A sudden and dramatic change to my travelling lifestyle then as teeming up with mom and dad meant 2 weeks of hotel rooms, good food and plenty of wine. A welcome change, and even Gumdrop seemed to have recovered from our kangaroo misfortune and was enjoying a rest in a safe and secure garage where he could boast at length to other cars about his fine adventures.
We spent a few days around Brisbane taking in the sights and quickly jumped abord a city tourist bus. We climbed the hills around the city where of course, in drought ridden Australia, it began to rain again.
"Enjoy it while you can folks" proclaimed the excited bus driver
"Only the second day of rain this year!"
Lies, I thought, outright lies i'm sure of it. Fine city views from Mt Coot-Tha were thusly a little obscured but we enjoyed strolls back down along the river and I for one, was enjoying the cooler temperatures. We found a pub for a flutter on the Melbourne Cup, Australia's answer to the Grand National proving equally as successful for me, although at least in the absence of fences, mine didn't fall at the first again. We managed to combine fine food and pleasant locations with catching up first with Beth, and then with fine friend Malaysia Claire who was passing through. Both were on fine form, as was mom who never strayed far from a glass of red. Dad, always thinking, had pulled off a master stroke and brought me a bottle of Bathams, the World's finest Black Country ale and I swapped it with him for a bottle of snake wine I'd carried for him since Vietnam, my malaria type illness obviously clouding my judgement of good Birthday presents at the time.
Times were good and we headed off to Fraser Island for the day, one of the East coast's big tourist attractions. The large sand island provided us with plenty of beaches, lakes and forests to appreciate and to escape from the city, whilst bouncing along in the back of a Jeep made it all rather good fun.
Pretty soon we were on a flight up to Cairns to enjoy some Barramundi and tropical rainforests. It was hot and sticky once again but the scenary around hilly Kuranda made for an excellent day out. Viewing it from the Skyrail cable car made it even more spectacular and mom and dad were getting ever more excited. We pushed on north to Port Douglas, a sleepy little beach resort and got ourselves on a dive boat for the next day. Mom, despite the family's seafaring history, has never been the biggest fan of water, particularly when it's riddled with lethal jellyfish. Nevertheless she braved the depths and enjoyed a great day's snorkelling above the Great Barrier Reef whilst dad discovered his new favourite hobby, diving. I jumped in for a few dives as well and happy memories of Malaysia came flooding back with the warm, blue waters. Sharks, Groupers, Turtles and all the colourful fish came to say hello and a good day was had by all. I of course would like to return home one day though, so i'm afraid photos of mom in her fetching blue stinger suit won't be posted here. That said, my email address can be found on this site quite easily, and any personal requests may indeed be answered...
Pleased with our Barrier Reef experience we returned to fine food and wine before watching tv with great surprise as back home The Villa beat The Blues 2-1 in a match which although entertaining, never quite lived up to last season's incredible 13-12 Villa win in Kathmandu. Further north again we continued, towards Cooktown and with the immortal John Denver of course accompanying our progress.
"Look at that!" cried dad, "A cow, its a cow!"
"Amazing, its just amazing isn't it" replied mom.
The excitable children clearly enjoying their trip. At Cooktown we found an even more sleepy little place seemingly isolated from everywhere by the surrounding rainforest, but perhaps on the verge of a construction and tourist boom. Go there soon. We stood where Captain Cook took his first steps on Australian soil, found the spot where a kangaroo was first sighted, and, in this remotest of places, climbed a hill to find a lighthouse made in Birmingham. Splendid.
With the little time we had left we dove into the rainforest around Cape Tribulation where dad, always the geography teacher, marvelled at the rainforest encroaching onto the beach and meeting the sea, before we jumped on board a flimsy little boat to go crocodile spotting on the Daintree River. We soon spotted one of the lethal and terrifying beasts nearby, a genuine saltwater crocodile next to our boat and out in the wild. The adrenaline rush was perhaps somwehat subdued by the fact that the little nipper was only a few weeks old and maybe just about capable of taking down a small bird, but it was another box ticked nonetheless.
Suddenly our time was up and mom and dad were on their way home. Sensible advice about growing up and getting a proper job back home was accompanied by sadness on all sides after a great time together and for me, a realisation that I was back out on my own with no more familiar faces to have a natter with until I go home in about couple of months, ish, honest mom, I promise...
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