Thursday 24 September: Arriving in Cairns
So the flight was delayed an hour due to technical problems, but after locating our shuttle bus we have finally arrived on the sea front in Cairns at 7.00am. It is currently 20°C and very pleasant. We have a couple of hours to kill before picking up our car so Sue has already put on her swimming cossie and has gone for a dip! Fair dinkum, no worries!
We have rented a 4x4 because we want to go off the beaten track a little bit and are planning to camp in a little 3 person tent while here in Oz. The car is a new model Hyundaui Sante Fe which has all the latest gadgets. A bit too close to the ground for serious off roading, but should suit our purposes.
We have nothing specific planned for today - time to get our bearings, recover from the flight and do a bit of shopping in preparation for the next 2 weeks
So, I'm sitting here on the sea front updating the blog whilst Sue goes for a swim. And this place is so amazing that even here on the sea front they have Cairns Community Wifi, which is free!
We bought a few supplies from the supermarket and took a picnic lunch up to Crystal Cascades, a pretty river with a number of swimming holes which is very popular with the locals.
Tonight we have a room in a backpackers lodge - a chance to recover from the journey and get ourselves organised. From now on we"ll be roughing it, living out of the back of the car with a tiny tent.
Golden Nugget: Travelling in OZ: Rent a 4x4
As far as I know, in Australia, no rental company will allow any 2 wheel drive vehicle to be driven on unsealed roads - except maybe for the access road to a campsite. This restricts where you can go, and certainly excludes some very interesting places. So, rent a 4x4, as we have done, and go wherever you like! We rented our vehicle through a local travel agent cairnsunlimited.com which has also been a great source of useful information for planning the trip.