Rick and Rae's Travels: Mon, 26th to Tuesday 27th September

We left Mission Beach and headed north towards Cairns. The appointment to have the washing machine installed was for 1pm, so we had a bit of time up our sleeves. On the way we decided to call into the little township of Babinda. We had camped there a couple of weeks ago, but didn't actually explore the township. We found a nice bakery and had an excellent coffee and cake. After morning tea, we continued into Cairns where Rick dropped me off at the main shopping centre while he took the van in to have the washing machine installed. Fortunately, the new machine went in easily and we were on our way again fairly soon.

We headed north again, but only for about 20kms to a small caravan park at Palm Cove, which is like an outer suburb of Cairns. We drove in and were surprised to pass resort after resort more like you would expect on the Gold Coast. When we came to the end of the road there was a jetty and directly opposite was a small caravan park. It was very rustic to say the least, and quite out of character for the area. We could only have an unpowered site for $19 per night as it was pretty busy, but we were right on the beach and had restaurants and shops just a stone's throw down the road. We settled in and went for a walk down the jetty and then the street to see which restaurant we would try out first.

During the early hours of Tuesday morning we woke to some yelling and swearing coming from the beach area, but the noise eventually quietened down. In the morning we dressed and were ready to go for a walk just as a Police Officer knocked on the door. He was asking what, if anything, we heard or were aware of during the early hours. We told him what we knew and he explained that he was investigating an assault that had occurred on the beach in front of the caravan park. We were to hear on the TV news a couple of days later that there had been numerous assaults around the time that we were in the area, and that detectives had been called in from Brisbane to help solve the crimes. Later that day we drove north to Port Douglas. We decided that as we had spent a week there a few years ago, we would just do a day trip instead of staying there again. We walked the main street and found that it hadn't changed at all in the last couple of years.

On our return journey to Palm Cove we stopped at a lookout and watched as a hang-glider flew around and eventually landed on the beach below us. Someone in the crowd watching with us, yelled out to him that his mother wanted him home now as his dinner was getting cold. There's a comedian in us all! That evening we had a very nice Thai meal at a restaurant just a short walk from the caravan park.