Cairns: Poor little blighter

Our flight to Cairns from Singapore takes us via Darwin in the early hour’s of the morning – they didn’t mention this before – but it’s still good to touch down on Australian soil. We grab a quick sleepy cuddle with the fluffy toy roos and koalas in the terminal building.

After we have flown over the Gulf of Carpentaria and the top of the great dividing range the plane takes a hard right - somthing I never enjoy - turns over the Coral Sea; skimming the mangroves and pulls into Cairns.

On our first night in Cairns we have the first roast dinner since we left home in September at the local Aussie institution: the RSL Club. We must look like we need feeding up as they give us all the meats, lashings of gravy, Yorkshires and mint sauce.

The lead lead story in "The Cairns Weekend Post" is titled "Farewell, little Elmo: Adventurer who took one risk too many". It's about a rusty-coloured Jack Russell who ended up as a mid morning snack for a salt-water croc on the Daintree River last friday! Tributes poor in for the little fella from neighbours and the local ferry men who clearly thought he was always flying a bit too close to the fire.

While we look for a campervan on Gumtree, the kids spend their time in the play strip along the sea front – especially the climbing walls – and watching the teens do stunts in the skate park on their bikes, boards and scoters. There was only one on GumTree, a white Toyota Hiace Hitop that is on its way to Cairns from Townsville about 4 hours away. It’s being sold by a British couple called Andy and Michelle who have already named the van Bruce, as it’s spent of its time on the Bruce Highway between Brisbane and Cairns. Magi’s not so sure of the name.

It took me a while to get this picture of a skater upside down in mid air.

The native "Trainer Tree" of Far North Queensland. Best seen with it's indigenous reflective strips at night.

They have a thing about getting fit in public here.

Climbing wall under a massive Curtain Fig Tree.

Achtung there be crocs.

Cairns sea front bidet.

Cairns Salt water Lagoon. Spot Bear!

One for you Emma, from a floristry in Cairns. Strips of Gum Tree Bark and Forthsythia on a wooden swing held by fishing twine. About 2m wide. Ready and willing to be copied.