Off to FNQ

18 and 19 July 2017

A 6 am pick-up on Tuesday 18 saw us on our way to Darwin airport for our 7:30 am flight back to Cairns. Outback Spirit had organised private hire car for us - wonderful service. There was a slight delay on the tarmac as the AirNorth flight crew attended to a "minor technical problem".. Personally, I'd have preferred that they hadn't told us that...

This wasn't a direct flight and at about 8:30 am we found ourselves back in Gove where we had to disembark for 20 minutes or so. This gave us time to catch up with Barbara, Outback Spirit's tour organiser who had met us when we had arrived in Gove 12 days previously. She was meeting up with members of another group who were just beginning their Arnhem Land tour.

Final departure from Arnhem Land

On reboarding the aircraft I was once again "randomly selected" for manual scanning. "Random"? Really? Anyway, I was allowed on board and we were on the ground in Cairns at about 11:30 am. Our hired Toyota Kluger was waiting for us but it took 20 minutes or so to figure out how to get the thing moving (who was the idiot who thought it was a good idea to replace the handbreak - a device that has worked perfectly for decades - with a foot operated pedal?)

Anyway, we eventually found our way out of the airport, fired up Dolores, and headed off towards Mossman, arriving in mid afternoon. (Dolores? You remember Dolores, surely. Dolores is the name we bestowed on the woman whose pleasant tones emerge from our sat-nav app).

Heading north from Cairns

On Wednesday we headed off to Mossman Gorge. Things have changed a bit since our last visit about 12 years ago. A shuttle bus service now conveys visitors from the visitor centre about 3 km to the start of the of the walk to the gorge - I'm fairly sure this wasn't the case previously.

Images from Mossman Gorge