We both woke a few times during the night and on each occasion noted it was still raining. Indeed, when we finally awoke, it was raining and continued to do so as we tidied the van, readied ourselves and had breakfast. The sounds of the tropical forest were intense. In addition to the rain there was a loud 'quacking' noise which, in the absence of any ducks, we supposed to be some kind of frog. The cicadas were also loud, their sound forming waves with several crescendos and various other birds with unusual calls were adding to the cacophony.
We left the campsite earlier than planned for the drive to Cairns. The satnav did its, 'let's cut a corner here and travel across country', which is usually fine, but on this occasion the road surface began to deteriorate, probably due to rain, and then on rounding a bend at the bottom of a steep hill we saw that the river crossed the road! It was an official fording point but with so much rain the river was running very fast, albeit not too deep, and although we had crossed several fords in the van earlier in the week to visit Finch Hatton Gorge, caution prevailed and we turned the van and went back to the main road we had left a few kilometres back.
On the Bruce Highway we passed Queensland's highest and second highest mountains, according to road signs, but as everything was shrouded in cloud and mist we were unable to view their tops and the rain continued unabated. Other than it being very wet, in fact we reckoned we had encountered more rain in the past 24 hours than in the whole of the rest of our time in Australia of nearly 7 weeks, the journey to Cairns Airport was uneventful.
We arrived at the airport and parked our rather dirty van amongst freshly prepared hire cars from various companies, found the Avis Office and collected the car we are going to use for the next week whilst based in Cairns. We transferred all of our belongings from the van to the car and with Lesley driving the latter, we went to fill the van with diesel and return it to the Britz Depot which, was to our delight, very close to the airport.
Having returned the van we set off to find our new home for the next week at Trinity Links Resort. It was too early to check in so we ate a picnic lunch in the car with the engine running to power the air con, it being so humid, then took a drive around the locality using the satnav to find relevant shopping facilities. On returning to the resort we were able to check in to a very spacious 3 bedroom ground floor apartment in a block overlooking a pool with landscaped tropical gardens. The kitchen was very well equipped with a wide range of appliances, there were fans in every bedroom and living area and also aircon units. We had a cup of tea and then set off to the local shopping plaza to stock up on various provisions.
Back at the apartment we found homes for various things, had a dinner of pan fried red snapper with green beans and a sparkling white wine, watched the news on tv and then feeling really very tired after our disturbed night, an early start and busy day, we went to bed. I do not even recall my head touching the pillow! Oh, yes, and it was still raining.
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