Leaving Alice Springs

Friday, June 4, was our last day in Alice Springs. We spent the morning leisurely catching up on emails and repacking our suitcases. The Wanderer picked us up about 10 AM right after we had checked out and stashed our luggage (for our late afternoon flight to Cairns). Nic was once again our driver. We felt like we lived in a small town and were seeing an old friend again.

new hats--sunhat for me, roo leather for Mark

We were intent on seeing the cultural precinct--museums, galleries, a craft store. We had hoped to find lunch there but the café was closed so after seeing what we wanted we caught the Wanderer to downtown for lunch. We didn’t need to be back at our hotel until 3:30 to catch the shuttle to the airport. We had various options in mind on how to spend that time but suddenly decided instead to forget anymore sightseeing and to just go back to the Telegraph Station for a hike. Nic seconded our choice! We took a nice, long hike and ended up seeing wallaroos along the way. It completely relaxed us for our evening flight to Cairns.

We arrived about 8 PM in Cairns and used our GPS to get us to our reserved Band B, the Lillybank. We pulled into the driveway/parking area and tried to figure out how to get into the house. Somehow from the description and our interactions with the owners, we were expecting a couple in their 50s. Instead, Mark finally discovered a white haired couple asleep in easy chairs in front of the TV completely oblivious to our arrival. Mark managed to wake Pat who showed us to our room (where the TV was on and also blaring for some reason). She asked what time we would like breakfast. We happily fell into bed.