The town we did not stay

11-3-2010 (Thursday)

Before we went to the Townsville Reef Aquarium, Ruben and the kids went for a morning swim. Sharon packed our stuff because we had to leave the apartment at 11. We packed the car and left it in the garage of the apartment. We walked to the aquarium.

The aquarium was rather poor, the kids loved Nemo but further more it is was the worst of our animal encounters. We left Townsville around lunchtime with destination Mission Beach a 2-3 hour drive. Arrived in Mission Beach it was not what we excepted, so we headed for the best resort in the area The Elandra (http://www.elandraresorts.com/). Are real beauty on the shore but covered in the rainforest, this part of Queensland has rainforest on the one hand and the Barrier Reef on the other.
Sharon went to check out the room, a cabin in the rainforest. When she and the lady of the hotel entered the veranda a huge spider suddenly jumped right in front of Sharon’s feet, do we need to say more!!! We left and decided to drive to Cairns an other 1-2 hour drive.
The kids slept between Townville and Mission Beach, good for them and very, very good for us, between Mission Beach and Cairns they enjoyed a movie.

In one of the travel guides we collected some of the big hotels in Cairns and called them to inform about the price. After receiving 4 quotes we called Guya and Arnold to check the hotels on the internet. The best two were the Sofitel and the Shangri la. We choose the Shangri-La (http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/cairns/shangrila) based on the price and free internet.
Good choice, great room and great location.

We had dinner in the marina at the Waterbar & Grill, again a good choice, good food only the kids were tired resulting in Zeb falling of a wooden kind of table.

It was a long day, but we are all happy with ending up in Cairns. The city looks rather nice, much better then we excepted due to the comments of most Australians we met. Maybe we will stay another day before we move up to Port Douglas.