Cairns Fishing Charter Trip - April/May 2025

  Day Six - 23rd April, 2025.

Cairns

Good Morning Barney, it's 6.15am thanks for the wake up mate!

Today is all about getting organised for Craig leaving on the fishing charter and making sure Barney and I are comfortable for our week alone.  First things first, I have a bit of work to do this morning, so Craig has volunteered to do the washing, bless him this will be a new experience for him.  He came back quite quickly saying he needed his credit card, apparently some laundries are not coin operated anymore and electronic.  Kept Craig busy working it all out and I think there was a little pride in his achievement and HE ALSO FOLDED IT!! 😍

Also on the list today was fixing a couple of niggley things on the van (unfortunately he did forget to fix the toilet pump in the van - it keeps sticking and stops working).

Now that the work and things are completed, it's time for our lunch date at Hemingway's Brewery, plus we had to stop at Pet Barn due to Barney chewing through the rope lead Craig made over 25 years ago, it's been through 2 other Staffies but didn't make it through Barney!  Also picked up some pig's ears, which we thought might entertain him during lunch - he's not had one, so we'll see how that goes.  What a great venue Hemingway's Brewery is, right on the water, such a cool building and food was great, dog friendly in the outdoor dining area.

After lunch it was onto Anaconda, so Craig could buy a new fishing rod 🤔, line, lures etc....  then onto Dan's for his charter lubrication and Coles for groceries for Barney and I.  With such a big lunch at the Brewery, we decided on fresh cooked prawns on a roll for dinner plus it's sooooo humid and hot.

Back at camp and Craig got his fishing gear and clothes organised for the Charter and then packed the car ready for his drop off tomorrow at the marina.

Relatively early night again after our prawns for dinner, due to the himidity - it's way nicer inside the van in the air con!  We figured out how to log the TV onto the park's Wi-Fi, so we can watch Netflix Yah!

Cairns Fishing Charter Trip - April/May 2025

 Day Five - 22nd April, 2025.

Kurrimine Beach - Cairns

The one thing Barney seems to have figured out so far this trip,is he needs to wake us up about 6.30am and go to the loo and a sticky beak, then he seems to think that we can all go back to sleep afterwards - well that aint happening.

No need for breakfast this morning, just coffee and pack up.  We're headed into Cairns today, so a massive day 1 1/2 hours driving today 😆  Arriving around 9.30am it was too early to book into the Ingenia Coconut Caravan Park in Woree, where we are setting up for 10 days, while Craig goes out on his 6 night Fishing Charter.  We went for a drive up to Yorkey's Knob, haven't been there since 2004.  Got dog and Craig out of the car and took them for a walk along the beach, beautiful and fine today but rather hot - 34degrees in the shade, so didnt walk for too long at the beach.

Time to head back to the caravan park.  Got there about 11am, booked in, found our site and got the van all set up - not a lot of room lengthways, with a little step up gutter, so hooking up may be interesting.    Got ourselves an ensuite site, so that I don't need to empty the toilet cassette by myself with Barney in tow - what could possibly go wrong trying to do that!!  This will be something completely new for us, setting up in a caravan park for such a long period of time.  It is dreadfully hot, and setting up in the heat made us feel physically sick, so we had to have a little sit down in the shade for a couple of hours until it started to cool down. Had a video call with Craig's sister during this time and then we took Barney to the Dog Agility Park inside the Caravan Park which is a bonus, once it cooled down.  Don't really think Barney gets the point of the agility equipment 😄 It's a great little off leash park for the dogs, gets the sun in the morning and shade in the afternoon, water tap and bowls, poo bags, seat for humans to sit on and the agility equipment, plus lovely and grassy.  We can walk Barney around about half of the park, the other half is off limits to dogs which is where the water park, gym, swimming pools and up market cabins are located.  The Bistro however is dog friendly.  We went for a walk around the park later to check things out and Barney got lots of pats.

Did sausage rolls in the camp oven on the stove top with wedges in the frypan and salad, was a great success. It's so humid tonight, we cleaned up, had showers and retreated inside to the air con and watched TV.  Not a very exciting day.

Nice big corner site with ensuite

Cairns Fishing Charter Trip - April/May 2025

 Day One - 18th April, 2025.

Home - Calliope Rest Area Miriam Vale

Our big 3 week adventure is finally here.  We're heading off the Cairns, so Craig can go on his 6 night Fishing Charter with his mate Dave and eight other punters (it was his Christmas/Birthday present).  We are working our way up to Cairns over the next 4 days to arrive in Cairns on Tuesday, where I will stay and work remotely while hubby goes off to catch da fish 🐋🐟

I know what you're thinking, you're leaving on Good Friday are you mad - well yes, but it is necessary to get up there for the charter and it's okay we made sure we have covered all the public holidays Easter, Anzac Day and Labour Day 👍

We had a few things to finish up around the property before we head off, including mowing at the last minute so we didn't come home to a jungle full of slivering 🐍😮 and yes, we left about  an hour late.  Quite surprised at how quiet the roads were heading north from the Sunshine Coast, not that we were complaining, trust me.

 

I have plotted our course up the coastline to reach Cairns Tuesday morning, which will give us until Thursday morning to set up, go buy a few things for his charter (Oh, I don't know like a new fishing rod, tackle, alcohol and ear plugs apparently😂) and for me  and Barney to eat and drink, you know just the basics.

We got away at 12pm, traffic was reasonable northbound on the Bruce.  Stopped at Gunalda United for some fuel, lunch and to release the hound for a wander so he stops whining and whinging in the car (does it for about for the first hour, get him out and then he's good - weird).  Geezus, it was busy and people were so rude, it reminds me why normally we would not go anywhere over Easter.  I did come across a little old Staffy tied to the post near an entrance to the shop patiently waiting for his/her owner.  Gave him/her a scratch and made sure the knob pulling into the park in front wasn't going to hit him/her.

Crickey I'll be glad to get out of here!

Back on the road, knocking off the kilometres until we reach good ole' Tiaro.  We stopped not far after leaving the servo, the traffic was crawling.  Half an hour it took for us to reach Tiaro finally and there was just no reason 😡 Since it was Good Friday Tiaro was dead absolutely nothing open, nobody there, no one crossing the road, no roadworks were going on, so I have no idea WHY ?

Due to this little set back to our plan, we re-assessed our arrival time at Calliope would be around 6pm and decided we would stop at Miriam Vale for the night, since it'll be near on 5pm by the time we get there.  I haven't made our journey each day any longer then about 4 1/2 hours, we stop about every 2 hours to give everyone a break, but especially Craig as he is driving.  I'm going to put my little soapbox down on the earth for a little moment and just have a wee little whinge about the Bruce Highway!!  Holey Crap it is in disgusting condition, from rattling your teeth out of your head, giving you a headache and neck ache to making the dog look like he's continuously having a head tremor, the poor little fella, they really do need to fix this road up for crying out loud.

Right, soapbox put away again.  

I called ahead to the Star Roadhouse and Caravan Park in Miriam Vale to make sure we could get a site, yes I know it's not exactly a destination but it is Easter.  I would have preferred to have stayed at the Miriam Vale Pub, but of course it wasn't open being Good Friday and the RV park which is basically a bitumen car park didn't excite us, so for the sake of paying $25.00 and we'd have power and water, plus a lovely hot shower and sit down flushing loo, caravan park it was.

It's a small Caravan Park with a couple of cabins and about 8 sites, pool, dog friendly and updated amenities.  You can get pizza, burgers etc., from the servo for dinner if you choose until 8pm.

We just had an easy dinner of hot dogs, enjoyed our hot shower, then retired to bed.  Craig was somewhat tired and Barney is over stimulated and being a complete pain in the a*#e.

Getting Barney to go to sleep and stay asleep was difficult and it's not what you would call a quiet park, being it's on the Bruce Highway.

It's all good, just a part of the adventure!