Cairns Coffee and Pies!

The top 4 coffees in Cairns as voted by me, are:

1. Caffiend - It was almost like coffee syrup, that's the way it should be! The scrambled eggs were quite awesome, which is why Industry One is second. I should go back...
2. Industry One - They roast their own beans here and it gives a very different taste, very smokey! I bought beans to take with me!
3. Bang - The one that seemed to start all this in cairns, from what I'm told.
4. Silk Caffe - Good, but lacking something...

Now to pies... I sampled many pies at Meldrums Pies in Paradise. Including the Steak Bacon and Cheese, Steak Kidney and Bacon, and the Caribbean Chicken (or "Crack Pie"). All good... But unfortunately none of them topped the Steak Bacon and Cheese pie from Queen of tarts. Or the Sausage Rolls. Meldrums may have all the awards, but Queen of Tarts makes a tasty pie. If I'm going to order the pies I've had on this trip it would be:

1. Queen of Tarts - Steak Bacon and Cheese
2. Big Mama's in Mt Larcom - Steak Kabana and Cheese
3. Meldrums Pies in Paradise - Steak Kidney and Bacon

The dishonor list:

1. Roundabout Bakery in West Wyalong - Complete failure pie. Not even worth stopping. Keep driving. Add this to your GPS to make sure you avoid it. (Am I going overboard?)

Cairns (mostly in pictures)

Been here for 9 days now, delayed my departure (hey that's becoming a theme...) to rethink my packing. Leaving tomorrow! I swear!

Lots of things have happened. I drank a lot of local coffee (which is very good now, considering it used to be the local crop). I ate lots of pie - pie scoring comes later. I caught up with a lot of people, but not everyone. Found out everyone knows each other, even more so than what I thought before. Discovered a familiar last name in the museum. Drove a car for the first time in 15 months. Found it odd to hear everyone saying it was cold at 19 degrees. Performed some minor bike maintenance. Had a birthday including drinking and an impromptu hallway rave. Won nothing on my birthday Gold Lotto. Went to Mosman to visit my Grandparents briefly. And also attended Steak Friday after having many many many thousands of emails on the subject all with attached monkey pictures.

Thanks to Heidi for letting me stay, and Cheryl for cleaning up after me!

Now for the photos!

Henry Ross Lookout, on the Kuranda Range Road. Used to live thataway--> 

My bike has friends! Big group of riders coming from Darwin to Cairns as a tour.

I used to live there!

Most weekdays were spent with this view. This particular one is from Silk Caffe.

I almost fell off the edge of the hill getting this one, probably best to stick to the designated trails...

Freshwater lookout, I think... Just near Copperlode Dam

New chain and sprockets time!

TIL that C45 and C49 are steel types. I thought it was the tooth count.

That's worn more than I thought it had.

Centenary Lakes

Port Douglas

Cairns! (swapped this one in cause the other was blurry!)

And one bonus video: