With Rocky laid up at the dealers awaiting a full diagnosis, we got stuck into rediscovering Cairns. Cairns is a tropical city that relies heavily on the tourist dollar. That also means that for people like us, there is plenty to see and do.
We were also extremely fortunate to be holed up in my brother's house - so we were also rediscovering the joys of living in a house. The simple things like running hot water, a full kitchen and comfortable couches were certainly appreciated. That said we also were doing chores like sweeping the floors and cleaning the bathrooms that we hadn't done for a long time... there are two sides to every coin.
The boy's continued their routine of cooking dinner for us on Saturday night - necessitating a visit to the famous Rusty's Markets for the fresh food supplies. The boys did a pretty good job, not just with the shopping, but also the cooking too!
Remaining extremely popular with the boys was the lagoon down at the Esplanade. The infinity pool effect might not quite be so glorious with the brown mudflats that are Trinity Inlet making the backdrop, but the pool itself is fantastic, with a real beach to make sand castles in.
Cairns Lagoon
We made our way to Tjapukai, the Aboriginal Cultural Centre just north of town. With the luck that seems to follow us, we were between bus loads of tourists, so had the majority of the talks and shows almost to ourselves. This made our time there extremely intimate - and we had a great time yarning with some of the guides there. Jo enjoyed the bush tucker talk, and the boys enjoyed the spear and boomerang throwing, almost mastering the use of the Woomera or spear thrower.
The following day we divided our forces and I took the boys on individual tours of the brand new Armoured and Artillery Museum. There were over 90 tanks, guns or personnel carriers of all sizes from early horse drawn cannons right through to modern tanks. The Little Fisherman, after reading a book on the subject earlier in the year, was a self appointed expert and took me on a tour of the museum.
The Little Helper wasn't quite so enthusiastic about all the tanks, but he enjoyed a good look around before finding the kids table, complete with tanks and toy soldiers. He was more than happy to set up his fort, forming an alliance with another young boy also playing there.
The following day we went for a drive down to Innisfail. Along the way we passed sugar cane harvesters working - so we had to stop and watch them do a couple of passes. The process of harvesting the cane is relatively slow, but being mechanised there is no need to burn the cane as in yesteryear.
Our destination for the day was the famous Paronella Park, developed and built by Jose Paronella during the 1930s and 1940s. If ever there was an example of what can be achieved by one man with little more than grit and determination, this it is. We arrived and tagged on a short guided tour of the place. The tour was more about bringing Jose's story to life and explaining the challenges that the park faced from floods to cyclones. We enjoyed Angela's tour, before wandering off and relaxing in the park.
Last time I was here, the park had only been relatively recently reopened by its current owners. They have an ambitious project to reopen the Grand Hall - which will be an incredibly feat if they do. It is pleasing to see the original hydro-electric plant has been restored to working order and provides power for the park for most of the year.
On the way home we stopped at the picturesque but dangerous Babinda Boulders. This fast flowing gorge has some deep holes and nasty snags, claiming many unwary swimmers. The Aboriginal people knew of the dangers of the gorge, and warned people to stay away in their stories. Their story centres around Oolana, a woman who was promised to one man, but fell in love with another. When she was dragged back to her tribe, in despair, she threw herself into the water, throwing up the boulders. Her spirit is still in the creek, dragging wanderers to their death as she searches for her own lost lover. Today unmistakable signs, fences and the threat of fines and penalties try to protect visitors. I kind of liked the Aboriginal story better.
Looking downstream of Devils Pool
Sadly the weekend passed way too quickly, and my brother and his family flew out again for another break. It was time for us to see what was happening with Rocky and come up with a plan for the next few days.
Initially we had no idea of how long Rocky would be off the road, so we asked Volkswagen if they would upgrade our rental car to one with a towbar (and electric brakes) to allow us to continue our holiday. Volkswagen agreed to upgrade the rental, however no cars were available with electric brakes. The solution was to fit a trailer mounted electric brake control module - and after a couple of tries I found one that would do the job.
It took a bit of time to wire up the brake controller - as I wanted to ensure I could remove it easily once we get Rocky back. The biggest thing to get right was the 20 amp power supply - good job I had a spare in-line fuse rated to 20 amps...
We ducked into the dealer to pick up some last minute camping gear out of Rocky - and had some good news. They had removed the cylinder head, and whilst it was damaged and needed replacing, the pistons and block were undamaged. We would just need a new cylinder head, cam belt, and all the other bits - not a complete new engine as initially feared. It was good news - meaning we should have Rocky back soon.
In the mean time - it was time to pack up and head back north to check out the things we missed due to our unfortunate breakdown.
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