We flew into Cairns from Sydney at the end of April, having caught the train from the Central Coast and stopping at Central to have lunch with a dear friend. Our gracious host picked us and our heavy kite bag’s up and we spent a lovely night getting to know our hosts, for our first sit in 2021.
This was our third flight in as many weeks, masks still feel foreign but a quarantine breach and snap lock down in Perth while we were in the air reminded us why they are necessary. We also forgot to pack our battery packs as we are really out of the habit of traveling now however luckily Ben had packed his Nintendo switch so he let me watch a few shows on his phone when my battery was getting low, we wanted to save a little so we could call our hosts on arrival.
Here are Trixie and Lucy who we had the pleasure of caring for, Lucy who is a rottiweiler x kelpie isn’t supposed to be on the lounge but she tried her best to convince us otherwise.
We had a great time getting to know the area, taking long walks on the beach was a favourite though we had to walk past some scary signs.
Alerting us not only to the possibility of crocodiles (see below and here) but marine stingers may be present throughout the entire year in tropical Queensland, the risk associated with these two types of potentially dangerous jellyfish are higher during the ‘marine stinger season’ that typically runs from November through to May. (Learn more here, we made sure we wore long pants and long sleeve shirts and there is vinegar all along the beach but the locals are out there is board shorts – which is crazy!)
During our stay we mostly kited at Yorkys Knob near the river mouth, keeping an eye on every log and shadow! We also took a great day trip up to Port Douglas and kited at Four Mile Beach, yep that’s the same beach as above which was last closed for crocodile sighting on the 13th of April, 2021 or just 18 days before our visit. Eek!
We also had another scary experience, our first pet sit – vet trip when Lucy got a grape, after calling the emergency vet straight away to double check we were advised that dogs absolutely cannot eat grapes or raisins, they are not safe in any amount. The exact cause of toxicity in dogs after they ingest a grape is not known, nor is the amount. Some dogs can suffer more severe reactions than others so we rushed her in and the vet gave her a solution to bring up the grape, luckily we were there so fast that they were able to get it all out before she had begun to ingest it. Everyone we’ve told said they had no idea so here is a public service announcement. Lucy was totally fine, she was excited for the night drive, second dinner and all the pats and special treats she got after.
We spent another week at Yorkys Knob at the York Beachfront Apartments, right on the Yorkeys Knob Beach Esplanade, directly overlooking the beach, “The York” offers comfortable, fully self-contained holiday apartments perfect for the kitesurfing enthusiast. Though we would recommend having a car for ease of getting around.
On Friday we’ll spend a night in Cairns at Gilligan’s and leave our bags there, while we join our first liveaboard with Prodive on the Great Barrier Reef, a special dive experience for us and early birthday present to ourselves which I’ll share more about soon. Here
