January 29, 2018

The last day in Australia and we are already missing our little home on the beach.  We have had a wonderful time here with the friendly people, good food and lovely location. 

First thing this morning the suitcases were attacked, packing and rearranging.  Once that was under control, Pete walked to Palm Cove and I took the bus, as I have unhappy feet from all our walking yesterday.  The meeting place was our favorite ocean view Coffee Haven. Then creatures of habit we headed back to Jack and Shanan’s for lunch. This time Pete ordered the Nachos and I ordered a vegetarian, buckwheat crepe.  Both were very good and not too filling.

On his walk to Palm Cove Pete discovered that the local swimming area was closed due to a small crocodile getting inside the net. We were talking with our server at lunch and she told us about a lady doing laps in the Palm Cove swimming area, it wasn’t until her 25th lap that she noticed the crocodile in the netted area with her.  People here are pretty blasé about crocodiles.  

Pete headed back to the ocean swimming area and I went in search of little crocodiles sunning themselves in a stream back of one of the hotels. They must have all been taking the day off, there were none to be seen. Catching the bus back to Clifton Beach, I wanted to walk the esplanade to our apartment. It was a beautiful day and I wanted to imprint the scene in my memory. The little walk was rewarded with a pig sighting. He or she was taking a walk on the beach (featured photo). The pig was walking along with it’s owner and dog friend.

Polishing off the wine and food tonight, plus finishing up our packing. Our Cairns airport transfer will be here at 8:10 am for the 10:05 am flight to Brisbane. There will be an overnight then on to Auckland with another flight to Rarotonga, Cook Islands.  Just in case anyone is counting we will be up to 9 flights total by the time we arrive in the Cooks. Crossing the international date line again, we will be arriving the day before we left Auckland, so excited to travel back in time.