Back on the Underground to Circular Quay...
I've come to be a little lax when it comes to the so called 'security restrictions' for domestic flights because they are not enforced anywhere near as rigidly as for international flights. Anyway, that all proved to be interesting at 5:45 this morning as my flight was actually routed out of the International Terminal! Something about where the plane was parked. So there I was with my backpack full of various liquids, aerosols and razor blades! I think I became a training exercise... At least we didn't get as far as a full body search! The ridiculous nature of these restrictions became apparent when the security officer removed my various bottles of gel/shampoo etc from my wash bag, put them in the required clear plastic bag... and then put that back in the wash bag and ultimately back in my backpack... And so the difference was...? Oh, and the razor blades were left. Crazy.
Anyway, a bit of back-tracking to how I got here...
I left Airlie Beach (again!) and headed north. Having lost about 10 days in total to various "rain events" and floods I had to cut out Magnetic Island and go straight through to Mission Beach. On the way, I stopped at Townsville which turned out to be a really great tropical town...
Ten points if you can spot 'The Saint'...
And from the top of that hill, Townsville...
As an aside, Aussie politics is quite interesting at the moment at federal level with lots of rough-and-tumble going on. At State level it's also hitting the news with recent Queensland state elections giving the incumbent Labour party a hiding to the point where, "they now couldn't field a netball team!". At a local council level, it's rather more basic...
Mission Beach is, genuinely, a little slice of tropical paradise (albeit, still, with some debris and damage from taking a direct hit from a cyclone last year)...
And exhibit (b) with Dunk Island in the background...
Very relaxed! With the ant infestation in the van reaching biblical proportions, I checked into a nice little motel and had a couple of very entertaining evenings with two engineers who were staying there whilst surveying all of the local bridges after the most recent storms. They were funny!
Next stop was Cairns and, would you believe, within two hours of dropping off the van I got a stone hit that cracked the windscreen! The rental company wanted $550 but after ringing around I found a place that would do it, whilst I waited, for $220. it was worth the wait!
Cairns proved to be a very, very pleasant surprise. I really liked the place. A pretty big tropical town with a tremendous feel to it. The focus is the Esplanade and man-made lagoon. Everybody there seemed to spend the whole weekend lying around the lagoon and surrounding park, swimming in the water and playing sports or lying under shady trees. Nice life!
... By late afternoon there were plenty of family gatherings and people, generally, enjoying being outside. Great! There are also a lot of Japanese tourists in Cairns... In fact, enough to support both Louis Vuitton and Cartier shops!
Everyday a different band played on the bandstand at the lagoon and the whole place was just the epitome of a relaxed, no-stress life...
So there's maybe one more post to come after this week, then that's it!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Back in Sydney
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