Australian Vacation - Day 5
Adelaide - Cairns - Tropical Paradise
Had an outgoing flight out of Adelaide at 11am. So we woke up and took our leisurely time getting ready. The hostel we stayed at was nice, and advertised a cooked breakfast for $5 which for Australia is really good. Went downstairs and ordered one from the counter, only to realize it should have been called a “soon to be cooked by you” breakfast. They literally hand you eggs, frozen bacon and hash browns and you do the rest. This would have been fine but we only had a half hour before we had to catch the bus to the airport so it was a mad scramble (pun intended). I was literally eating the stuff out of the frying pan. We had to run down the street with our luggage in tow and got to the bus station 3 mins late but it was fine.
Our flight was delayed by an hour, but eventually we landed in Cairns around 2:30pm. I don’t think Queensland obeys daylight savings time, so it was a weird condition of flying east but rolling our clocks backwards. I could see the outback for part of the flight, but since it’s late spring, they’ve gotten their seasonal rains and it had quite a bit of colour to it.
Picked up our rental car at the airport. It’s a nice compact sedan made by Skoda which doesn’t sell cars in North America. Honestly driving on the right hand side of the car is less of a big deal than dealing with the roundabouts. You have to know which exit you’re taking out of the roundabout ahead of time and pick the correct lane going into it. As far as driving itself, the turn signals, windshield wiper controls and pedals are all the same as back home, and everything that’s in the centre console stays there, it’s just obviously controlled with the left hand instead. Got an immediate test of my driving skills because right out of the airport, after a bunch of roundabouts, we had to head up into the mountains on a steep winding road. It was pretty awesome though and I had an Australian GPS on my iPhone so no troubles in knowing where to go.
Made our way about an hour outside of Cairns, stopping for lunch at a gas station because literally nothing else was open once in the mountains. Got to our hotel called the Cedar Park Rainforest Retreat. It was #1 on Trip Advisor for this area and wasn’t too expensive so we were really looking forward to it. This place only houses 6 rooms of guests and was renovated by a trio of Swiss people 6 years ago. It is tropical paradise just like you’d imagine it. Right in the rainforest, it’s surrounded by streams and incredible wildlife. The Wallabies (small Kangaroos) are everywhere and super friendly, there’s a peacock in the garden, and you literally fall asleep to the sound of dozens of different creatures and critters. The owners gave us some sweet potato slices to feed the Wallabies and after that, this one started following us around like a cat. Dinner is cooked by the owners and was fantastic. This has to be one of the most incredible places we’ve ever stayed.
