Hinchinbrook Island and now at Cairns!

Hello! Well, we hit Cairns yesterday and met up with mum, who flew up to spend six nights with us. It’s great to see mum and we are staying in a fantastic beachfront apartment at Trinity Beach, about 20 mins north of Cairns. Talk about a luxury break from the caravan!- I am sitting on our spacious balcony typing this…just across the road from the water. We have 3 bedrooms and a huge kitchen and living area..plus, probably the best bit as far as I am concerned at this point- a huge spa bath…bliss…and so much better than a narrow caravan amenity block shower!!

Before driving up here Adam and I had a lovely stay at Hinchinbrook Island in a treehouse. We were placed in probably the best treehouse in the tiny resort ..right up high with great views. The resort is very eco-tourism (Hinchinbrook is a huge national park) and the accommodation was built to blend in with the environment…basically our treehouse was built around existing trees and rocks…part of the bedroom wall was a huge boulder- it was pretty cool. It also gave us some time to relax and not rush about! We did a couple of big bushwalks, including a guided hike up to Nina Peak which had great views over the beaches and extensive mangrove system below. Apart from that though, we relaxed…we took over some of our own food (the treehouse was not self-contained, but the island’s food package was so ridiculously expensive we decided against it, and instead took some cereal and bowls and long life milk , tuna, crackers etc in our luggage!)…so we sat and ate in the fabulous treehouse, and went down to the lodge restaurant for a five star dinner and dessert on each of the three nights there which was a real treat. We also read books (yep- even Adam, who has now read this month’s Book Club book- Mao’s Last Dancer!) and played scrabble…after a three game losing streak I finally won a game…by just one point! Adam is now a very tough Scrabble opponent and surprise, surprise- we both get quite competitive ;-)

We saw more nice birds on the island, plus on our way out there on the boat, saw a crocodile sunning itself on the muddy banks just coming out of the marina at Cardwell!

We saw some beautiful waterfalls on our way up to Cairns and today we are all relaxing with lots of things planned for the rest of our stay here with mum..including a trip to the Barrier Reef to snorkel and to the Daintree etc.

From here, Adam and I will head on to spend some time at Cape Tribulation. I am sure the van will be a bit of a shock after our stay here. Living in a 12ft caravan certainly makes you appreciate the smaller luxuries of a normal apartment. J

Internet reception here for our wireless connection is very slow…so no photos just now…perhaps if I go to an internet café I can upload some soon.

Love to all…xx