We've just spent a rather lovely week in Palm Cove, Far North Queensland (pretty much right at the top of the right hand side pointy bit of Australia). It was nice to get away from the cold weather in Melbourne as we find that we have truly acclimatised this winter and I (Toni) in particular have been moaning about how cold it is almost constantly. In UK terms it isn't actually that cold, or so I keep telling myself.
Anyway, Palm Cove was lovely and warm and we didn't even need a cardy at night! Primarily we were there for a bit of a rest but we did manage to do a bit of sight seeing with a drive to Port Douglas and Mossman Gorge, a train trip up a rainforested mountain and a cable car back down and a boat out to the Great Barrier Reef for a bit of a snorkel and swim. Maddie was in her element there being plenty of time for swimming and sandcastle-building. She's very democratic in that she builds each of us a sand-castle and then smashes them down, sometimes they are birthday cakes and get decorated with shells and sticks for candles.
Anyway, rather than write more I'll just add some pics so you can see for yourselves what we got up to.
Making friends with Romeo the koala:
The view down from our cable car:
Oh we're on the train again, speeding down the rails again (song from one of Maddie's favourite books):
Palm Cove namesakes:
Little Miss Swimsuit 2008:
Sand-cake anyone?
P.S. We also saw our first two 'in the wild' snakes a red belly black which could easily have been mistaken for a big stick and a unidentified dead snake, which I very nearly trod on. We've also have our first indoor huntsman at home, which Dom bravely caught in a glass and released outside...and no, it isn't poisonous!
