We’ve spent now the better part of two weeks at Trinity Beach, one of the well known northern beaches of the Cairns area. We were lucky in that we had the use of a friend’s apartment for the duration of our visit to the Cairns area. Similar to Noosa, our last stop in southern Queensland, the unusual aspect of this beautiful area is the combination of both beach and rainforest. The beaches are a lot less populated than the American beaches that we more frequently visit. This allows for that great feeling of being nearly alone on a wide expanse of sand and ocean, instead of sharing the beach with hundreds, if not thousands of other sun loving beachcombers.

Our time here has been spent a lot with friends and other children, in which we have tried to give our kids as much “kids time” as possible. For the rest of the trip, we will be back to just only the five of us, as we explore some of the other highlights of Asia. We are thoroughly enjoying the sun, pool, beaches as well as nearby attractions such as the rainforest, crocodile farm, wakeboarding and beach barbecues!

We started the Cairns trip with a visit to a friend’s farm outside of Kuranda. Because of the dirt road access to the property, we were picked up by Claire and brought up the rest of the way in her four wheel drive jeep. The attraction of the place can be seen in the adjacent photos. The homestead style house was a so-called outdoor plan without any inside hallways. You get to all of the rooms by walking on the “outside” of the house under the large veranda that surrounds the entire home. Of course, when you live in this type of a tropical climate where it is a pleasant 20 degrees even in the middle of winter, then you can build this type of open house. The children enjoyed the waterhole with the mandatory rope swing and freshwater swimming hole.

The pool at the apartment where we stayed had an impressive view of the sea and beach beyond. When sitting in the pool, you got the feeling that that the water simply cascaded down to the sea! Of course, you can’t be at the beach and not do any beach barbecues. This was another chance to get the kids together, as they could run around and just enjoy the freedom of being kids, instead of always having to contain themselves within the sometimes “stuffy” atmospheres that prevail in many restaurants.

The Cairns “Esplanade” filled with restaurants, shops and bars is a great place to find travellers from all over the world. There are quite a few young people who find work in the local restaurants in Cairns and hang out for a few months while travelling around Asia. The city provides some great play parks, pools and other public utilities. (The play parks remind me how desperately we could use something like this in Zermatt!)

This is a part of the world that we will definitely be back to. On Friday, we return to Sydney, before making our way to Beijing via Singapore on Saturday morning. More about my TravelTec and further exploits in my next report from Singapore.