A wonderful day just running errands and farting around Cairns.
The Exchange Hotel in Mossman has absolutely the worst beds we've slept on in this country. I don't think we'll stay at any more hotels this trip without looking at the rooms first.
Chris was ready to leave at 4am. I wasn't--so I threw him the Paradise Found book and the headlamp and he read it in 90 minutes. I rolled out of my U-shaped bed when he was done, and we snuck out of the hotel at 6am and headed to Cairns.
Our first stop was easy: Chris spotted a self service car wash at the Smithfield mall north of Cairns, and we spent the better part of the hour getting the red dust off the Landcruiser. We scheduled an oil change and service at the Toyota Service Center at the mall (why don't more car dealers put their service departments next to shopping malls? It makes sense!) then headed into town for a yummy breakfast, haircuts, and the newsagent's. I can still say that I haven't missed an issue of The Economist yet.
The big task today was to find someone to fix my camera. Unfortunately, the Camera Repair shop listed in the Yellow Pages doesn't fix digital cameras. Grrr. So I called up Canon, and will be shipping it out tomorrow to them. I'll be cameraless for two to three weeks. Yuck.
In the afternoon, we went to see Minority Report with Tom Cruise. One of the best movies I've seen in a long while: intelligent and good looking and the characters don't do stupid things, either. Very well written, and Spielberg did a great job telling the story, while Tom Cruise did a solid job acting. I'm looking forward to the DVD. I'd like to see it a few more times!
Then the oil change... a walk over to Kmart and Coles for, well, Kmarty things and groceries... and up to Port Douglas to our very decent apartment.
Ahhhhhhh... the first real bed we've slept on in almost three weeks. And no early wakeup, either! Yay!