R&R (Restock and Repairs) in Cairns, FNQ

Greetings and salutations dear readers from tropical Cairns in Far North Queensland (FNQ)!

After a couple of weeks traversing a few hundred kilometres of corrugated dirt roads to detect for relics & gold and fossicking for gemstones in north Queensland’s Etheridge Shire it was time for some R&R.  Not R&R as in Rest and Recreation (as this is what we now do on a daily basis - it is a tough life but someone has got to do it), but R&R as in Restock and Repairs!

While en-route from Etheridge Shire to Cairns we passed two more of the Bush Pubs featured in our book.  The first was the Einasleigh Hotel in Einasleigh.  Much of its claim to fame is that the Savannahlander train service, which runs weekly through Einasleigh on its way between Cairns and Forsayth, is renowned as the only Queensland train that will stop outside the pub upon request!

Just ask the Savannahlander Train to stop and it will do so outside of the Einasleigh Hotel!

Inside the Einasleigh Hotel for a beer and to have our Bush Pubs book signed

The second of the bush pubs we came across on our way to Cairns was the ‘Oasis Roadhouse’ at Lynd Junction.  This pub boasts that it is the smallest bar in Australia and after visiting, I believe it!  Standing at the bar you can touch the far walls, front to back and side to side, without fully stretching out your arms!

Heather touching the bar and the 'far' wall of Australia's Smallest Bar without having to fully stretch her arms.
I took the photo from the doorway and could touch the wall behind Heather at the same time!

Now, back to the R&R story...

We still had plenty of food in the larder but the beer and wine was low (read ‘dry’).  I also wanted to make some adjustments to the tow hitch ahead of us commencing our east to west crossing of the country from Cairns (in Queensland) to Broome (in Western Australia) via Darwin (in the Northern Territory) along a route known as the ‘Savannah Way’.  You can take the easy (but still long) 3,800km route and travel on sealed highway all the way, or, as will be the case for us, the more adventurous ‘Alternative Savannah Way’ which will be a journey of about 4,200 km, much of it on rough dirt roads.  To better manage the ups and downs that come with entering and exiting creek and river crossings and the corrugations expected on the dirt roads along the way I wanted to get a more ‘dirt-friendly’ tow hitch.  Should be easy enough.

We will be travelling from east to west across the Savannah Way over the next few weeks.
(if you click on the photo it will enlarge a bit - hopefully enough for you to read if you want to)

The re-supply part of the visit was simple.  Just visit the grocery stores and stock up on consumables.  Done.

Sourcing the dirt friendly tow-hitch was simple as well although some unexpected repairs to the tow bar on the ute were a little more involved.  To get things fixed properly I booked the ute in to get the ‘dirt towing tongue’ fitted and the repair work done the next morning.

The repairs were necessary because:

1. There was some deformation of the tow tongue housing itself.  Apparently, poor initial fitting of the weight distribution hitch arrangement when we first purchased the caravan had resulted in some ‘slop’ in the connection rather than it being a tight fit.  Over time, the housing for the towing tongue has been ‘stretched’ or ‘expanded’.  It was 50mm W x 50mm H when new but was now 52mm W x 56mm H).  This would have gotten progressively worse at an increasingly rapidly rate on rough roads and needed immediate repair.
2. In addition to the stretched tongue housing the mechanics also reported that of the 8 bolts holding the tow bar to the ute, 1 bolt was missing altogether and the remaining 7 were loose!

Glad to now have the tow bar fixed and the vehicle back in shape for safe travel during the next leg of our journey we enjoyed a couple more days just looking around Cairns and the nearby coastline.  We savoured a leisurely ‘big breakfast’ at a beachfront cafe as tourists do and then took a nice walk along the Esplanade to work off some of the food that just went in!

We took our time over a delicious 'Big Breakfast' at a Cairns cafe!

I am not a coffee snob but I do enjoy a nice cappuccino every now and then!

Fish sculptures in the Cairns Esplanade Lagoon

We noted that the surrounding area really was quite mountainous and very very green compared to the drought stricken outback we had been in for the past few weeks.  It made for a pleasant change of scenery.

The next episode of WTF? - Where are The Farrows?, will see us hit the backroads once again to get amongst the dirt, dust, cattle and crocs as we commence our east to west crossing of the country via the Savannah Way.