This is the Lake Eacham Historic Hotel, which is right in the middle of Yungaburra, in the Atherton tablelands.
Apparently, we stayed there once as kids, but I don’t remember it. More importantly, Mom and Dad stayed here on their honeymoon! They didn’t seem too impressed when I told them I preferred Tongsai Bay, where Kristy and I stayed on our honeymoon.
Lots of people had told us about the drive from Cairns to Port Douglas, and how beautiful it was along the coastline. They weren’t lying! Mom went so far as to tell us that it’s the part of Australia which most reminds her of Jamaica, with road following the beach and with all the palm trees lining the coast. It really was beautiful.
Port Douglas itself was a nice enough place; to me it felt a lot like Hastings Street at Noosa, only on a larger scale. It wasn’t too busy when we were there which meant it was easy to walk around, but there wasn’t all that much atmosphere to speak of. We had delicious coffee at Origin Espresso, and I finally crossed “Eat Crocodile” off my bucket list by having a crocodile curry pie for lunch. For reference – it tasted to me like a fairly mild fish, only a little chewier (like the texture of over-cooked chicken).
We also drove up the hill to check out the view at Trinity Bay Lookout. Impressive! Though a little bit spoiled by the construction that was going on there; no doubt this will be social housing for low income earners.
After lunch, we drove to the nearby Mossman Gorge, which was simply beautiful. We wandered around the shorter walking paths, taking in the crisp clean rainforest air and enjoying the sounds of the water. There was even one guy diving into the stream, floating down it like it was a theme park. We suspected that he had done it all before, as he seemed to know exactly where all the rocks were!
Definitely worth a visit if you’re ever in the area!
The thing I was most looking forward to doing on our Cairns trip was the Scenic Railway and the Skyrail! This is possibly because it was really the only thing I knew existed in Cairns; but c’mon – who wouldn’t want to take a scenic train ride up a mountain?
The train compartments were old-school, and reminded me a lot of the ones from Steam Train Sunday; Oscar seemingly felt the same way, as once again he was fast asleep a few minutes after we left the station.
We woke him up about an hour into the journey so he could enjoy some of the scenery – and it was well worth it. It was a beautiful way to travel up to Kuranda. The only complaint I have from our trip (and it’s a very minor one!) was that we were in Carriage #3, which meant that we didn’t get much of a view of the chugger on the iconic Stony Creek Falls bridge – further back in the train would have been better.
Once we disembarked at Kuranda, we made our way up to the little town in search of some lunch – at Uncle Martyn’s request, we had pies. We didn’t hang around for too long though, despite the alluring number of shops willing to sell us overpriced merchandise. Instead, we jumped on board the skyrail for the journey back down the range. It was fantastic, and Oscar loved it! The view from high above the trees was inspiring!
The last segment of the journey was particularly good, coming over the final peak and seeing the landscape open up in front of us. I think that going up by train and coming back on the Skyrail was definitely the right way to go – you have the option to go the other way instead, but I don’t think it would have been quite as impressive.
The scenic railway and the Skyrail definitely lived up to my expectations, and for me, it was the highlight of the whole trip! Well worth the money!
We visited Green Island as our first side-trip out of Cairns. We had been advised by the tourist office that we’d be best off doing this as early in our trip as possible, as there was a cyclone looming off the coast which threatened to ruin everything! We heeded their advice and booked our trip for Sunday morning; sadly for Uncle Martyn and Jenni, this meant boarding a boat only a few hours after their plane had touched down from China! Still, they were good sports about the whole thing, and we all were soon on our way!
We were all in need of coffee when we arrived, and let me tell you, it’s slim pickings on Green Island. Without much criteria to choose from, we settled on the vendor who had the best coffee machine, figuring they’d be least disappointing of the bunch. I was a little worried though when I found out our “barista” had never heard of a Babychino. “It’s simple”, I said, “just like an Equinox, but hold the espresso shot.”. No, I didn’t really say that, but what a zinger it would have been if I did!
Anyway, there we all were, sitting around the pool, watching the resort guests flaunting their aquatic rights in our faces, when it suddenly dawned on me… this is a human zoo! All of the chairs were angled towards the pool, as if whatever is going on in there was put there for your entertainment. All it needed was a “Do not feed the humans” sign and Mr Taronga would have been signing up the admission rights!
Our time on Green Island was actually very short, since we had opted for only the half-day adventure (due to inclement weather, not to mention impending nap time). As such, we decided not to “invest” the $20 per person to go through the crocodile museum. Instead, we headed back to the pier for our Glass Bottomed Boat ride!
This was easily the saving grace of the whole Green Island trip. It was great! The windy weather meant conditions were a little choppy, which also meant visibility wasn’t the greatest; but still, we got a very clear view of all the fishies swimming underneath the boat. It sure made me hungry for a fish burger! Especially when the guide threw some bait overboard and the fishies went ballistic trying to get it all!
While we were waiting for our ferry back to the mainland, a large gust of wind came and blew Oscar’s hat right off his head. Poor Oscar was most upset by this, and only calmed down when we promised to buy him a new one, and reassured him one of the fishies would put his hat to good use.
Overall, we didn’t really think Green Island was worth the amount of money it cost us to get there. In hindsight, I’d say that unless the weather is good and you’re going out there to do some snorkelling on the reef, you can probably save yourself some cash and give it a skip. Still, nothing ventured nothing gained – and the Glass Bottomed Boat ride was a definite highlight!
Oscar, Kristy and I joined my Mom and Dad (“Nonni and Poppi”) for an adventure in Cairns last week. Oscar was super excited just to be going to the “air-o-port” on Saturday morning flight; he was even more realised that we’d actually be going on a plane! And not just any plane, a red plane!
The main inspiration for the trip (besides fulfilling our desperate need for a holiday) was to meet up with Uncle Martyn and Jenni, who had flown over from Jamaica. We hadn’t seen them since they visited us in London in June, 2010!
We stayed at Mantra Trilogy, though actually we had arranged our accommodation as a privately let room via Stayz. It was a fantastic apartment, and perfectly located – close to the Esplanade, and only a short walk to the Esplanade Lagoon, which Oscar absolutely loved.
Other than the lagoon though, we didn’t actually spend a whole lot of time in Cairns proper. There was far too many day trips to do! We managed to tick off Green Island, Kuranda, Port Douglas, Mossman Gorge, and The Atherton Tablelands within our five or so days. But more on that later.
We did, however, find some fantastic places for food and coffee – mainly by recommendation:
Overall I really liked Cairns as a city; it felt very well planned out, and was easy to navigate around. I found that driving in the city was slightly tricky since drivers didn’t seem to pay much attention to other drivers, other than to tailgate as closely as possible. Similarly, pedestrians in general seemed oblivious to the fact that the road is made for vehicles, not simply as a very, very wide footpath.
But these are only minor quibbles – we really enjoyed our visit, and we’d gladly go back for a second look!
There are very few bands that I’ve seen play live as many times as I’ve seen Coheed & Cambria. Powderfinger would come close, but I suspect that they won’t be putting up much of a fight anymore, now that they’ve disbanded and all.
Coheed, however – ever keen to retain the “Most seen band by gerrod” crown – announced late last year that they would be touring in Australia. Huzzah! Obviously I was going to be buying tickets; however, things got even more interesting when I learned that one of the very few bands left on my “must see live” list – Circa Survive – were playing the opening act!
There was no way I was going to miss out on tickets! They went on sale at 9 AM on the 20th of December last year, and by 9:01 AM I had already received my confirmation e-mail from Ticketek, compete with tickets attached. (As it turns out, the show didn’t quite sell out, so the need for urgency was perhaps not as great as I had thought.)
So skip ahead to Friday night, and finally its time for the concert. I was underimpressed at the speed that The Tivoli let the patrons in after still finding myself in line over 45 minutes after the doors were supposed to open. I was worried that we were going to miss the start of Circa Survive’s set, but thankfully they didn’t come on until about 15 minutes after we finally got in.
We stood on the floor for their set (usually I go for the balcony at The Tivoli), and we were rewarded with a great view. I have to admit though, I thought the sound mixing was terrible. I could barely hear Anthony Green singing – though Ben tells me that from where he was on the balcony, it all sounded great. So perhaps we were just in a dead spot. But no matter; they were still a great live act – very humble – and they lived up to my expectations. I’d love to see them again though, headlining their own show – simply so I could see them play a longer set!
Coheed & Cambria came on about half an hour after Circa Survive had finished their set, to a very appreciative crowd.
I had always considered myself a pretty huge fan of their music, but oh my was I shown up by the audience. I’d say that at least half of the patrons had at least one Coheed & Cambria tattoo, and many had more. One girl I saw had a very impressive tattoo of The Keywork that took up most of her back. We also looked somewhat out of place since we were pretty much the only ones in the theatre not wearing all black.
But no matter – we were there for the music, and as usual it was brilliant. The moment they came on stage and started playing No World For Tomorrow, I was immediately reminded why I love the band so much. Overall, the setlist was heavy on tracks from their new (double) album, but there were a few older songs thrown in. I particularly liked The Crowing and In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, which garnered a very enthusiastic involvement from the crowd.
The only downside of seeing C&C play live for me is that it always makes me sad when I realise it will likely be a long time before I get to see them again. Hopefully not too long though!
Since starting 10 on the 10th, April was the first month we’ve hit where the 10th fell on a weekday. I had to cheat a little for this one – I only managed nine photos, so I’ve stolen one from Kristy to make up the numbers. Being on a weekday also means that this is the first one where the photos aren’t via the SLR. In case you’ve ever thought that mobile phone cameras are really awesome these days, here is proof that they still have a long way to go before SLRs have anything to worry about.
(To be fair, I think the camera in the Nexus 4 is particularly poor, and if money were no object I’d probably replace it with an HTC One. The photo from Kristy’s phone also proves that the iPhone 5′s camera is significantly better. I have high hopes for the next generation of Motorola phones!)
Our household is just getting over some pre-winter bugs which have been knocking us around for weeks; so much so that Kristy and I have both ended up on antibiotics! We’re near the end of the course now though so hopefully our health will be back on track soon.
Since I wasn’t sick enough to skip out on work (or more accurately; since there’s too much work to do to afford a day off), I turned up to the office one day sounding rather miserable, with a very congested head, sniffley nose, and a cough that would have put a veteran smoker to shame. My co-workers didn’t take too kindly to this, and as such, demanded that I spend the next few days working from home instead. Yes, a few days at home and not working would have been even better, but I refer you back to my previous comment regarding the ratio of workload to time.
Anyway – I love working at home; not only is the coffee better, but I’m far more productive, and I am very fond of the local co-workers. Oscar seems to enjoy having me in the home office too, and will often run in and open the doors just to give me random things that he believes I could use. “Here you are Daddy!” he says each time he hands me something. Here’s how my bounty looked by the end of day two:
In case it’s hard to see, there’s:
I wonder what Oscar thinks I actually do for a job?
The 10th of March happened to be the Saturday of Dad’s first party; as such, the entire day was consumed by preparations, the party itself, and then cleaning up. Consequently, you can probably guess what the theme of the photos is going to be…
As part of the whole “get rid of migraines” regime”, I’ve had a couple of appointments with a dietitian/naturopath, to analyse what I’m eating and to see if there’s something that could be improved (more B vitamins, as it turns out). He’s a really nice guy, and he has a strut that can only be described as “the walk of Nick Zeeb”, but with even more bounce. Ironically, his name is also “Nick”, so maybe there’s something in it… ?
Anyway – the last time I went to see him, I was suffering from a head cold that I picked up courtesy of Oscar. I asked if he had any natural remedies for such an ailment, and this is what he recommended to me, citing it was like “honey and lemon on steroids”. As a warning, it’s not for the feint of heart, but after testing it, I can say that it does a very effective job of clearing out your head.
Note: We have now made this twice – once with cracked pepper, once with regular black pepper. It’s definitely more palatable with the cracked pepper!
