The other half made quite a good attempt with chucking his but mine was like most things thrown by me – it went plop at my feet (thankfully the video evidence was wiped out by a man walking in front of the other half at exactly the wrong (right) moment.
We then had a lovely lunch and were taken to Kuranda village itself. Apparently, the original heritage market was set up by hippies and travellers selling their art and craft to the tourists but now the markets have grown to quite a commercial concern. Having said that some of the shops were fabulous and our luggage expanded, yet again…
After we had seen all that Kuranda village had to offer (and sell us) we boarded the heritage train for our return to the original collection point. The railway is world famous for its twists and turns and we first saw it during covid when Michael Portillo shared it with us. It was a glorious ride down through the rainforest, we stopped at waterfalls to take pictures, were in awe of the densest of forest we have ever seen and watched in amazement as the train did a 180 around an enormous curve.
As another day came to its end, we were astounded by the rainforest, we had seen more wonderful animals and had yet another fantastic day.
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