An Upgrade to our Upgrade

The hire car I booked was a VW Golf. When I picked up the car, Europcar proudly announced that we had been upgraded to a VW Jetta. A nice car it was until the people at the resort told us it was dropping oil. 

Yesterday I arranged to return it so this morning it was back to Cairns Airport...fortunately still just down the road. By the time we got there the Jetta was turning into quite a mess. Oil was starting to come out of the bonnet! The bloke in the yard for Europcar mubbled something about not being the one with this problem so I wonder if VW has more problems...after all the car had only done 15,000 km.

Anyway, the changeover went quite smoothly and away we drove in a brand new Nissan X-Trail. Oh what fun it would be up in the Daintree except for the fact that it only has road tyres and isn't allowed "off the bitumen". 

From the airport we went for a bit of a drive. We have done most of the "tourist spots" on previous visits so this was just a bit of a wander around. As we drove into Redlynch I saw a sign to Crystal Cascades so we went to check it out. Very pleasant it was. A nice stroll along side the Freshwater Creek where it had cut it's way into the rocks over millions of years. 

After Crystal Cascades we went in search of lunch and found ourselves at the Stratty Deli in Stratford. Very nice freshly made sandwiches and some equally nice pie to take with us for afternoon tea. From there we went for a short drive up the Barron River Gorge before returning to our apartment for some mundane stuff like washing clothes.

As we leave Palm Cove tomorrow, we went for a late afternoon last stroll along the beach. We went out for dinner, starting out for the Surf Life Saving Club. It was rather busy when we got there so we wandered back and finished up next door to where we are staying...in The Rising Sun. It might sound Japanese but it wasn't. What is was though was really nice food with pretty good service considering they had a party of 30+ for a birthday. 

Our stay in Palm Cove has been really great. It is a nice little place, busy without being overdeveloped. The Melaleuca Resort has been a nice place to stay at as well. Tomorrow, we head off for Cape Tribulation. We have been there before and are looking forward to going back.