6th - 8th May. In and around Cairns

When I arrived at Cairns airport on 5th May, the lovely Jack Perrett came to meet me. He and Norma only live 15 minutes from the airport. It is lovely catch up with them after so long. They are ex-Woking folk and I met them through Send A.D.S. many years ago.

So, to keep this in it's usual date order (latest date first): yesterday 8th May was Mother's Day here in Australia and the day started with a breakfast BBQ at Catana Wetlands, organised by Martin, Jack and Norma's son-in-law. Their daughter, Nicola and their two grandsons Samuel and Joshua

were there too. Martin laid on a lovely breakfast and I supplied the Bucks Fizz. Loverly!!
I was lucky enough to see a couple of large birds there which I had never seen before. A Jabiru (black-necked stork)



and several spur-winged plovers (masked lapwing)


Apart from a brief visit to the local shopping mall on the way home, the rest of the day was spent in usual Sunday fashion .... not doing very much. We did go for a late afternoon dip in their pool where I had a snorkelling lesson in preparation for my planned Great Barrier Reef trip later this week.




Saturday 7th May saw us heading up to the Atherton Tablelands to Herberton Historic Village where there are buildings, vehicles and machinery dating from 1870. It was most interesting. Many local people were dressed in fashions of the day which added to the atmosphere. http://www.herbertonhistoricvillage.com.au/


It was a lovely drive through tropical rain forest and we passed lots of huge termite mounds


On the way back we had a stop to meet some friends at Halloran's Hill lookout - wonderful views.

Sunday 6th May. My first full day in Cairns. Well, not exactly Cairns but Caravonica about 20 minutes north. Jack and Norma are making me very welcome in their lovely home.
Today we visited Cairns Botanical Gardens - very tropical and all the lovely plants and trees seemed huge. This very strange tree creeper looked almost as though someone had pasted it on as wallpaper





We later drove up through the rainforest to Lake Morris and Copperlode Dam. The road up (and down) was very steep with many hairpin bends and the views from the top were tremendous. Norma packed a picnic lunch.


A lovely first full day in North Queensland.

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