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Finally made it to Cairns after spending 3 days with the relies.
Brian (my dad's cousin) picked me up from Innisfail on Friday afternoon and we took a drive back to his house. On the way he saw a sign for the misty mountains and thought that might be a nice scenic route. About 30 mins up the dirt track we realised we'd taken the wrong turning so turned around and got back onto the main road. Turned out we had a puncture! Looked in the boot to find the spare - phew, it was there but the jack was missing. Luckily there was car parked over the other side of the road and we borrowed theirs. I think that was a warning sign of things to come. Brian was always missing turnings, tooting at people driving too slow and generally driving around the country roads like a formula one driver - yikes!
Made it to Brian and Carol's house which is in the middle of NOWHERE! My mobile didn't even work (what was I going to do for 3 days?!) They live in a place called Millstream which is in the Tablelands. The nearest town is Ravenshoe which is about 15 mins drive away. The house was lovely though. He'd bought the plot of land and then designed and built his house which is what most people do out here.
Had a bbq for dinner - Mmmmm, nice juicy steak. This beats backpacking! I also had a lovely double bed to spread out in and a huge bathroom all to myself - bliss! His daughter Ellen (my 3rd cousin - god, this is complicated!) came over for dinner with her children. Was nice to finally meet some of my (very) extended family.
They have wild Wallabies in their garden which are eating the roses. Brian leaves out food for them every night to try and feed them up. It doesn't seem to work though. They eat all the food and then go into the garden and have the roses for dessert!
On Saturday we drove out to all of the main tourist points around the Tableland. We took in Lake Eachem, Lake Barrine, waterfalls, dams and the lovely wide open spaces. It's a beautiful part of Australia. We stopped for lunch in Yungabarra. I was really happy to be seeing places that were't in the lonely planet!
Sunday we went out again and saw the Millstream falls, Tully Gorge and had a look around the surrounding towns. All very small but have the essentials- a supermarket, cafe, bank and post office. Hmm, where are all the shops?! Not sure I could live around here!
Brian cooked a roast chicken for dinner on Sunday night. I've been fed really well these last few days. How will I ever go back to being a backpacker?!
Today, we drove into Cairns and picked up Brian's daughter Holly for lunch. We to a yummy sushi place (must not get used to eating out!) We dropped her back at work and then went out to the Northen beaches and onto Brian's son Mark whos girlfriend has just had a baby boy name Zach (another boy to carry on the Everett name!)
So, am back with the mutants at the Carins Beach backpackers. Don't know why it's got the word beach in the name because it's no where near the bloomin beach! I'll be staying here until Wednesday morning when I get picked up for a 4 day trip to Cape Tribulation and Port Douglas including more snokelling out on the reef.
Looking forward to it!
Love Julie xx
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