A Fond Farewell

So the day has come that we have to hand back Muriel and say goodbye to the little workhorse that has safely (only two minor incidents) guided us the 2,600 kilometres from Sydney.

Whilst the end is in sight the journey is not yet over and we still have a 353 kilometre drive from Townsville to Cairns to complete our road trip.  We pack everything up, Samantha neatly ordering things for easy access, Jonny throwing and squeezing things randomly.  We seem to have accumulated quite a lot of extra stuff on our travels and currently are not too sure how we are going to get it all home.

The trip itself is pretty uneventful.  The scenery is pretty and the road interesting but our heart is not in it, we know this is the last ride in Muriel and that covers the whole journey in a sad dew. 

The highlight was lunch. We stopped in a little town called Innisfail which offered a number of options (but we were determined to steer clear of MacDonalds).  After some debate we decided on kebab.  Kebab…how could we possibly be eating a kebab in the middle of the day, had we drunk 10 pints of extra strong lager on the journey north and now wanted a ‘nutritional’ meal before a fight?   Quite simply, no: it would appear that a kebab is a recognized and respected food in Australia enjoyed by white collar and blue collar workers alike at anytime of day, in fact most kebabs shops we have seen seem to close at 8pm – anyway lunch was delicious!

Back on the road and our final stretch to Cairns went far too quickly and before we knew it we were at the Maui base and unloading our bags (this took some time, I really do not know how we are going to get this all home).

A quick check over (only one mention of the awning – blamed on the screws not the weather!) and we waved goodbye to the Bruce Highway and to Muriel: after 21 days (Samantha would like it noted that there were no hotel stops!) we don’t mind admitting there were a few tears.

The tears quickly dried when we arrived at the Shangri La in Cairns Marina.  Our room, with 2 beds (why do hotels do that these days?) overlooks the marina and we can watch all the boats come back and forth from the reef.  It also has an en suite we don’t need to go outside to use and highly tuned air con – we feel a bit guilty, as we have to admit it is a little nicer than Muriel. 

We booked our trip on Quicksilver to go and see the outer Great Barrier Reef tomorrow and then set about exploring Cairns.

Cairns is an attractive place that has clearly had some investment in recent times.  It is hot again, so our tour around the city is based on hopping from air conditioned shop to air conditioned shop.  One thing very noticeable is the large numbers of Japanese…strange.  Eventually exhausted by the gift shops and opal stores we find somewhere for a quiet drink, The Jack, a British Bar decked out in British Memorabilia and even serving Old Speckled Hen bitter.

We returned to the hotel and got ready to go out for the evening.  Samantha rediscovered the joys of her hairdryer and mascara and looked like a sparkling princess once more.

We ate a Brazilian inspired Australian BBQ restaurant called Bushfire Flame Grill.  We had the churrasco which is basically a whole selection of barbequed meats, some carved from skewers at your table, and a range of side dishes – in fact a whole BBQ for two without all the effort, just fab!

Completely stuffed we returned to the hotel and collapsed into the king size bed with fluffy pillows, still feeling a little guilty and missing Muriel.  Goodnight, sweet dreams.