Saturday July 25
We set off for Cairns today some 5 days earlier than planned - we changed our booking on Thursday as we were worried that Queensland would re-close their border to all of Sydney not just the western Sydney hotspots. The second wave of CV-19 which continues to rage in Victoria had found its way to NSW - western Sydney in particular - so everyone was on tenterhooks that Sydney / NSW could also return to lockdowns just as life had returned to the “new normal”.
Our QF flight was uneventful - not full but not really socially distanced; however, most people were sporting masks even though they were not mandatory, only recommended. We landed in virus free Queensland at 5:00PM. After passing the border control checkpoint with flying colours we grabbed our luggage and a taxi and headed to our hotel, the Sebel Harbour Lights, at the Waterfront. We had booked a 1-bedroom suite with partial (very partial) water views - it was nice but certainly not the Four Seasons - but then there is no 4 Seasons or equivalent in Cairns - what do you want for $180 p.n.?
After checking in and dropping our luggage we headed over to Woolies to buy stuff for brekkie - our hotel has a “plug compatible” Nespresso machine - yippee. So we loaded up on fruit, berries and yoghurt - we only planned to make breakfast as the kitchen is definitely only a kitchenette.
By 6:15pm we were ready to hit the town - or least find a harbour front pub for Happy Hour before our 7:30pm booking at Piato (an Italian / seafood restaurant along the boardwalk). Well we could not get into any of the bars/pubs as they were already full to “Covid Safe” capacity. So we arrived at Piato early and fortunately our table was available - which was great as we were starving only having had a very light lunch before leaving Sydney. We both had Coral Trout - a FNQ fish which you generally don’t get south of the border (so to say) - excellent - wont’t be the last one on this trip.
It was then a short walk after dinner - back to the hotel, a bit of reading and off to bed.
Sunday July 26
We had already decided to take it easy today - do a bit of a recco and try to find a hire car as we had not been able to book one online prior to leaving Sydney - quite a mystery as Cairns is not very busy; even though it’s high season there are of course no international tourists. The restaurants and bars seemed to be full of locals (at least mainly Queenslanders - and a few escapees from NSW) - the main streets looked very forlorn with many shops closed/out of business - all very sad - combined with both the Sydney and Cairns airports being all but deserted it brings home just how bad the economic situation is.
We walked around town and found a hire car - $85 pd for a shitbox / rent-a-dent manual - but apparently it’s very busy in town.
After a bit more grocery shopping we went to Hemingway's Pub for lunch - really cool. We tried to book a half-day trip to Fitzroy Island for Monday but the times we wanted were fully booked - so we’ll do that when we return from Port Douglas.
We played some Scrabble then did an afternoon walk and finished off the day with Happy Hour on our terrace and dinner at Vitalia - another Italian waterfront restaurant - very busy but not slated for a return visit from us.
Monday July 27
We changed our hire car booked for Tuesday to today so we could do a driving trip to the Atherton Tablelands instead of a day trip to Fitzroy Island. We picked up our hire car, small 4WD, a total shitbox with 150K’s on the clock - probably the second time around - it even had manual roll-down windows - the cap on the petrol was missing and it was dented and crazed all over; but what do you expect for $85 per day - talk about ripoff - it seems there are plenty of tourists in town but businesses aren’t really ready - some pubs and restaurants are not even open 7 days.
Anyway - we had a nice day visiting some of the waterfalls in the Tablelands - Malanda Falls, Milla Milla, Zillie, and Ellinjaa Falls - in between we stopped for lunch at the Malanda Pub for a shared chicken wrap, a beer and a Chardy - all for $25 - gotta love country Queensland. The pub opened in 1911 - there were wonderful historic photos on the walls.
We were back at our hotel around 5:00pm to find their parking was full so we had to move over the the Casino parking - all a bit of a hassle but then I haven’t gone totally troppo yet - chill !!
We had planned to have dinner at Hemingway’s but alas it does not open until Thursdays (at present) - got to complain to someone about that - most un-Australian. So we headed to Ollie’s about 10 seconds from our hotel for a pizza but alas it was also closed.
We continued along the boardwalk looking for a restaurant but at least 50% were closed - we finally got into Waterbar& Grill by waiting 20 minutes at the bar. In the end it was a nice dinner - steak for Dieter and tuna pasta for me.
Tuesday July 28
We moved from Cairns to Palm Cove today staying at the Pullman Sea Temple - another Accor property. We dropped our luggage then drove to Kuranda as it was too early to check in. Unfortunately the Kuranda Markets don’t operate on Tuesday and Wednesday due to Covid (go figure) - so we did a short walk then had lunch at the Kuranda Pub - most everything else was closed. On the way back to Palm Cove we stopped at Smithfield to re-stock for breakfast then checked in.
After a beach walk we stopped at the Pullman’s bar for our welcome drink - we both selected a Pina Colada (the cocktail of the day) rather than a beer/wine - then it was back to our unit for showers. We had dinner at the Reef House (most up market hotel and restaurant in Palm Cove) - being an Accor property we got 50% off the food making it very reasonable - the place was fully booked and the menu was very limited but it was enjoyable - Dieter had the eye fillet and I had duck curry.
Wednesday July 29
Another perfect day in paradise - same as yesterday 14C-28C …. we did a mega beach walk - Dieter’s longest walk since his hip op - we then went to the local pub for lunch - shared dips plate - very merger on the dips.
We heard from Vaia on WhatsApp that “Anna" (Annastacia Palaszczuk, Queensland Premier) had closed the border to all of greater Sydney as of 1:00am Saturday so we would have been OK departing on Thursday - however it’s great to be here now.
We lazed about in the afternoon, played Scrabble then had dinner at our hotel restaurant - pretty good food particularly at half-price. It’s quite cool in the evenings - might need to buy a sweatshirt.