Having had a terrible nights sleep courtesy of the old man on the top of my bunk bed (unfortunately, he did not choke to death during the night, despite sounding like he was going to...), we checked out of the hostel. Despite it looking like it was going to rain, and the forecast saying that it was indeed going to rain, we decided to leave our lovely big umbrella at the hostel with our bags.

It rained.

But before we got wet, we had grabbed a very tasty coffee from a place in the CBD spotted on a previous outing. We figured it would be tasty owing to the queues that always form around it, and it duly was.

We then walked across to the nearby cenotaph an hour or so before New South Wales Remembrance Day service was due to start. NSW respect 11/11/11 all the same as the UK, although we felt the poppies on view were generally fewer.

As it the service started it started to rain, gradually getting really quite hard at about 10.50... No escaping now! But it was quite nice actually, as the unpleasantness somehow meant something to be there out in the rain. The politicians were of course sheltered under a marquee....

"I'm getting wet - maybe I should buy a scarf"

After the service, we had lunch in a Food Court that was reasonably similar to the hawker stalls we saw in Singapore. Just more expensive, larger portions, and not as tasty.

Owing to our sleep deprived state (thanks man who I wanted to kill), we grabbed another flat white as we made our way back to the hostel to pick up our bags, plan out Cairns movements a little, then head out to the airport on a train.

Got on a nice intercity train to the airport! Journey only took 9 minutes... Very easy. However flight was delayed slightly. Hopefully we can make up the time in the air. Good news is the weather now really turned in Sydney... Whilst 30' weather is in Cairns. Woot woot!

And then we landed. Back in the tropics. 97% humidity. Oh joy. Forecast over the next few days looks better??

AF