I’m sure that I’ve said this before. In fact I may have said this in every blog I’ve written, but sometimes incredible moments sneak up on you when you aren’t looking and absolutely take your breath away. Well it happened again and I’ll come to that in a while.

With only a couple of days remaining in sunny Cairns one of us decided to get a bit sick. It wasn’t Jo so no guesses for who it might have been but a simple sore throat started to develop into something a bit chestier and for those of you that know me that can be a real problem. So, sadly, I had a day out of the pool and just sat around all wrapped up doing not very much (pathetic). We had planned to visit a local craft market at the Botanical Gardens called the Tank Market but my hopelessness appeared to have put the mockers on that. I eventually persuaded Jo to go and she cycled down and had a couple of hours looking at cool hats and hippie bags.

Our day in Trinity Beach

We had decided that we wanted a day out on the beach somewhere outside of Cairns and Monday saw us taking a couple of local buses up to Trinity Beach about 17km north of Cairns. We didn’t know a lot about it apart from a couple of nice photos in a leaflet and the fact that Trisha our host recommended it as her favourite beach in Queensland. Good enough for Trisha meant good enough for us. Apparently Trinity Beach was named by Captain James Cook when he landed in 1770 on Trinity Sunday and was a sleepy little place until the 1940s when it was invaded by thousands of Aussie troops who used the place to train for amphibious beach landings. Now I think it’s just a quiet little town with a few shops and the odd bar. It seemed quite nice though and the bad chest seemed to have abated slightly as we walked from the bus to the seafront.

This was one of those moments! We just stood at the edge of the small strip of beach looking out over the deep blue of the Coral Sea and it felt like we were in paradise. Beautiful soft sand shaded by slowly swaying palm trees on the edge of the warm clear ocean with the love of your life …………………… what on earth could be more perfect.

There was no bungee jumping, no white water rafting, and no skydiving but it was one of the most wonderful days ever. Lots of swimming and laying in the sunshine, a bit of digging (my boys would be horrified if I’d sat all day on a beach without digging some holes), some exploring and wandering, all finished off by a couple of beers and a fancy cocktail in a cool beachfront bar. We never wanted to leave.

Last Day Assault on Cairns

Our final full day in Cairns was planned with military precision. Not a day for our usual meaningless wandering around and getting lost or just drifting from dodgy bar to even dodgier bar. No! Up early for a swim, excellent. Walk down to Edge Hill for breakfast in a lovely restaurant called Osmosis that everyone had been recommending to us for days, even more excellent. Bus in to Cairns for some swimsuit and bag shopping, excellent for Jo. One of the greatest ice creams we’ve ever had on the edge of Cairns harbour, unbelievably excellent. Dinner at the posh looking Salt House bar on the edge of the harbour, brilliantly perfect-end-to-the-perfect-day excellent.

Goodbye to Edge Hill and Trisha

It does all feel a bit surreal at times, we often mention to each other that we can’t believe where we are or what we are doing. As we pack to leave somewhere that we have actually called home for a couple of weeks we are bizarrely aware that we are moving on live with someone we haven’t yet met in a place that we haven’t yet seen. Very strange indeed and this happened again as we left Cairns and the beautiful poolside apartment saying goodbye to our friendly helpful host Trisha. A quick taxi ride, another Jetstar flight down the east coast of Queensland Australia, the airtrain from Brisbane airport, the 199 local bus, and a short walk round the corner and we were in our new home. Easy.

Without consciously meaning to we seem to have chosen vastly differing types of accommodation so far on out little land sail. The variety of locations and living conditions (sounds dramatic) has made each change exciting and full of anticipation. It isn’t just the homes either but the hosts that have been so different. Part of the reason that we decided to go with Airbnb and their very unique network was that we wanted to meet people and actually experience living in all sorts of different locations. We didn’t want to be tourists on holiday and just ‘do’ one place after another. We really wanted to live in each separate place. So far we have managed to do that from Groesbeek in The Netherlands to Edge Hill in Cairns, Australia and hope that each new ‘home’ brings new excitement and new experiences.

The West End of Brisbane

Brisbane is definitely going to be a fabulous place to live and we’ve already fallen for it’s charms. We’re living in a small suburb called West End to the South West of the city in an apartment with the lovely Louise. Her home is full of charm and character and she has graciously welcomed us to share it all for the next ten days. It’s a short bus ride from the centre of Brisbane so very handy for getting around and Louise has now armed us with maps and leaflets to plan our stay in this beautiful city. We’ve already walked our socks off and had a day in and around the centre, many more to come.

Coming soon ……

Fantastic stories of Roosters in trees, friendly Possums, more bird attacks, the complete con of Modern Art, Ella’s Mum, the daily smashing down of a Turkey house, and much much more in the next edition of JWalking.

27.9 – 30.9.2015