New Neighbours

Tues 20 October… Today we sent yet another box home mostly books that would be too heavy to carry in our luggage. It’s all getting rather expensive! We also got the van booked in for the engine to be steam cleaned. There has been a slight oil leak from somewhere for over 6 months now and the engine looks worse than it is. A bit of a scrub up will help it through it’s handover period whenever that will be as we still have had no word from our van man in Perth.
We had a long walk along the esplanade north of the centre of Cairns, we are realising what a beautiful well looked after city this is.
We had dinner tonight with our new friends next door, Phil and Julie, they are a couple of Aussies and are a couple of months into their 18 month trip. Much vino was consumed!
Wed 21 October… A bit sluggish this morning, probably too much carbo last night!
We took a day off from admin duties and went sight seeing around Cairns. First stop the Botanical Gardens, which is a reclaimed swamp, but moderately interesting. We saw the tallest bamboo we have ever seen over 12m tall. You could grow a few sweet peas or tomatoes up them! Later we drove out to Copperlode Dam, another white knuckle journey, 16K up a very steep and narrow road. The views over Cairns were spectacular when we dared to look. There were a couple of lookout points, but mostly we didn’t look anywhere except the road. The hairpin bends were quite scary.
The weather is still mixed, with squally showers coming in on the wind but cold it isn’t!
Thurs 22 October… Needed another bump start again this morning after a heavy session last night with our new found buddies next door. We only went round for Happy Hour and stayed until nearly midnight, missing out on dinner!
We had the engine degreased today so nobody will know we have an oil leak. We visited the P O yet again still waiting for a letter that was sent from Perth 2 weeks ago, we just hope it’s nothing important.
Finally got an email from van man with instructions where to drop the van off on Monday. Things are starting to happen.