A woman came walking towards me, waving her hands and yelling ,“Whoo Hoo” quite loudly.

The Captain obviously recognized her dog because he was off and I had no option than to follow, otherwise I would have lost my arm and it would have gone shooting out of its socket across the grass.

It was one of the ladies we had met in Ingham. They said they were coming here. We had a little catch up,

She spoke about the disappointment of not being able to use the pool which was undergoing a major refurbishment, she asked about our caravan, she asked about the fishing that Ray had done, she asked if there was much in the area to do that was dog friendly, she asked if there was anywhere to eat that was good. She was very pleasant. By the time we had finished chatting (?!) Ray had finished packing up, had hitched the caravan on by himself, (now I know he just humours me and makes me feel useful) and we were ready to pull out.

It was 9:30am and Ray had a date with a hot dog. At 9:30 in the morning! Ugh!

We drove into Mission Beach, parked and true to her word the cafe owner, Julie, opened her shop and made Ray his Hot Dog. Ray was beside himself. I was actually surprised that he didn’t order two!

• 

• 

This cafe is worth a stop if you are in Mission Beach. Julie and her partner bought the business during the pandemic and are trying everything they can to improve it and not be a statistic. It’s had a name change. Now it’s called Bamboozled. The Hot dogs are good!

Morning tea was at Innisfail. We parked in the designated caravan parking area which was near the town park and also the public toilets.

Ray and I have totally different strategies when we arrive in a town. My strategy is to find the parking for caravans and RVs. Usually, the parking is either at the information center or the town park which also has picnic tables and public toilets. If we want a coffee or lunch, we can then put Henry on the lead let him have a sniff on the grass area and walk to find a coffee shop. Sounds like a full proof plan to me.

Ray‘s approach is drive through the main streets of town, (don’t forget that we are a huge 24 foot caravan and chunky ute) which are getting busier and busier the more we’re spending time on the coast, find a coffee shop and then find somewhere to park nearby the coffee shop. I believe his strategy is so that we don’t have to walk very far and I keep saying to him, “we have legs we can walk.”

A couple of times he has luckily found somewhere to pull up and park in town taking up 3-4-5-6-7 car parks so that we don’t have far to walk to the café. This isn’t convenient for Henry who needs grass to go to the toilet. We have had an instance where Henry did a wee on the pavement, which is highly embarrassing, and, the equivalent to your child doing a wee against a brick wall. Not much fun at all if you’re the parent. So my approach seems to be the most logical I think.

So we were having this discussion as we drove into Innisfail. Ray found a coffee shop and wanted to park somewhere, but it was very busy. I said let’s find the parking for caravans which was at the town park and I spotted the sign but Ray kept driving.

In these instances I believe that the driver is ultimately in charge and best placed to make the most considered and convenient decisions.

We found parking at the town park which was lush and green, had toilets and our short walk to the cafe was a good chance to stretch our legs. Great decision driver!

We arrived in Cairns in early afternoon. We are staying at Lake Placid Rainforest Retreat. We stayed here the last time we travelled around Australia and had a fabulous time.

The park is under new ownership but our details were still on their database. The park is pretty quiet at the moment because we are ahead of the grey nomad influx. We were given a map and sites marked on it that we would fit on and told that we could pick whichever site we liked. We are going to stay here for a couple of weeks until Easter Monday and do some things in the area including catch up with friends. We are looking forward to staying put in one spot for a while.

We picked a shady spot and set up. I did a few loads of washing, then we needed to brave the supermarket. Well, I did. Ray is the driver, I’m the hunter and gatherer. Meals are my domain. I had a growing list on my phone if things that we had run out of but with a fridge and pantry space that is quite limited in the van, we find ourselves at the shops every few days anyway.

Lots of people who travel with dogs take advantage of “Click and Collect” but Ray has been taking Henry to Bunnings, BCF or Pet Stock for a walk around while I gather the groceries. It works for us all.

Feeling pretty happy with our set up, pretty confident that there aren’t any sandflies here (still scratching the bites and apparently will be for a week or so – except for Ray who is super human and resists them) but I’m wearing insect repellent anyway just to be sure.

After tea we turned the TV on to watch the news but the reception was so bad we couldn’t watch it. Oh well, who said there was perfection in paradise?