Onward We Go – Australia is a Bigggg Country

We are beginning to understand why some Aussies looked at as funny when we said we were driving from Sydney to Cairns.  Not only is it far but the motorway, highway, way or whatever it is called at any given time changes from a fast moving highway like we know in the US to a single lane road through small villages.  It takes time.  And our off the beaten path side trips make for added time but interesting excursions.

After two hours of driving we made our first detour to Deception Bay.  It was a quaint little town on the water.

For breakfast, we ate at a cute little place called Mermaids.  Murray and his wife have owned the place for eight years and their daughter Kyleigh is also a big part of the restaurant.  Linda and I ordered the small pancake plate which included bacon, strawberries, bananas, whipped cream and maple syrup.  We could have shared the small plate.  Delicious and quite filling we didn’t eat again until dinner.  Bruce and Stan had scones and fruit.  It was a lovely spot to have our breakfast and the hosts were great.

Our next detour was the Glass House Mountains.  We didn’t have time to hike any trails but we did drive up to the overlook.  These were named by James Cook in the 1700’s because they reminded him of the glass furnaces in England.  These mountains also hold spiritual significance to the aboriginals.

We finally made it to our hotel, the Beach Motel on Shelly Beach in Torquay .  We quickly changed into our bathing suits and went in for a swim.

Dinner started out to be a problem.  It seems that all the restaurants were fully booked and we didn’t have a reservation.  Finally a little Italian restaurant felt sorry for us so they set us s table.  The food was delicious.  Linda and I had spinach and ricotta stuffed cannelloni.  Bruce had veggie lasagna and Stan had regular lasagna.