Thursday 13th January 2011 – Oh boo hoo. I had been so looking forward to going back to Cairns, but OMG, what a mess they’ve made of it. Obviously the town planners were more interested in increasing their bank balances than in preserving the essence of the town. Every spare bit of land has been filled with either a horrible hotel or a hideous shopping centre. What used to be a lovely, open, low level town with a sense of space and plenty of green areas, has been transformed into a concrete labyrinth. And, worst of all, the lovely little house we used to live in in Clare Street and had such happy times in has been knocked down and turned into a set of soulless apartment blocks.

On the plus side, the Esplanade has been very nicely landscaped to include a swimming area and the central plaza is still pretty much the same, but beyond that, yuk, yuk, yuk!

Maybe its true, one should never go back. Although I’m sure I’ll return again just to make sure I wasn’t just suffering from heat stroke and impaired vision!

I stopped off at Kuranda (a 60’s market town) on the way home, which, I’m pleased to report, is still exactly the same as its been since the beginning of time, so all is not lost!