Another encounter with airport authorities.. (16^th November 2014)

We packed up our kit and headed for the Sydney domestic airport to fly up to Cairns.  However, Mike’s encounter with the airport security didn’t go quite as planned.  He got hauled out from the security line for carrying a penknife, not one but two!  Could this be a Brisbane G20 threat? 

The option offered was to leave the knives behind or check them into the luggage hold.  Unfortunately the airline wanted to charge $70 to take an extra bag, to which Mike objected. He then proceeded to walk along the check-in queue until he found someone also going to Cairns and willing to add the items into their luggage. As it turned out the guy that obliged later needed help contacting his hire car company, and was using the same company as us, and as fate would have it he and his wife were sat in the same row as us on the plane!

We arrived in Cairns, around 4pm, to temperatures of 27C and drove up to Port Douglas where we had booked an apartment. The trip up along the Captain Cook Highway is relatively slow since quite a bit is restricted to 80km/h, but it hugs the coast and has some gorgeous beaches along quite a few sections of its length. 

The journey provides a couple of dual carriage way sections where one can pass slow vehicles and the speed limit increases to a pedestrian 100km/h. Amusingly enough a sign on the opposite dual carriage way, facing the on-coming traffic, advises motorist wandering into the wrong lane to "GO BACK", as if they needed any encouragement!

On arrival in Port Douglas we were flagging a bit and decided to eat before unpacking our bags, and within about 50m of the apartment found a restaurant offering a special Sunday deal of fish and chips for $20, where the fish was Barramundi. This with a couple of glasses of Chardonnay went down well and concluded the day's adventures.