It feels so good to get up whenever we want. I really have no idea if it’s dark at 6.30am here in Cairns, like it is at home, or still dark at 7am when the boys head off to catch the bus – like it is at home. And I have no intention of finding out. But it was light by the time I decided to make a perfect coffee under the palm trees with the bush turkeys keeping me company.

I have only been to Cairns once, way back in 1997. John was doing an expedition race over five or six days in the region. I don’t think much has changed really. There are new suburbs still being unpacked – just like in our own region. But they have more ostentatious entry gates to the New Estates up here in FNQ. We just have iron sculptures of pelicans. Not sure which is less desirable. But Cairns is a city of all that the tourist needs. It’s all set up for the backpacker culture. There are multiple yards filled with Wicked Campers ready for the hoards. The “adventure activities” abound: bungy jumping, cable water skiing, scuba diving, white water rafting, kayaking and more. It’s pretty exhausting just reading the brochures. I feel SO over 50.

We drive to town and do the family thing, starting with the Visitor Information Centre. One of the weird things going on here in Queensland (but not the only one) is that Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service or QPWS have decreed that all their camping grounds must be pre-booked online. Well pardon me, but which outback traveller can plan exactly which nights they wish to camp on their journey to Cape York along rough roads with unpredictable weather and unknown conditions? Not this family. If you don’t pre-book online, you can phone them. Which is pretty difficult round these parts with phone reception generously described as patchy – at best. The man at the Info Centre has identified the problem. Last State Government funding cuts. Isn’t that always the answer?

I have always wondered how Cairns came to be the huge regional centre that it is plus the major tourism mecca when the beach is, well, just mud.

Cairns Beach. No problems with sand between your toes here

We head out of town to find Crystal Cascades. It’s a little known waterfall high above Cairns. But Google Maps has sabotaged the side trip and we end up 90 minutes’ walk from where we want to be. Nice view of Lake Morris though.

Lake Morris bathed in the brilliant sunshine of Far North Queensland. Not.

We did, however, find the Queensland version of the fig leaf. When there’s so much rain up here it’s no wonder the plants grow so big.

Harry’s big fig leaf.