Zelma’s Trip

I packed up and left Kurrimine beach for the last stint of my journey with Bernie.  Hey that rhymes!  I stopped half-way to get some food and re-read my paperwork which, amongst other things, told me that the office where I was meant to drop Bernie off in Cairns was closed on Sundays.  I called them and, somewhat surprisingly, they answered and told me where to park up and put the keys.

Once in Cairns itself I did a remarkable job of finding the drop off point even if I do say so myself.  Well, when I say remarkable job, I didn’t have a map of the city and managed to locate the road it was on successfully.  It was on a silly sideroad though and I managed to drive past it about three times so I guess it wasn’t all that remarkable.  I was actually really sad to drop Bernie off as we had such fun together.  Okay, I am slightly conscious of the extent of the anthropomorphism going on here and think I might just stop now.  It was great having the freedom to go where I wanted though and at the pace I wanted.

I had booked a place at the Northern Greenhouse hostel in Cairns over the phone earlier in the day and decided to call them to ask about taxis.  The guy I spoke to initially gave me a number which didn’t work so I called back only to be told that he didn’t know any other numbers before he hung up.  There’s nothing like friendly staff and I considered checking in somewhere else but I had given them my visa details to secure the booking.  When I did check in the guy was in reception and I, jokingly, commented on his helpfulness.  He simply replied that he didn’t know any other taxi numbers so what was he supposed to do.  I had a few things in mind like a self-labotomy or perhaps a parachute-less parachute jump but decided to keep them to myself.  When I had checked in I was pleasantly surprised at the place which was not only central but had large, clean rooms.

I headed into Cairns itself which had a good feel about it.  It felt more ethnically diverse than most of the places I had been to in Australia previously and had a great area by the sea with a(nother) lagoon with cafes and bars along the front.  Other than pottering and generally faffing about, I spoke to my parents on the phone which was lovely.  I also booked a tour to leave the following morning to go to Cape Tribulation, an area further North where the rainforest allegedly meets the reef.