Another day in sunny Cairns and the final day with Nessy…

Before I start, I should warn you…I’ve had quite a bit of time to write this and I’ve just bought myself a keyboard for my iPad…this will hopefully be the end of the essay’s you’ll be glad to hear…and, all going to plan, there will be a couple of extra photos (you’ll be happy to hear dad!)

Today was the final day of the first leg of our Aussie adventure…the final day of the camping section of the holiday. It was going to be sad, probably emotional but, as i mentioned before, all good things must come to an end.

As we’d done a bit of the packing the night before, we awoke with some spare time on our hands. Also, as we were checking into the hotel at 14:00, we had the morning to burn effectively. We had planned to have a fairly relaxed day today as we had to drop Nessy off and check in to our new hotel, we couldnt really go too far.

As mentioned, the day (surprisingly) was relativly chilled out. As there was still some packing to do, Amy got up and went to the bathroom whilst I started packing away the rest of my stuff and started to get the van in order (putting away the bed, putting the table back where it was hidden etc). By the time Amy had returned, I was packed (pretty much) as was Nessy (again, pretty much) so it was only Amy who needed to sort her things out whilst I showered. As we’d done this ‘camping-malarkey’ for a couple weeks now, we had a pretty slick routine, even when it came to finally packing up all our stuff.

At about 9.45, we had packed everything up, filled up at the campsite fuelling pump and checked out. As we had 3 hours to burn before we took Nessy home, we decided to head to the largest shopping ‘mall’ in Cairns (much to Amy’s delight). Normally I wouldn’t dwell on a jounrey as small as the campsite to the mall, but, given that I write essay’s now, why not add a bit more in. Just before we reached the mall, there was nearly a minor incident between Nessy and a pedestrian. Thankfully this was only a ‘near miss’ but, as it turns out, even when the lights are green, you still need to be aware that the green man can also be green…some would think this was ridiculous…similar to having exactly the same car setup as the UK (left hand drive etc) then, for a laugh, swapping the indicators (which are on the left side of the steering wheel) with the windscreen wipers (which are on the right)…needless to say, if I was ever flustered and had to make a quick turn left or right, our lovely windows got an extra little clean/smearing of all the bugs that had accumulated! Anyway, back to the main point, why would the green man be on as the same time that the traffic’s green man is on?? No one knows…its just Aussie. In this circumstance, as i mentioned, there were no accidents, just a polite gesticulation between driver and pedestrian…

You’ll be happy to know that the mall was quite uneventful in comparison. We walked around, we had some lunch, looked in a lot of shops…quite a lot…and, after just over 2 hours (where Amy bought herself some face wipes), we decided to head back to Vanessa for the final leg.

We got to the camper rental place at about 12.30, unloaded all the bags, did a quick walkround with the rental guy (who then phoned us a taxi) and we were out of the door by 12.55. And that was it. 2 weeks with Vanessa and it was over in 25 minutes. There was hardly even enough time to say good bye…but, on the brightside, we had 2 crackin’ weeks with Vanessa and we were very glad for the safe passage. We’d travelled approximately 2500Km by then end, a pretty good innings for a 2 week adventure.

We reached the Holiday Inn (which was situated right on the waterfront), got into our room and basically fell onto the bed. It’s only when you lie on a large comfy bed that you realise properly that for 2 weeks you’ve been sleeping on a dinner table and a couple of wooden slats. Still, it was still the middle of the day so we decided that resting could wait….until we were outside sitting beside the pool at least. Now, moving from hotel room to hotel pool is normally a relativly simple affair; unpack swimwear, put on swimwear, grab towel/book/sunscreen, head to pool. However, there was a slight issue….

Before i go into detail about the issue, there is a slight dispute as to reason it occured. I will provide my views (the most accurate)…

I came out of the toilet to find Amy surrounded by all her clothes. As we are travelling around with large rucksacks, we try not to open them fully as it takes a bit of time to repack…this would have to happen on Sunday night/Monday morning before we left for Melbourne but it was a bit extreme opening it up on Saturday afternoon. After asking what the problem was, the response i got was, ‘I cant find my kindle’. For the record, I would also like to point out that I bought her the kindle for her Birthday…cue my response of, ‘I’m sure you’ve packed it…I hope you havent lost my birthday gift to you!?’. Anyway, joking aside, she couldnt find it. So, i joined in…my bag was tipped upside down so now, our large hotel room was filled with a month of clothes…the claustrophobic enviroment started to remind me of Vanessa already. But, alas, my bag was ‘kindle-less’ also. So, we racked our brains….Amy had it this morning when she woke up and read a bit in bed but hadnt seen it since (nor remembers packing it – key to the story). So, we had an issue…we didnt have it, the only places it could be; the campsite or Vanessa. We gave Vanessa a pretty thorough check before we left but, to ease our minds, I phoned the van hire place and asked them to have a quick look and call me back. They did and after going through the bed linen as requested (the only place we reckoned it could be), he phoned back with a, ‘sorry mate, checked the whole van and it’s not there’. So, slightly down-heartened, we gave the bag/pile-of-our-lives another look but again, nothing.

(you can take a breather here / a tissue to wipe away the tears for Amy’s kindle, i need to rest my fingers after this essay…)

Anyway, i convinced Amy that, for a $30 AUS round taxi trip, we may as well go to the van rental and check ourselves. It was surely the only place that it could be, even if the bloke had checked himself…for peace of mind at least. After arriving, the bloke I spoke to on the phone went and got the keys for the van and took us to it…however, he took us to the wrong van! (queue a surge of hope). After apologising, he went back and got Vanessa’s keys…didn’t expect to see the old girl again so soon but, within about 2 minutes of entering the van, Amy came out holding the Kindle aloft…genuinely not too dissimilar to how the World Cup winners captains hold the World Cup after the final. What are the chances! So, turns out to be the best $30 we spent. In the taxi, we decided to quiz how this has happened…turns out, Amy had hid the kindle in the bedsheets so that I couldn’t see it before I packed it away (you may remember I mentioned this 30 minutes ago when you started reading this blog). Therefore, as she hid it and specifically remembers NOT packing the Kindle, the blame rests with her…about 9% with Vanessa, maybe 1% with me. Anyway, Kindle was found so it was back to the hotel.

The remainder of the day/night was quite relaxed. We did in the end go to the pool for a few hours then headed out on the town for some dinner along the promenade.

We’d spent two weeks along the coast but, due to the ‘barby culture’, hadn’t really had much seafood (with the exceptions of ‘prawns on the barby’, obviously). So, with this in mind, we stopped at ‘Barnacle Bills’ where we both enjoyed some of the local ‘fruits de mare’ – fantastic.

We got back to the room about 22:00 and, after an eventful day, hit the hay pretty fast. Tomorrow’s plan is for a relatively chilled out day…after today, I think we need one…