Cairns campsite
View to North of camp
View to south of camp
Cairns birdwings mating. The female sends the male to sleep and can carry him around since mating takes 15 hours and it is better to have one person doing the flying if a predator approaches.
Susan's new jewellery
Hi Folks,
Here it is 1139pm and I am doing the blog with my eyeballs hanging out again. We need to be at the Mitsubishi service centre at 7:30 in the morning so I need to get it done tonight.
Today after breakfast we wandered up the road and caught the Skyrail which is a cable car that ascends into the hills around Cairns through the World Heritage Wet Tropics area to the town of Kuranda which is full of tourist markets. There are stops on the way where you can alight to 1> a tour of the rain forest 2> View Barron Falls and 3> visit the rainforest interpretive centre. We did all three. The rain commenced at the second stop and lasted for the rest of the day forcing the purchase of ponchos which were quite effective. The rain was heavy at times so much for the dry season. At least it was mild.
Susan was a bit apprehensive on the cable car after it started moving. The first section is a fairly steep climb from the plain up the hill and with the noise/vibration going over the pylons can be a bit unnerving for some.
We arrived at Kuranda and trudged around the streets looking at the stalls. Susan purchased some clothing while I examined the T-Shirts. Hard to believe I found two of the three prints i bought in 1994. The one i really wanted which was only thrown out in very threadbare condition this year I couldn't find!
The highlight of the afternoon was the butterfly house. The tour had inproved since my last visit to include the laboratories. There also seemed to be many more butterflies than last time not that my memory is that good.
We returned to Lake Placid in the late afternoon and were greeted by a terrific shower of rain that lasted about half an hour. The canvas held up pretty well with only a few minor leaks. This is more than can be said for my !@#* useless Rhino roof bag. Of course I had to go look after the rain had finished to look and the amount of water inside preciptated a grumpy attack.
I hauled everything out. Fortunately due to the fact we have floor mats inside under most of the stuff it wasn't too bad. I zipped the bag up and made it an order of the day for tomorrow.
Next up Susan expressed her continuing concern about a weeping sore above my ankle that had grown to the size of a 50 cent piece unnoticed until last night. It seemed to have originated from a mossie bite and the concern was it might be an ulcer. Seeing as we are heading to Cape York on Thursday she prodded me to go to the doctor. After a visit to the 24 hour medical centre "no it's not an ulcer but it could easily turn into one with the weather up here" I returned with an armful of antibiotics and some cleansing gel.
The next concern is the wetness in the air and the camper canvas. We need to pack the camper up on Wednesday and leave it folded for 12 days. If it doesn't dry before then we will return to a box of smelly mushrooms. Something else to think about and plan around. Life on the road was a bit short on beer and skittles this evening. Didn't even have time to finish the blog.
The weather and my temper can only improve tomorrow, sighs.
Cheers Simon
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