Oh What a Week!

A Collage of EVERYTHING from the wedding night up until today.
Includes: The Dome, The Tanks, Centenary Lakes, Cairns Airport, Leto the Great Dane, Trinity Beach, Fast Trains, and so on and so on!
Palm Cove for lunch, Sunday 8th, Honeymooners depart Monday 9th, then, how many trips to the airport?  How many almost missed flights, missed flights and delayed flights this week?  Who's counting?!
Lunches, upset tummies, tick behind the ear (the blood sucking type), tourist attractions, farewell dinners...just endless.
We will be the last to depart from Cairns, on Friday (tomorrow), to make our way back home, and very slowly I might add.
Today, the sun showed its face gloriously, for the first time in many, many days!
What a difference.
Tonight we had the best Chinese take away we've had in years.
My feet are still sore from all the dancing last Saturday night.

Oh What a Night!

Above: Our Two Gorgeous Girls! 
Here they are at the gardens, bridesmaid and flower girl.

Top: Our Grand-daughter between Honey Pie and I.
Bottom: Bride and Flower Girl on the dance floor.
Our niece looked stunning in her beautiful white gown which was trimmed with black lace. Bouquets and head pieces were made by Kate from black and white feathers and beading...very unique.
The marriage ceremony was held on The Tablelands and most of the wedding party was transported to the gardens by mini-bus.  I think most of us were praying all the way up the hill because despite the mist and the clouds hanging low over the mountains, the rain stayed away!
What a beautiful ceremony...Kate, always confident, appeared nervous at times but she made a beautiful bride alongside her handsome husband.
While photographs of the bridal party were being taken a yummy smorgasbord of cheeses, cold meats, etcetera was served to the guests and then off we went down the mountain to receive the newly weds at the Cairns Reef Casino.
The ceremony was performed without a hitch and was followed by a sumptuous dinner, including a choice of six deserts!
The most enjoyable part of the night, without a doubt would have to have been the dancing.  Aunts, cousins, nieces, mothers, sisters and friends boogied right up until mid-night.  Notice that males aren't mentioned here? If it wasn't for us females, the dance floor would have been empty.  Well, almost.  I have never danced so much in all my life, and that' no exaggeration.
Sadly, Honey Pie and I had to leave just before the finale because our poor little grand-daughter was well and truly worn out and we had to drive her home!

One Sleep To Go

The busyness continues.  Yesterday our daughter, grand-daughter, my sister and the two of us drove up to Kuranda with the hope that we would visit the Butterfly Sanctuary.  But this was not to be.
Nevertheless we did do some shopping at the perpetual markets in Kuranda and had a great lunch at a funky little cafe where the waiter fell for our little grand-daughter!

Then it was off to Kazali for the wedding rehearsal, back to South Cairns for the hens/bucks night before driving family to their bed and breakfast and taking ourselves back to our sister's house to sleep.

Our grand-daughter is feeling a little bit mis-placed at the moment and didn't like the idea of having to leave her mum while she rehearsed for the wedding. She was very clingy, as everything is very new and strange to her. To overcome any chance of scenes on Saturday during the ceremony, The Bride to Be has gained a flower girl! All that's needed to complete her new role is a small bouquet and she will be allowed free rein of the staircase on which the ceremony will be held.

 

Fun in the sun, Cairns Esplanade.

This morning we baby sat our grand-daughter while her Mum and the rest of the female contingent of the bridal party went to the beautician to get pampered.
After all the uncertain weather of the past week, it was a beautiful sunny day so the rest of us spent a couple of hours at Cairns Esplanade while waiting for the pampered ones to return.

The  Quilt.  
I'd been sewing the above quilt for approximately twelve months, before we left on our trip. Even with a bit of help from my Mum and my sister, I just couldn't  managed to finish the project and in the end had to concede defeat.  What to do?  Should I take the quilt with me and hope to get it complete along the way or should I leave it at home and complete it on my return and then post it to the Bride and Groom?  A third option was to ask my daughter to complete the binding for me.  I took the third option.  My daughter did a wonderful job of finishing off the binding.  Thanks too, to Lynne from The Vintage Patch who I know gave helpful advice to my daughter to ensure that the project was finished professionally and on time.
As a result, I was able to give the Bride and Groom to Be, their completed gift today!
Thanks everyone for all the help!
Another night of feasting was enjoyed by all the family tonight.
Honey Pie and I will be masters of ceremonies at the wedding reception tomorrow night and I'm getting nervous!!!!

To Daa Airport!

The Mother of the Bride's Family's Airport Schedule for the next two weeks:

Arrivals:

Monday 2nd August: 

Mum, 5.45 p.m.

Wednesday 4th August: 

My sister and her two daughters, 9.10 a.m.

Our daughter, grand daughter and my sister, 11.45 a.m.

Friday 6th August:

My brother-in-law:  9.10 a.m.

My sister and her partner, 11.45 a.m.

Departures:

Sunday 8th August:

Brother-in-law leaves: 7.20 p.m.

Monday 9th August:

The Bride and Groom leave for their honeymoon at some ungodly hour!

Mum leaves: 4.40 p.m.

Tuesday 10th August:

My sister and her partner leave: 6.00 p.m.

Wednesday 11th August

Our daughter, grand daughter and my sister leave:  12.45 p.m.

My sister and her two daughters leave:  4.40 p.m.

Be Prepared

We left our camp at Lakelands just after eight.

Here we witnessed a most peculiar thing.

Camped in tents right next to us were three or four couples in four wheel drives. They were heading for Cape York Peninsula as a group.

We have briefly contemplated a trip to the Cape but have decided against it for a number of reasons. One of the main reason is that we would prefer to travel with other perhaps more experienced four wheel drivers. And there are the time constraints as well. Another reason is that we're not really sure if we're adequately equipped for the adventure.

But, as we sat and had our usual breakfast it was quite interesting to watch these couples pack up their tents and vehicles for their departure.

Some of them looked like they had never set up or dismantled a tent and were relying on others to show them how.

Also, each couple seemed to be doing their own thing.

Finally all of the couples except for one had cleared their site and were ready to depart.

The last couple, well...He wandered off to the ablutions block to spruce himself up and left Her to pack the car.

Eventually he returned while she struggled to fit everything back into the car. Most items were packed into plastic storage containers and two or three were not going to fit back into the car...there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the packing and Mr Camper had absolutely no idea how everything was going to fit back into the car.

Their fellow campers had left the camp ground to wait for the couple by the side of the road. It wasn't long before one of the couples returned to see what the hold up was.

We had packed and left before Mr and Mrs Camper had solved their storage problems.

Also, one of the other couples, we noticed, had packed just about every item they owned into numerous blue “green” shopping bags. I couldn't help wondering how they were going to know which BLUE bag had the item they would eventually want to seek out....oh, how I would love to be a mosquito on the ceiling on one of their vehicles as they trek the Cape!

The heavy closed in rainforest we've encountered over the last few days eventually gives way to open, lightly wooded and undulating landscape as we make our way towards Cairns via the Peninsula Development Road.

At Mareeba after a bit of a drive around the town, we lunched with the Butcher Birds at Skybury Coffee Plantation, had afternoon tea at Mareeba Wetlands Nature Reserve overlooking the beautiful lake then returned to Cairns to find it raining!

View from Bobs Lookout

We enjoyed this peaceful view while having scones and tea at Mareeba Wetlands Reserve.

Welcome Swallows at Mareeba

Another Mareeba Resident.  This one crossed the road with its chicks as we drove out towards the highway.

Sheridan Street to Mossman

Say our goodbyes to our nephew, wishing him all the best for his future in the army. Next weekend he will head south to New South Wales to commence his training and will have minimal contact with family and friends for the first three months. (And will miss his sister's wedding!)

His younger brother and sister will drive him to Townsville on Saturday and leave him to join up with the Defence Department.

This morning we departed south of Cairns to head north to Cooktown via the Bloomfield Track.

Shopping is first on the agenda to stock up on food for the four to five day trip. Next we fill up the fuel tanks and take the Bruce Highway out of Cairns and the Captain Cook Highway to Trinity Beach.
My how Sheridan Street has changed in the last twenty two years.
There's talk of removing the Captain! Heaven forbid.

Flight path over Sheridan Street - a bit reminiscent of Broome.

Trinity Beach

When we arrive at Trinity Beach, I don't recognize anything about the place from our last visit. In the eighties it was almost a deserted beach, now it's an esplanade of trendy restaurants, villas, town houses and holiday accommodation. Although it's not raining, the weather is far from ideal with an onshore wind blowing. We have lunch in a shore side park, go for a walk along what is signposted as a lookout, have a walk on the beach and make our way to Port Douglas. As we drive along we witness the rainforest clad hills cascading into the ocean.

My memory of Port Douglas is that of the town being the last frontier of North Queensland, (a bit of an exaggeration maybe?) now it is crawling with tourists and locals alike. A P&O cruise liner sails past, it's still windy, so we move on and find ourselves a spot at a caravan park in Mossman, squeezing in by the skin of our teeth. At the caravan park, people wanting powered sites must wait in the car park until they become available!

Our spot is not ideal, but it is a spot, in a very busy caravan park close to the road.

P & O cruise liner sailing by at Port Douglas.

Sunny Cairns

Our first real trip into Cairns proper.

I can't remember what Cairns CBD looked like the last time I was in Cairns, or even if I visited the CBD. But I guess I must have because I do remember going to the Botanical Gardens.

My sister (who only last Friday started some leave from work), drove us into Cairns. Or at least was going to until her car had mechanical problems. So we quickly re-arranged the back seat of our car and Andrew drove our car with my sister as navigator.

The car park at Cairns Esplanade was packed with young overseas tourists in their camper vans. Parking fees are only eighty cents an hour, until ten at night, so I guess that makes it cheaper than a campsite in a caravan park! Young bodies were all over the place (and at the man made beach - complete with life guards - on The Esplanade!)

When we arrived at the beach, the sun was trying very hard to shine and skimpily clad overseas tourists were sun-baking on the sand, many of them already looking like boiled lobsters. Within minutes, there was a heavy shower and everyone ducked for cover.

We made our way to the pier, dashing under shop awnings or into shops every time there was another shower.

Eventually found a place to have lunch on the pier and then walked to the Cairns Regional Gallery.

Afternoon tea, some window shopping and back home.

Cairns has certainly grown since the last time I was here.   

Rest Day

Both Honey Pie and I having been getting more and more tired over the past few weeks.  It's not really a physical tiredness, just a 'we're over it' sort of tiredness.
Tired of the crowded caravan parks and national parks.  Tired of the stress of wondering whether we're going to get a camp site each night.  Tired of the driving.  Tired of the messy ablutions blocks.  Tired of not knowing what the next caravan or national park is going to be like.
Despite all this, sometimes I can't help wondering what it is that makes, me, or any other human, want to drive that extra kilometre, walk around just one more bend in the trail, climb yet another mountain, cross another creek, hope to spot another rare bird or animal or visit just one more remote spot.  Why do we want to?
I have no regrets about taking this trip.
I recommend everybody do such a trip at least once in their lifetime.  But I don't recommend a second or a third such trip, because I must admit, I do miss my home comforts, my family and my friends.  I miss the familiarity of living in a regular town and home.  Yet at the same time, being on this trip means that there is so much that I don't have to worry about.
Being on this trip has taught me just how little we really do need in life, how much we can actually do without.
It has taught me so much about the country I have lived in all my life.
So, to get over some of the tiredness the two of us are feeling, we stayed home with my sister today.
Andrew cleaned out the car, opened up the tent, spread out the tent awning and the annexe walls which needed a good clean as they've been wet since we don't know when.
I caught up on some laundry, sorted and discarded endless travel brochures, packed parcels to send in the mail and wrote some postcards to friends and family.
In the afternoon, Sammy took my sister and I for a walk (or was that a run?) to the local supermarket.
Rest days are nice.  And we need them even if we're on holidays!

Home and Garden

Babinda Boulders.

So, here we are in sunny Queensland. Today my sister and her husband acted as tour guides, driving us (along with a picnic lunch) to the Babinda Boulders. When we arrived at The Boulders Wilderness Reserve it was teeming with rain but we donned our raincoats and put up our umbrellas to take the short walk to Babinda Creek. The guys pushed ahead while my sister and I stood and viewed the black, slippery boulders, with water gushing over them, in the creek.

We set off after our better halves but they were nowhere to be seen so we thought they'd gone back to the car. But no, they hadn't, so we sat and waited at one of the covered picnic tables until they returned.

When they returned we had lunch under the covered picnic table while the rain fell about us.

The rain is a bit of a disappointment but the positive to this is that after all that dust we've travelled through, everything is lush and green here. And we musn't forget, we are now in the wet tropics (as opposed to the dry tropics!)

While we were in Karumba, Honey Pie and I had to decide whether to go north to Cairns or South to Townsville. In Townsville we'd like to visit Andrew's neice and her family. Should we do this before heading north again to Cairns, to stay with my sister and her family?

My sister's son departs Queensland to join the army on the seventeenth of this month and we dearly wanted to catch up with him before he leaves so the decision was made back in Karumba that we would head straight for Cairns and visit Katie and her family in Townsville on the trip back down the east coast.

Also, my sister's daughter is getting married on the first Saturday of August and we have planned our trip to include an extended stop-over to include the wedding.

Andrew and I have been asked to be masters of ceromony on her big day. I also happen to be her God Mother so it's a great honor to be here and to particpate in her marriage ceromony in such a significant way. The last time I was in Cairns was to be God Mother to Kate way back in 1986 while I was still at Teacher's College. Wow. That particular trip, I caught a coach up on my own, leaving my family behind in Sydney, during my mid-year break. Those of you who know me well, know just how much I hate flying, and that was the reason I took a coach.

So here we are in back in Cairns, with my sister and her family. We intend to stay with them for a few days before heading further north to Mossman, Port Douglas, Daintree via the Bloomfield Track, Cooktown and then return to Cairns via the Penninsula Development Road.

My sister has made us very comfortable in her home, setting up the spare bedroom for us with all the comforts of home. We're also very grateful that we don't have to camp while the weather is so damp!

My sister's home and garden, with Sammy the Maltese Terrier at the top.  He loved us to pieces the moment we walked in the door.