Cairns

After Innot springs we made our way to Cairns to the free camp in Gordontown it is just next to Edmonton the suburb that Carol lives in. It is probably the best free camp we have ever been to, lots of facilities including showers. The drive to Cairns was great through the cain fields all the flowers were on top of the cain and the sun made it look all silvery. Looking out to the hills we could see some spectacular waterfalls in the distance.

The first night we were invited to Carols for dinner, we met her family and had a good evening. We planned to go out for a meal the next night at an italian restaurant in Cairns itself, we would go and pick up Emma first from her flight from Toowoomba as school holidays have begun. Emma arrived without a hitch and we headed straight to the restaurant to meet the others. Scott stayed back at camp to mind the dogs for us. The meal was absolutely lovely but unfortunately we had to wait a long time for the table that we had booked. Emma and I snuck off from the table after our meal and headed to cold rock for a sneaky icecream.

Next day we booked into a campsite in Edmonton to enable us to do some washing and go about town for a few errands. The campsite was ok but being used to free camping we find it very squashed in these paid sites. We ran about town, did all we needed to do and caught up on all our washing. The last day there I woke up with a terrible bought of vertigo, so bad I asked Jock to take me to the hospital. I have had vertigo twice before and the last lot took 8 weeks to clear up properly. I had blood tests, ECG, brain scan to rule out stroke and it was my urine test that showed I had a urine infection. Thank goodness for that, easily sorted with antibiotics and stemtil until the vertigo cleared. We all had had visions of being in Cairns for a long time.

The next day I was ok and ready to set off, we were all hyped up to start out on our adventure up Cape York.