cairns - Wheels on the Go

November 30, 2025 – Australia – Sunrise Drive from Port Douglas to Cairns – Boarding the Queenslander Overnight Train to Brisbane!

November 30, 2025December 2, 2025Lmnei

Holy cow! I woke up before the 4:30 am alarm clock! Wow! Needless to say it is EARLY! We are almost packed except for our items in the fridge (snack food and beverages) and we left the hotel after checking out on time, before 5 am. Me and being on time in the morning do not normally go together!

We had a very nice drive down the Great Barrier Reef Drive along the coast to Cairns. We saw the sun rise and Andrew even stopped the car so I could take a picture at a beach! We were actually running early (but not speeding) – Google Maps said it would take 1 hour and 2 minutes and it took about 45 minutes including the photo stop. Perhaps it is because there were 3 construction stops that were controlled by lights again, however the waits were very short, where during the day they might have been longer. Here are our morning drive pictures!

Needless to say, we picked a gas station to fill up and funny enough it was around the corner from where the car drop off location was! At that point I called an Uber (it was about 6:10 am now and we were DEFINITELY running really early) to take us to the Cairns Train Station. The lady driving the Uber was in the neighborhood and picked us up almost immediately! We had a very quick drive to the Cairns Railway Station – we chatted about taking the train to Brisbane and she thought we were crazy for not flying as it is only an hour’s flight! It was rather interesting though after that discussion that she dropped us off at the entrance to the Tourist Train to Kuranda – we needed to be on the other side of the tracks! Good thing the elevator was working and there was an elevated walkway to get to the other side of the tracks to where the Queensland Train would pull into the station a few minutes later.

At 6:40 am (we got there just before 6:30 am) the baggage drop opened up and we then sat and sweated, just like we used to do in the evenings in North Carolina, however it was frigging 6:30 am and I was soaked with humidity! The train was in front of us but we could see them servicing/cleaning it. About 30 minutes later, after losing about a litre of water and Andrew NOT being able to find any coffee (not a good situation) they allowed us to board the train. They had a nice little ramp for me to use – not the huge thing that I was sitting next to pictured below! We were booked into Rail Beds on the train – this train had reserved regular seating (2×2 seats) or Rail Beds which were in a 2×1 configuration. Now this is where it gets REALLY stupid! My Rail Bed was number 2 – it was a single rail bed. In front of me was Rail Bed 5. Next to me was Rail Bed 1 which was also an accessible rail bed as it had extra space for a guide dog to lay down. The carer’s bed for Rail Bed 1 was Rail Bed 5 which was in front of me. Andrew’s Rail Bed, which he was traveling as my carer, was Rail Bed number 4 which was on the aisle next to the other Rail Bed number 3 which was at the window. An unknown lady was in Rail Bed number 3 and would be there for the majority of the trip. This is a VERY stupid setup. A carer needs to be able to HELP someone so sitting forward and diagonally from me is no use. Also, as the Rail Beds come with in seat videos, as soon as Andrew put his ear phones on (this did happen) I could not get his attention for assistance.

I was dreaming up what items I could start throwing at him when the car attendant came by with tea and coffee and biscuits as we had just left the station. She actually told me that the way these beds are set up is stupid as the people who need assistance (I am thinking more like if I was traveling with Karen) cannot get it! She offered to tap Andrew on the shoulder for me however I just smiled and said I would figure things out. Once the morning tea service was completed and they had verified everyone who was on the train, the car attendant actually came back and told me that there was another disabled person going to join the train overnight with a carer and they have an extra single seat up front in the car and she was going to see if the lady next to Andrew would like to move. Of course the lady next to Andrew wanted to move as she could see that we were together and she also suggested that I move into her Rail Bed. So I did! It worked out wonderfully as then later that afternoon, an elderly lady who was visually impaired got on the train with her daughter as the carer and some other family members who had Rail Beds more to the front of the car, and the two ladies could be across the aisle from each other which helped them out too! Now we were in business on our 24+ hour trip to Brisbane!

With our Rail Bed purchase came meals too – we were fed lunch, which I had a mango chicken with peas and rice and a gluten free toffee cake with custard! I had to ask a couple of times if it was REALLY gluten free as it was pretty good! We then settled in for a nice SMOOTH ride down the east cost of Australia! It was interesting as each day Andrew looks up the weather where we are going and we were aware that rain had been forecasted – sure enough it happened when we were on the train! That said, the landscapes we passed by were very beautiful despite the black clouds above and the occasional watering of the windows!

Andrew spent most of his time watching movies and listening to music – I do not know what ones Andrew he watched however I typed up what to say on my website (no online access unless at a train station) and watched 1 movie and several really funny Aussie TV shows! The movie that I watched was the “Making of Crocodile Dundee” which I did not know the background of and how big an impact it had on Australia! It was very interesting and timely considering we are in Australia! The TV shows were a bunch of game shows – however one made me laugh so hard that I actually passed out and Andrew wondered what happened to me! That was a bit of a bizarre moment for me!

Dinner was then served and Andrew had pork and my meal was some very well cooked Barramundi fish with veggies and squash. The best part of the meal though was in the little tinfoil package which had a GF label underneath – it was a garlic cheese biscuit! Mmm good! I actually consumed it without needing butter! The chocolate cake with chocolate sauce was good too – however after not doing anything all day having two desserts was a bit much!

After dinner we could select to have our beds turned down at 8 pm or 9 pm. I was ready to go at 8 pm as I was starting to find the Rail Bed seat a bit uncomfortable and wanted to recline a bit more. The seat did recline, and the foot rest did go up a little bit however not much and the seat bench pictured above worked wonders for Andrew as his legs are long, however my legs could barely hold it down. In fact when I passed out laughing my feet fell off and the seat went up with a bang which was loud Andrew said – that is how he noticed that I was in la la land.

The Rail Bed seats actually fold down into nice flat, firm beds. The back of the seat folds onto the seat and then another portion folds out which extends into a bed. It was all done electronically – you could not do it yourself – the carriage attendant had to do it with a remote that plugged into the seat. The bed had a mattress cover on it and they gave you a duvet to cover you for the night which was nice and warm! I was as snug as a bug in my little Rail Bed! The one funny thing we learned, which if we had known better we might change for next time, is that the window seat bed is longer than the aisle seat bed so that the window seat person has about 8 inches to pass by at the end of the bed from the aisle person to get out if they need to use the toilet or whatever on the train in the middle of the night!

At this point in time, the train was actually running about 2.5 hours late – no idea how it got to run that late – we seemed to be stopping and starting fairly fast at the various train stations – there were not a lot of them. When we stopped in Townsville where the crew changed and the train took on more water and possibly fuel (not sure about this) I tried to call my parents as I knew my sister was visiting them that evening and the train left the station sooner than planned so our conversation got cut off as I lost my data connection!

I must admit though I enjoyed this train ride WAY better than the Indian Pacific one in terms of rocking and rolling. These cars are meant for travel and are built for sleeping too where the Indian Pacific Railway, while a very beautiful and historic system, does not have the more modern technology that keeps the train cars from rattling and swaying through the night.

Lets see what tomorrow brings us while on the train!

November 25, 2025 – Australia – Cairns to Port Douglas Drive via Kuranda

November 25, 2025November 29, 2025Lmnei

We had to be out of the Mantra hotel by 10am so we were up fairly early and had a quick breakfast in the room and departed the hotel, with me filling up our water bottles in the lobby for the drive as I was certain it was going to be a hot and humid day! Here is the morning sunrise over Cairns –

We got to our car parked in the accessible parking spot and no tickets which is good however the birds in the tree had done a number on it overnight! We were now driving a very dirty car! Oh well, those are the breaks! The Mantra had limited free parking and I thought why take up one of the stalls when we can park on the street instead? Yup! Paid for that with a dirty car now!

We quickly got out of Cairns and on the drive to Kuranda. Most people, including when Karen and last visited Kuranda, take the train up one way and the skyride back down. The Kuranda Tourist train leaves from the Cairns train station, where we will be departing in 5 days to take the Queensland train to Brisbane. They do have a bus that returns people who take the skyride down from Kuranda back to the bus station. It is a worthwhile trip, however I distinctly remember how hard the train trip was on Karen and myself and personally, despite Andrew liking trains, I really did not want to experience it again. I was doing some reading prior to our trip and saw that we could take some “backroads” to Kuranda and then continue inland around to Port Douglas, which is north of Cairns by an hour. That is what we ended up doing!

It was a nice drive – at times reminded me of driving the Hope Princeton with the curves in the road and there was some construction going on however it was very well managed with temporary stop lights and queuing to use the single line. Soon we got to the Barron Falls Lookout, which is actually a stop on the train trip up to Kuranda. After parking at the lookout and walking down the sloping raised accessible pathway in the woods to the viewpoint what do you think showed up below us? The train! It stopped on its way to Kuranda village which was only about 10 more minutes up the small mountain. We got to see the train pull in below us and the people get out to take pictures of the Barron Falls (which were pretty small at this time of year) and then we went back to continue our drive to Kuranda town.

Kuranda is in the rainforest that surrounds Cairns and goes up the coast past Cape Tribulation. Port Douglas, where we are staying is on the beach, about 1/3 of the way to Cape Tribulation. I remember getting to Kuranda on the train with Karen, it being 100% humid and hot and seeing all these really cool artisans selling some very interesting handmade goods! I am not sure if it was because we drove into town, it has been 27 years, or COVID hit this area really hard but Kurana was just not the magical place that I remembered. It was 100% humid and hot though! I did buy some Australian souvenirs at a shop and then we walked around for a while, but the artisan feeling was gone. There were more tourist attractions (traps) now to visit too. I was just turned off! That said, we had some ice cream – good thing to do when it is bloody hot! Walking back to the car, I decided I needed a cold drink for the drive so we stopped at a restaurant stand and look what I found! Gluten Free Rice Burgers! Now, with this heat, there was no way I could eat one of these so I just took a picture instead and got my Coke Zero! Then we continued our drive to Port Douglas through the back hill country!

It was an interesting drive – unfortunately taking pictures from a fast moving car is not my forte so my pictures did not work out! It is also hard for Andrew to stop when there are cars behind us. We drove through some really nice small towns and then started down into a valley towards Port Douglas. We saw that there recently had been some type of forest fire (not huge trees – more like small trees but the ground was smoking and the trees were burnt) and that stunk as we drove by however we soon made it into Port Douglas and to the Sheraton Mirage Resort where we are to stay for the next 5 nights.

Finally we arrived at the Sheraton Grand Mirage Port Douglas Resort. I have been impressed with this resort so far – really early they sent out an email, as I am a frequent guest at Marriott hotels, asking me if there was anything that we wanted to do or needed during our stay. I responded indicating that I needed a shower chair for the walk in shower in the upgraded room that I had booked and I had some questions about activities as the original email mentioned booking early due to school vacations and holidays. They were awesome at getting back to me and told me that we were just before the school holidays, so we should be fine not making reservations at the restaurants however the Great Barrier Reef cruises do fill up. I then booked both dinner at the hotel and a trip to the Great Barrier Reef from Port Douglas. They also confirmed a shower chair would be in our hotel room.

I was met at check in and addressed by name, which surprised me, when we arrived and we were checked into the hotel. They mentioned they had “upgraded” us to a 3^rd floor room in the North Tower. I thought that was strange as I had booked a Lagoon/Pool view room that I thought was on the 1st floor. However, I figured it had to do with the shower situation. The bellmen took our suitcases to our room and I was driven in a cart while Andrew drove around and parked. He then jumped onto the cart and we were driven to the North Tower where our room was located. It required us to take an elevator up to the top or 3rd floor, go through 2 doors where there were hotel rooms in an air conditioned corridor with flat access and then to our room which had about a 4 inch lip to get into the room. I thought that was strange due to the discussions I had with them with regards to accessibility and the fact that they said we were upgraded. Sure enough, there was a walk in shower and a shower chair so I was happy! There also was a balcony however it faced the garden, it was not the Lagoon/Pool view room that I had paid to upgrade to. No issues I thought – just happy to be here!

We were going to go for a walk to check out the property however someone fell asleep (common occurrence at this time of the day in this kind of heat) so we postponed the walk until the morning!

November 24, 2025 – Australia – Sydney to Cairns – Travel Day and Seafood Pizza!

November 24, 2025November 29, 2025Lmnei

Again, we were up in good time to have a wonderful breakfast at the Pier One Hotel and then we departed, via Uber for the Sydney Airport to travel on Virgin Airlines to Cairns. We had a very nice Uber driver and on the way, I had booked to drop one piece of luggage off for storage as Andrew and I will be back at the airport on December 6th to overnight prior to flying to Singapore. No issues with Virgin Airlines moving our pre-assigned seats this time and got onto the plane just fine! It was just under a 3 hour flight to Cairns, which included a 1 hour time change with surprised us. Sydney, Australia area recently switched to Daylight Savings time however we soon found out that Queensland, where we are heading up north, does not switch and remains on the standard time. There are funny time zone changes all over Australia – sort of a bit like Canada – Newfoundland and in the Interior of BC.

Arrival at Cairns Airport was MUCH more smooth than the last time I was here 27 years ago! They actually have air bridges ways now! Once we found my walker (I do not think it is common for walkers and wheelchairs to be brought to the plane door in Australia and I seem to remember now Karen having that issue when traveling) we were able to walk through the airport – which it is a nice compact airport and out into the HEAT to get our rental car! Holy smokes! The humidity and heat was like walking into a hair dryer on the highest hot setting! We looked up the temperature and it was about 39 degrees and it was 6 pm in the evening! We got our rental car and made it to the Mantra Hotel which I had elected to stay in for our 1st night prior to driving to Port Douglas and the resort that we were headed for. I had done that for 2 reasons – not to tire Andrew out from traveling and then driving and 2nd, I thought driving to a village named Kuranda would be a nice option on the way to Port Douglas instead – we would get some mountain driving in!

We had a ocean view, kind of, from our hotel room. More like a tree top view! Cairns has changed QUITE a bit from what I remember of it 27 years ago. I picked this hotel for its location which was next to the Cairns Night Markets which Karen and I explored last time we were here however the waterfront of Cairns has now fully been filled in and a huge swimming pool installed! It looked really great from our balcony other than all the trees that have now grown into the area!

It was time to find some dinner so we decided to go for a walk and find someplace to eat along the boardwalk. Prior to getting to the boardwalk though we walked around the area that used to be beach and a pier (that I remember) and saw this beautiful swimming HUGE swimming pool that now fronts onto the beach with a walkway in front of it. The pool starts with a very narrow end and the slopes down deeper with some sand and different pool areas at the end as you can see.

We actually parked the car in front of the hotel in the daily parking bays, as it seems that the accessible parking had no time limit on parking there – such as overnight! The hotel required a checkout by 10 am so we thought the car would be just fine and we could see it from our room too! Tomorrow – back to the village of Kuranda!