WHOA what an exhausting place this Cairns is.........
It has been go go go since arriving & to recap on some of our adventures

KENNEDY HWY TO MOSSMAN

Did a drive up to Kuranda, onto Mareeba, down to Mossman Gorge & travelled back to Lake Placid via Mossman.  Terrain is magical & even though it is winter the days are still pretty humid & gloriously warm

MOSSMAN GORGE RAINFOREST

Just 5kms from Lake Placid is Barron Gorge Walk - cannot get enough of these rainforests.........

from our campsite we can  see the skyrail heading up to Kuranda each morning.  It was our turn yesterday to ride the Scenic Skyrail up to Kuranda & the Skyway back to Caravonica Terminal.  Poor ol' Scruffie, he's in the dogs home for 3 nights

 

 

Another full day today in & around Cairns city - brilliantly laid out with the Esplanade Lagoon right in the heart of the city.  Great shopping, cafes, restaurants & even an Irish Pub where we sat for a quiet breather before tackling lunch & more sightseeing.  Late afternoon we headed to the Botanical Gardens, 38 hectares of native Australian Gardens with a coffee shop thankfully to rest our weary bones at the end of a long day.

 

 

 

 

3 months on the road and we've eventually made it to CAIRNS

Couldn't have made a better choice for our accommodation in Cairns, our site is perfect and Lake Placid is right across the road from us.    

With so much to see & do in this area we called into an "Animal Refuge" today to enquire about their Dog Sitting services.  It was perfect for what we need & Scruffie had his 1st day in Doggy Day Care in Cairns

The Animal Refuge Shelter is privately run with the help of paid/volunteer workers with a subsidised income derived from "Doggy Day Care" and is only a 5min drive from Lake Placid

With our day free we headed off for Trinity Beach, we are eventually seeing some beautiful tropical beaches and even better.....they are dog friendly !!!!!!!    The next spot we visited was Palm Cove and I was very impressed with the beachfront area.  It really had a great holiday atmosphere

TRINITY BEACH

TRINITY BEACH

PALM COVE

PALM COVE

PALM COVE

From Palm Cove we took the Captain Cook Highway up to Port Douglas....  what a scenic drive 

PORT DOUGLAS oozeswith Tropical Paradise Holiday atmosphere & for anyone needing a Retail fix.... it's all there in one street

THE iconic and historic Courthouse Hotel at Port Douglas has been sold to a Sydney-based hotel group for more than $12 million

This trip has given us an insight of what is on offer up around this area and we'll be heading back to Port for another day's outing as well as soaking up many an hour at the Northern Beaches of Cairns

After lunch it was time to head back to the Refuge & collect our Scruff  - we then detoured to Yorkeys Knob & now have plenty of choices of beaches that we can go to with Scruffie Dog

A day trip from Innisfail (Flying Fish Point)
To escape the boredom of the continual rain we took a drive out to Garradunga Hotel & unfortunately the road out to Bramston Beach was closed.  A detour took us back to Bruce Highway & out on Palmerston Highway back to Crawford's Lookout & further along to the town of Millaa Millaa.  The mist was thick & the air very damp at Crawford's Lookout as well as a light shower of rain.  The views would have been spectacular on a good clear day but we still appreciated what we saw & the fresh air.

Originally known as the historic Cane Cutters Hotel, The Garradunga Hotel is located north of Innisfail on the Garradunga Road

Crawford's Lookout

Historical statue of the explorer Christie Palmerston and Pompo depicting the dairy industry in this district

MILLAA MILLAA FALLS 821m above sea level

Millaa Millaa is a very small pretty countryside town & we even had a smidgen of sunshine.  From there we went onto the Millaa Millaa Falls which we couldn't get to approx a week ago due to road closures.  Easy drive from town & a very short walk to the base of the falls.

Gillies Hwy is some 800 metres above sea level, when driving the road there are about 263 turns over 19km, which should afford eagle-eye views of Queensland's highest mountain chain in the Bellenden Ker National Park - on a fine day i.e.

Our journey home via Gillies Highway down to Gordonvale was magnificent even tho' I was on the edge of my seat - we have never been on such a steep winding road.  Road work is in progress with one lane completely blocked off for a short distance due to the road having collapsed.  What a sight, a sheer drop down the side of mountain.