We had another very early start with a 5.00am alarm and a 5.45am taxi to the airport. We are of on the next stage of our trip, up to Cairns and then driving North to Port Douglas in the tropical north of Queensland.
Despite my hand luggage being way over the weight limit with all my camera gear, there was no problem at all although for some reason yet again (and it must have been over 4 times now), I was swabbed for drugs and like each of the past occasions I ‘passed’ the test! The flight was on JetStar which is basically like an Asian EasyJet so efficient but definitely no frills and the +6 babies onboard all had a bad experience as the air pressure increased on landing so the screaming was unbelievable. It must be agony if you cannot equalise so why do parents insist on flying with such little ones?
After a loud but uneventful flight we landed at Cairns which is a lot bigger than I had imagined. For the first time we had a different hire car to the past three Toyota Camrys and this time we had a large sports estate car called a Holden. Despite its size (much bigger than our Jag) it has a very good reversing camera and even sensors on the front as well. It is so hot and humid here, I hadn't really taken it in that we are in the tropical and wet north of the country.
Instead of driving north to Port Douglas straight away, we detoured inland and upwards to Karamunda. I had planned this detour months earlier purely on the basis that we had an opportunity to hold a koala and I had carefully checked that it was totally ethical. The koalas are either rescue bears or have been bred in captivity from the rescue bears. Our destiny with Charlie the Koala was at 1.00pm and it was amazing to finally get to hold him albeit for literally less than a minute. We had to stand like a tree and the handler handed me Charlie very carefully so he felt totally secure. His fur felt like sheeps wool and he smelt rather rural and I took the fact that he pooped on my foot as a sign of affection! It was an amazing experience and here's Colin's photo to prove it! Apart from the koala experience the rest of the places in Karamunda were rather or very commercial.
We drove back down the hair pins and onto Port Douglas and our apartment which is lovely and at the quiet end of Port Douglas. The heat is stifling but we still managed s trip to our favourite supermarket Coles later in the day.
All was going well until we came to go to bed and Colin called me into the bathroom to identify some 'nature'. I had envisaged something like a gecko but what he had actually found was the biggest cockroach I have ever seen in my life! It literally must have been 2.5 inches just in body length and including its long feelers over 5 inches in total.
I hate cockroaches and knew we had to catch it if I was to get a nights sleep. Unfortunately it didn't have the same agenda and it's friend arrived soon after to keep it company. They were so big that I knew the mugs we had to catch them in would probably not be big enough. I found insect spray under the sink in the kitchen and when one made a dash for the bedroom I sprayed it solidly for ages before it slowed enough to catch it under a mug. Colin missed the second one which got as far as the kitchen bin before I lobbed a mug on it! They are massive and as we could not face throwing them out this evening they are left under the mugs overnight while we decide what to do with them. I'm slightly freaked out - I like nature but outside, not inside!
