Queensland Wandering Boots: Day 14 Heading home

 

 

By the numbers

1 plane

1 train

17 kilo main bag

 

Today was going to be hopefully a very easy day in returning home from Cairns to the Gold Coast with borders being uncertain, and a whole time of uncertainty with crossing borders. It was a nice Saturday morning and I was already packed and ready to head to the Cairns airport. I headed to the shopping centre for breakfast with the really chipper and energetic server. I needed something filling and a coffee. I had sorted my room out for leaving as it’s a hostel that wants you to strip the bedsheets before leaving, not that it was really that bad.

 

The YHA said I could checkout remotely without any contact at all, which would be great if they were closed, but they were open. I had a shuttle bus booked for 10 am and I was outside waiting around 10 mins before it arrived. Standing out by the steps to the entrance to the hostel, I wondered if they would turn up as the time ticked by. I really did not want to be late for my flight. I had checked in with the app and had a boarding pass, but I needed a bag tag. 20 mins later after waiting, I was getting a little annoyed and angry that the bus had not arrived, so I rang the company to ask where it was. I was polite as they checked, and as it always happens the bus turns up while I am on the phone. We did pick up some people along the way to the airport, but it did seem like I was the only person who got off the bus at the airport.

 

The Cairns airport was surrounded by mangroves and there was no footpath, but a shared on road path with bikes, not that I would really like to walk what with the crocodile issue up that way. I was happy to be in the airport and soon found there were no touch screens to print off a physical boarding pass, or a bag tag. I literally had to wait in line before getting to the front, where I showed the boarding pass on my phone. No ID checks or asking where I had been, though I did get asked about my powerbank and I did say its in my backpack. Off I go with a piece of paper that gave the gate and boarding time. I was using the app boarding pass for the airline to get onto the plane. Security this time around was no problem and I was wondering where I was meant to check in on the Qld check in app into the airport as there was only QR codes for the individual shops past security. I snagged a drink and sandwich for the plane and there wasn’t much to see just like in the Gold Coast airport. I was flying to Brisbane, so there was that. There were several other flights heading to Brisbane around the same time and when boarding for certain rows were called, I just wandered into line without really listening.

 

Once on board, I was the backseat rebel as I was in the very back of the plane in the aisle seat, which I had booked for myself. The row next to me was actually vacant, and I had two elderly people looking at me as I stashed my sandwich in the seat pocket. Music on, I was happy. I heard a flight attendant talking about asking the man if he wanted to move, and they asked me if I wanted to have a row to myself. I jumped at the chance to get a whole three seats to myself. A book and music, I was happier still with my sandwich transferred over. My corned beef sandwich, I was going to happily eat. It did take around 2 hours for the plane to land at Brisbane and it did mean a walk from one part of the airport to the baggage collection. I am glad to be wearing a mask as I was laughing at several kids, one little girl pulling a face at her mum after being told to take her foot off the bag conveyor. She was not happy with mum, and her dad had chased after one of the sisters who went wandering behind a roped off area. I was looking at the board behind me that was ticking off the minutes before the airport train left and I could see it from where I was standing. My bag arrived and I walked towards the train with less that 5 mins remaining. At the station I had 1 minute remaining and the driver seen me trying to run towards him. I think I made the train less than a minute left as the doors did close. It would mean I would be on the train until around 430pm as I had just made it at 230pm. Not the best of plans in getting to the airport when I live closer to the Gold Coast Airport.

 

I did enjoy myself on the trip and the train to Varsity was the last part of my journey and I was a little confused over the wearing of the masks, but I kept it on until I got off the train and picked up. I had border passes for NSW and Queensland, although no one asked when I was up north where I was from apart from museums asking for postcodes that I was worried about giving out. I do like using the apps to get a boarding pass for flights and think I should use them more next time as it is pretty convenient. Another trip well done, although the last blog always takes several days to write out as there are other things to get done like

Queensland wandering boots: Day 13 Wandering Cairns

 

By the numbers

13.63 kms

17844 steps

 

Today I thought I would take it easy and not go too far within Cairns. I did think the Botanic Gardens might be nice, but that was a touch too far on foot. By bus it wouldn’t be too bad, but there are places that can be left for another visit and that is what I have done. Keeps life interesting it does. I had breakfast and was ready to take the walk. . I had two jobs to do before I left the hostel for my wander. There was the border pass to return to NSW and the phone call to confirm my pick up on Saturday morning for the airport. The closest place I wanted to head for was the historic cemetery. The cemetery was not very far up the road from where I was staying. Actually it was on the same street, so it wouldn’t be very hard to find if I was going in the one direction.

 

I had been told the day before that the McLeod Street Pioneer cemetery was where some of the workers for the railway were located. There had been another cemetery that failed in Cairns at an earlier date, but this one was not in the most ideal location either as it was a touch swampy. The information went on to say that not everyone could cope with the weather as there were quite a few children there. The cemetery is on the heritage register and you cannot clean the headstones without getting permission first. I took a wander around the cemetery and many of the headstones were faded that you couldn’t read the inscriptions.

 

There were mozzies and sandflies in the cemetery and I went to wander off to walk along the promenade along the beach. There were plenty of animal life to see from the beach like crabs doing their crab things, birds eating and other things crawling along the mudflats. There were information panels about the history of Cairns and even directing you to visit the Outback towns even though some no longer exist due to the mines running out of resources. It was actually a cloudy day until the sun came out when I was wandering around the pier area, and planning on heading back towards the hostel as I was thinking this was meant to be an easy day. Once I returned to the hostel, I offloaded some things I had and headed over to the shopping centre to see a movie as there wasn’t a point in trying to get myself worn out and sunburnt again like I had earlier in the week. I knew I needed to pack my bag before leaving the next day and wanted to be ready. I think I know that I would return to where I have been to, but not in summer as winter would be the best time to come.

 

Queensland wandering boots: Day 12 To Kuranda

 

By the numbers

1 bus

1 wet day

10.93kms

14721 steps

 

I woke up to the rain again. This morning I was going on tour and I was guessing that I would have rain today. The weather report said it would be a wet day and they were right. Tomorrow is meant to be clearing up, so we shall see what happens then. I made my way to the shops for a coffee as you know coffee is life, and so is a good breakfast. Once I was fuelled and ready to go it was time for me to head over to the ticket office to grab my tickets for my day in the hills in the rain. I was doing the train to Kuranda, returning by skyrail and then the bus back to the train station. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

 

With half hour before boarding the train, I had checked in and had climbed aboard ready to go. I was in seat number 4 and had the entire row to myself. Behind me were a family with kids, one that would every so often squeal rupturing my ear drums. I could live with that for a little while. The commentary while on the railway was pretty good especially when they mentioned Redlynch, which was the name of a foreman with red hair who did the hiring and firing. People in the end thought that was the name of the area and the name stuck with no objections. The railway was built by hand with shovels, pick axes and explosives from the late 1800s. Two companies working on the railway went broke, then it wasn’t fully finished until around 1910. The breeze was nice and cool on the way up and the spectacular views were hidden by cloud and rain. The Barron falls, which was one stop was hidden behind cloud and it was raining. I got back onto the train after a couple of minutes in the rain. It didn’t take long before the train made it to the station, where we got off. I hung around for a little bit for the men’s loos to clear out and then I was on my way.

 

At this stage the rain had stopped, so much so that I had to put my sunnies back on. I had found on my map that there was a cemetery in Kuranda and I wondered if that meant there would be historic graves. The track said it would take 40 mins one way to get to it. I found a shorter route that included roadwork, so had only one side to watch for traffic, while the other sat at the lights. No one said a word and I walked across had a look and realised it might not be the best idea to wander around when wet as it was hilly and there was more rain coming. Walking back I headed for the bird park, where I got to see a few different birds including Macaws, galahs, black Cockatoos and a Cassowary. I did have one sit on my shoulder and he didn’t last long. I didn’t last long in the Avery either as it had started raining. I didn’t go into the historic markets area as I wasn’t that interested even though that is part of why you visit Kuranda.

The rain steadily grew heavier and more constant as I wandered around with my brolly. I made my way down to the Skyrail and then back to the train as I wanted to walk some of the river route. That just got too wet to even try, so I went back to the railway line and found a monument to the engineering feat. I went looking for a coffee and hung around town while drinking it as I had heaps of time before I was meant to get the skyrail at 230pm. I bought a real leather belt with a waterproof hat. Then it was time to make my way back, luckily the sky rail area was covered and I needed to charge my phone as it was at 39%. It wasn’t very long until we could line up at the Skyrail waiting for our turn.

 

The best part of waiting was when it came time to board, I was allowed on with another couple as I was a single person. I didn’t get off on the stops on the way down as we all were not wanting to get wet trying to find the lookouts. There were parts that were so fogged up that we would not have been able to make out any of the landmarks anyway. There were noises like an aircraft nearby on our way down until all three of us realised it was the road below us. One of the stops we had to change cars as the one we were one goes back up the hill, but they don’t tell you that when you book. Once on firm ground again, I got a coffee as I had a little bit of a wait before the bus came. At least they had my name on the paperwork and we went right back by bus to the train station we began the day on while it was pouring still. It was just after 4pm and I didn’t really want to go very far, but had a wander through the shopping centre before heading back to the hostel as I wanted a shower and wear something a little dryer. Hopefully my last day in Cairns will mean that it is a nice dry day and I can make contact with the shuttle bus as well to make sure they are picking me up. I will try to take it easy if its wet as I don’t want to have wet sandals or clothes I am wearing. If wet maybe a movie or the Cairns museum.

 

Queensland wandering boots: Day 11 Tank Museum Day

By the numbers

1 wet day

2 bus rides

1 museum

7kms

9287 steps

 

I had a good sleep, although I was up early anyway when it was still dark at 6am. I still had another hour and I was wondering what the strange noise was. Turns out it was actually raining and there was also a touch of thunder rumbling too. It wasn’t pouring, but I was happy that I had the day planned out for visiting a museum. Once I got moving, I headed to Coles, although I found where Woolworths was and walked in the other direction. Coles soon turned up and I found they do sell sandwiches, which was breakfast. They just didn’t sell coffee, but a nearby coffee shop had just that for me and the guy was bloody chipper. Still I had a coffee and went back to the hostel, which is across from the shopping centre. I listened to a family talking while eating, It was funny as the kids were asking if mum had backed their jumpers and I was thinking it isn’t cold.

 

After eating I grabbed my bag and wandered off to the bus stop even though I had 15 mins before it came, I was happy to wait as it started raining again. It was pretty easy to sort the bus out as it was in cash and I had enough coins. I was heading to the other side of town where the Australian tank and artillery museum is located. Actually its right next door to the Sky rail, which is where I will get off tomorrow funnily enough. The bus takes around an hour to get there and I was following my map on my phone as the bus went on its way. I didn’t really need to know where to get off as it was sign posted and I could see the rain coming.

 

By the time the bus pulled up at the stop, the museum had only just opened for the day and I was waiting behind several families, which didn’t bother me in the least. The museum is a private museum that holds a pretty large collection of military vehicles. They do happen to have more tanks arriving especially the German ones. I was happy to be there today, although I do wish that I could have been there in August for Tankfest, although that will be another trip. The min amount of time to see the museum is 2 hours and the max could be a full day. I started at the beginning and worked my way round. The signs were pretty informative telling you about the mechanic specs of the vehicle, the history and versions that were in production and which country built them. The last bit of information told you where they acquired the machine and several said they were replicas and restored from other machines by either the museum, or somewhere like the UK. Several were on lists planned to be restored at a later date. They did have a few Australian vehicles too, especially converted tanks that were surplus to needs and bought by farmers. They had one such vehicle there that was really rusty. Throughout the museum, I did notice there were a few of the tanks that were leaking oil.

 

I didn’t go on the tank ride they had advertised and I even looked outside when the crowd were doing the ride and the heavens had opened up and was pouring, so I was happy not to have been caught in the wet weather and doing something different instead. I had made it to one side of the building before there was a call about an open hatch tour, and that was a talk about one specific vehicle. It was a Russian tank that had been in use during the Gulf War I think it was and was sand colours because of that country, and had an Arabic number meaning it was used there. The guy was pretty informative about it and he did answer questions about other vehicles too. I asked one about a rusty Japanese tank as I thought it might have been found in a swamp. It had been captured and was one of many so I think it was the AWM (Aussie war memorial) that off loaded it and the machine was found in a scrap yard. A friend of a collector rang him and the collector stored it at his place until it was handed to the museum last year I think it was. I am really impressed that nearly every vehicle has some story about the production including how many were made. Some were from several hundred to several thousand. The vehicles ranged from thinly armoured light vehicles like a jeep to the 50+ ton heavy battle tanks. I did see one of the vehicles being worked on by two people and they even got the thing running for a minute at least. Every vehicle did have a purpose somewhere along the line.

 

I was wondering what I was going to do for lunch as I didn’t know what I was going to do once I left the museum. I found there was a little caravan that had coffee and food, so I stopped my exploring to refuel, or else I would have eaten my arm, maybe. The last lot of vehicles were all the German ones and they even had some relics from Stalingrad, which surprised me that they were allowed stuff like that. There were some remains of vehicles, or armour plating that showed battle damage. I was actually pretty impressed we had a museum like this in Australia and there did seem to be quite a few collectors from Australia that either sold or donated the machines to the museum. By the time I left with a bunch of goodies it was mid afternoon, I had time before the bus arrived so I had a quick look at the sky rail, although in other words I needed to use their toilets. You could see the rain coming across the mountains and I was happy to get the bus back as it started pouring part way back to Cairns city. I needed to get some washing done once I returned and I did have the idea to visit HMS Cairns, although I soon found that wasn’t a vessel, but it was a base. Not sure if they would be happy with me taking pictures.

 

I have looked at the weather forecast for tomorrow and it is meant to be a wet day again just like today, with the weather clearing on Friday. That doesn’t bother me too much as its all part of the holiday experience and I am happy to get what I am given.