Leaving Tasmania

I forgot to mention that as we drove from the wildlife park to the farm cottage where we stayed we passed a bike event.  This is not your typical bike race.  These bikes had huge front wheels and tiny rear wheels.  I'd guess there were about 40 bikes in the event.  Men. women, and children were riding the old fashioned bicycles.  The riders were way up in the air and judging by the looks on their faces as they struggled up the hills, it wasn't easy riding.  I am sure they needed help to get going every time they stopped so lets hope they didn't have to stop very often.  One of my friends talked to an older gentleman (in his 70's?) the next day on the plane and he was in that bike race.  He held a helmet on his lap on the airplane.  He said one has to get off the bike very quickly.  Some jump off to the side and others put both legs over the handlebars and slide down the front.  This is not something I see every day, that is for sure.  In any case we had to be up at 4 a.m. to return our rental car and check in at the Lanceston airport.  The flight to Melbourne was only 1 hour but we got a hot breakfast.  Aah, Quantas, you're such a better airline than Delta.  Unfortunately there were small bits of ham in our hot egg and ham roll up so, being a vegetarian, I couldn't eat it. I did enjoy the peaches that came with it though.  The flight from Melbourne to Cairns (pronounced cans, like in two cans of Coke) was three hours and we were served pasta carbona - also with ham but the pieces of ham were large and easy to pick out.  That came with peas and cream sauce, a bun with butter, fruit, and a chocolate bar. We were offered drinks three times.  At the airport our transportation connection held a sign with our names on it.  Our travel agent advised us to sit behind the driver.  She gave us good advice because as we traveled north along the coast to Port Douglas, we had great views of the Coral Sea and the Great Barrier Reef.  Fields of sugarcane dotted the landscape.