Lollipops and Lazy Crocs

Stopping at Palm Cove for a week we had a number of day trips, the two highlights were the Zoo and Barron Falls.

I took Sam and Josh to Cairns Tropical Zoo while Amy and John had a Daddy daughter day.   The Zoo was full of Australian animals.  You could hand feed the Kangaroos.  Of course Joshua ate the kangaroo food and then played drums on the kangaroos back.  Trying to curb joshua’s fear about being eaten by a crocodile I took him for a walk through the croc sanctuary while they were lazing in the sun.  I pointed out how lazy the crocs were and this seemed to help, but later during the show crocs show when they wouldn’t jump out for their food, Joshua calls out in a loud voice to the zoo keeper – ‘they are just so lazy’  Later we enjoyed a private tour of the reptile sanctuary, because we were the only ones who turned up for the tour.  The boys thought this was fabulous and that they really were helping the zoo keeper feed the lizards.  They even got to hold a baby croc.   .

Kuranda is a gorgeous mountain village in the rainforest of Barron National Park just west of Cairns.  We took a walk to the Baron Falls which was the most amazing waterfall I have ever seen.   We had brought the kids a lollipop in the candy store in Kuranda (the kind of store where you can watch them make the lollies) - and Josh lost his lollipop over the waterfall lookout.  Then Amy fell splat on the ground and got a dirt beard all over her sticky face, sam was still working slowly at his lollipop three hours later.   The kids loved the rainforest.  Amy kept shouting out ‘tree tree’ or ‘rock’ or ‘bird bird’.   Sam wanted to lead the way on the bush walk and have everyone follow him.   Josh just wanted to run.  We were talking about what we might see in the rainforest, and they boys mentioned cassowaries and brush turkeys.  Amy suggested fairies (she is in love with fairies right now).  We did see the brush turkeys, then we walked passed two young teenage girls with long hair on the walk and Amy called out ‘fairies fairies’.  Didn’t see any Cassowarys through.

I snuck in a shopping trip while in Cairns region – who knows when we’ll see Myer again.  I had an excuse to shop because John had only packed one pair of shorts and spent a month in them already (not sure if I should have left him to pack his own bag). 

Also spent a day in Port Douglas which was a bit like a tropical version of Port Stephens.

At Palm Cove we had battery problems with the van again with Cairns just down the road it was a good spot to sort things out.  We discovered it hasn’t been the battery all this time, but a wiring problem in the van, and although we don’t have the skill to fix it, we find a way to work around it .  John also change a tyre on the van which kept loosing air – and at this point open up another can of worms.  First the Jack fails (later I searched online and found that model we brought had been recalled).  We worked out a way to get the tyre changed with the assistance of a helpful stranger.  After the wheel is changed it seems wobbly and we think to ourselves with our great mechanical wisdom ‘hmm I don’t think the wheel should wobble’.  Thankfully the kind stranger helping us advises we need to adjust the bearings, he takes of the wheel cap and works it all out for us.  He tells us we need to get the other one done too but without a working Jack it would be a bit problematic, so we contact a mechanic in Mossman.  They book us in for the following week.

Thinking things are now well sorted, we confidently head off to Cape Tribulation.