Singapore to Cairns

The next leg of our journey from Singapore to Cairns in Queensland, Australia was provided by SilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines. We were surprised to find that only a soft drink and a small packet of peanuts was offered by way of sustenance on this 7 hour flight, until breakfast just before arrival. This was compounded by the fact that, due to an emergency involving the evacuation of the control tower at Singapore, we sat on the plane for two hours before takeoff. After a bit of pleading with the steward, however, we were given an extra early breakfast. The entertainment too was not as good - there were no back-of-the-seat TV screens, and we were told you had to download their app before accessing movies on your own device (provided you had one). Unfortunately, this was difficult to do with no WiFi on board, and it would have been better if we had known to do this in the airport with its free WiFi before boarding. However, Campbell managed to sort us out with his Hot Spot (don’t ask!). On the plus side, we were assigned extra legroom seats above the wing, which facilitated my frequent nocturnal visits to the loo, thus saving the use of my emergency Tena Man supply (thanks, Rab!).

Eventually almost 40 hours after we left Glasgow, we arrived in Cairns. Although we were pretty exhausted, we decided to keep going and get into the Aussie time frame. We were booked into the comfortable Mantra Esplanade Hotel, right in the centre of town. After a very welcome shower and change of clothes, we set off to have a look round. Cairns is an attractive holiday town, with numerous travel companies vying for your business to visit the Great Barrier Reef. There was no sign of any fire damage here, and the town was lush with vegetation everywhere. Although the town doesn’t have a beach, there is a beautiful man-made lagoon, complete with sand, right at the sea front just opposite our hotel. I opted however for a swim in the hotel pool in an attempt to cool down - only to find it was like stepping into a warm bath! For dinner, we opted for a Japanese ramen dish in a basic but highly recommended tiny restaurant. By 8pm we are ready for bed - Campbell is already out for the count!Read more