We spent yesterday laundering and re-packing, once again attempting the ridiculous puzzle that is fitting everything in our suitcase. Rob’s gotten really good at stomping and hammering down our compression bags to get them zipped. 😂 We also had a nice brunch out and walked around the Cairns Art Gallery, which was very cool and free to the public! It focuses mostly on Australian First People art works, and we enjoyed seeing it. After the Gallery we stumbled across a giant hotel with a casino (didn’t know they had those here) and decided to go waste $20 while sitting in the air v gconditioning (which I have mentioned in previous posts is not as common here as I want it to be). I walked out $15 ahead, and Rob walked out $15 down, so in the end we balanced out and a good time was had by all. Some of the slot machines had a “Sea Doo” jet ski as the grand prize, so we had a good laugh imagining what we’d do with that particular prize if we won!

We left Cairns today at an ungodly hour to make the 11 hour train-and-bus rides down to our next stop, Airlie Beach. Airlie Beach lies in the southern part of the state of Queensland, and is the southern gateway city to the Great Barrier Reef (whereas in Cairns we were in the north). The ride on Queensland Rail was long but nice.

Along the way, we mostly passed farm lands, but with beautiful mountains behind them.

We transferred from train to bus in Prosperine for the final leg of our journey to Airlie, and our very kind bus driver dropped us right at our air bnb, up on a hill overlooking the town. We arrived just after sunset, and can already tell we will have some amazing sunset views the next two nights.

Airlie is a cute little beach town with a young, fun nighttime vibe. Lots of bars and restaurants in their main street area, and we settled on Mexican food for dinner 😄🌮. Looking forward to hanging out in their downtown tomorrow when we aren’t quite so tired. We have three nights here before we move on to our next stop, where we will be joined by Jenna and her boyfriend Connor. WE CAN’T WAIT!! 😍❤️🥰. Thanks for adventuring with us!