Day 10: Perth-(Alice Springs)-Cairns

I must say Dave did a wonderful job this week driving the “Australian” way (opposite side of the road than we’re used to).  He was able to stay to the left for the most part, and except for the occasional slip-up between the wiper and the indicator wands; some legally questionable left turns; he managed quite well.   

And our visit wouldn’t have been the same without Charlie thoughtfully and selflessly (not to mention, patiently) leading us to many of our destinations (even in instances when he wasn’t joining us on the adventure).  Following the white Golf was a lot more fun than any Navi System out there.

So, this morning, with heavy hearts, we said good-bye to our hosts and headed to the airport for our flight to Cairns, on the opposite coast, in Queensland, Australia.

Once again our departing flight was delayed.  Only about 40 minutes this time, due to poor weather in the airplane’s originating flight.  We were slightly concerned about making our connection in Alice Springs, but were assured that because there were about 40 others also making the connection, the plane would wait for us.  Sure enough, when we reached Alice Springs, our arriving plane and the one we were departing on were the only two planes at the entire airport (!).   We disembarked from our plane, walked across the tarmac into the airport through one door, and exited via the next door, across the tarmac and boarded the waiting plane.  It would’ve been faster just to walk from one plane to another. 

As soon as we were off the plane in Cairns, we knew we were definitely no longer in Perth.  We were hit with a wall of warm humidity, very different from the cool, although damp climate we had experienced in Western Australia.  Our driver was waiting for us and took us to our new accommodations.  After we were settled in our new apartment, we went for a short walk to the beach.  We were contemplating putting our toes in the western side of the Pacific Ocean, until we saw this sign…

Then we thought we would wait until daylight.