This has been a strange few days. On Thursday I caught the flight up from Melbourne to Cairns with no problem. The first surprise was that the folk hiring the camper-van in Cairns did not also hire out GPS receivers. The usual response to a request for a GPS is that it is easy to get from one town to another since there is usually only one road. However, for me, the real value in a GPS is to able to get to a specific camp site or restaurant say, with out hav...

An unintentional long day, but I'll cover it in a blog later. Now for bed.

Fleeing South to try and escape the tropical humidity.

Flight ok, Van ok, 1,600 miles here I come.

I was right - Melbourne is another nice city. On Saturday, I was able to catch the last day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival at Flemington racecourse; Emirates Stakes Day. The "new hats" that I'd seen back at Bondi on Melbourne Cup Day were still present on the Saturday. Also, I backed a couple of winners ("Musical Hit" at 13 to 1 in the 3rd and "Vintedge" at 12 to 1 in the 7th), which more than made up for the costs. So for no money at all, a spent the day pe...