July 30th to August 6th - Cairns

When we think of Cairns, we will always think of the time that we left our Alto in the caravan park and flew home to celebrate Alex and Tess’ engagement. Three and a half weeks to drive to Cairns and three and a half hours to fly back home. It was so special to share the excitement with the two families.

It was also the time in our trip where we took time out from travelling and became tourists. We had the van booked into the caravan park for eight nights, so had some time without packing up and setting up each day. It felt like a holiday away from our holiday.

We spent a beautiful day at Fitzroy Island, leaving for a whale watching trip for a couple of hours in the middle of the day. We saw heaps of whales and returned to snorkel off the beach at Fitzroy Island. The water was pretty murky, but I did see a turtle and stingray.

The following day we headed out on a catamaran for a day of snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. It was beautiful. Dave had given me my birthday present early (a waterproof camera) so I was able to take photos of the fish and coral. The highlight was the whale that breached next to the boat, leaving me with one of my favourite photos of the trip

On our last day we visited the Crystal Cascades before having lunch at the Botanical gardens.