We arrived in Cairns a couple of days ago and all we seemed to have done, apart from drink wine and chill out at the man-made lagoon (pictured below), is sort out a campervan which we pick up on Tuesday.

Advised by other travellers we decided to rent rather than buy.  Seemingly, many that have purchased vans in Cairns, and have completed the east coast route, are struggling to sell in Sydney – we certainly don’t want to joining that queue.  Because there are a large number of rental vehicles in Cairns that need taking back to Sydney we were able to negotiate a good deal, from $70 a day down to $40 for a hi-top with all the trimmings.  Hopefully we won’t have to pay for too many campsites; they range from $25–40 a night depending on facilities but there are some free ones too.  We are very excited about getting out of the city and getting back in a campervan. 

Cairns by all accounts is really really quite, yet more evidence of a slowdown in the economies of the UK and the rest of Europe where a large portion of their tourists come from.  Some bars are now closing a 9pm because of the lack of trade.  Ironically, there doesn’t seem to be much discount on tourist traps, places of interest or accommodation.