Gathering
We did not hurry ourselves this morning. We ate breakfast of muesli and yoghurt with coffee in our motel room, cleaned up, packed, and loaded the car. We were on the road by 8:30 am nad heading for Garradunga to see the famous pub on our way north. We paused there for a photograph and then headed on toward Cairns.
Hannah, Matt, Callum and Claire had arrived yesterday and checked into our accommodation at Harvester Home. Around 10:00 am we arrived there and found Matt, Callum, and Claire relaxing after a late night with Hannah’s friend Renee and her family. Hannah was out collecting the groceries that she and Jane had ordered on Monday. We had settled into our room by the time Hannah returned in a car laden with bags of groceries when he we carried into the kitchen and stored. That done, we relaxed while we waited for the Bathams to arrive.
Jane, Lea, Emily, Joel, Grace, Sam, Bek, and Lane arrived in two cars a bit before 11:00 am. They took a little time to unpack cars and settle. Grace had flown back from a comedy gig in Melbourne last night and needed to catch up on rest so she and Joel elected to stay put. Bek and Lane also needed rest.
Around 12;00 pm the rest of us headed for the Botanic Gardens where we ate lunch at the cafe and walked around the gardens for a while. Majella, Emily, and I attempted to walk the rainforest boardwalk but it was closed for repairs so we crossed the road and walked through a section with a variety of exotic tropical plants.
We had agreed to meet at Cairns Zoom at 2:30 pm to see Majella indulge in her Christmas gift of a zip line ride above a large crocodile. Callum, Majella, Emily, and Jane tackled the first set of ropes with a zip line but the zip line over the crocodile was on a higher level course and Majella was not prepared to tackle that. We did watch the crocodile feeding. Callum opted for the 13 meter drop (with rope brake) onto a trampoline and then he and Jane went round the higher level ropes course including the zip line ride over the crocodile. By the time that was done we were ready to leave and headed back to Harvester Home.
Jane and Hannah had planned a barbecue dinner with chicken, steak, sausages, onion, and more. Matt accepted the challenge to run the barbecue. Jane had prepared stuffed capsicums for those who preferred or enjoyed vegan or vegetarian and there was salad to go with the barbecue. Beer, cider, wine, and other beverages were available to wash it down. We all enjoyed dinner amid a variety of conversation.
After dinner we settled down to relax. Those who had been sleep deprived by their travel thought about an early night. A few of us waited up for Nick and his kids to arrive. Majella, Matt, Sam, Callum, Hannah, and I played a recent version of Trivial Pursuit while we waited. The rest of the party slumbered.
Nick and his crew arrived a little after 10:30 pm. We quickly pointed them to their sleeping quarters and shuffled off to sleep.
