Fitzroy Island Resort, Queensland, Australia
We got up early and walked out to Clump Point boat ramp then around to Perry Harvey jetty. No more cassowaries :(
Before we left I had a wander around the resort to get some pictures. Such a shame the restaurant/bar is closed. It’s a beautiful space in a beautiful location. Karen had commented the night before that local cafes/restaurants/businesses don’t consider locals and only open for tourists. What a lost opportunity.
It was an easy two hour drive up to Cairns airport through the banana plantations and canefields. Lots of roadworks going on that will improve the safety of the road and the time it takes to get up to Cairns from Innisfail.
We dropped the car off at the airport and let them know about the windscreen chip. Glad we paid for the insurance. As I’ve already said we shouldn’t have filled up in Karumba. I should have got half a tank then only put in enough to get us to the airport as we'd paid for a full tank at the start at 1.15/l and returned the magic carpet with most likely 20+ litres in the tank ($50+ of fuel).
We got a cab back into the city to the Marlin Wharf where the ferry to Fitzroy Island departed. Lunch at the Blu Marlin Bistro, the restaurant closest to the wharf. Definitely back to city prices and meal sizes.
The ‘to’ Fitzroy Flyer is 1:30pm. Back is 9:30 am. We bought a couple of ginger beers on the boat. $11 each!! How crazy that the prices of food, beverage and fuel right across to the gulf were if anything cheaper than Cairns and surrounds.
We’d booked a three night Good to Go package in a studio with queen bed. It was $899 and included ferry transfers, breakfast, a welcome drink each and a $50 credit. From the start of November it went down to $599! The picture of the room on the website shows a room with sunlight and vegetation and hinted at maybe a balcony of some sort. It’s described as having limited rainforest views.
We walked into room 221 and our view was of a stairwell and the fire hose and extinguisher. If you stood against the window you could see the rainforest on the steep hill behind the resort building.
It was like a cave and either needed lights all on or the curtains open. If you opened the curtains everyone walking past could see straight in. Worst of all it has two single beds.
I went straight back to reception. The view we could do nothing about but there was no way I'd be sleeping in a single bed. “Sorry, sorry, it should be a queen bed, housekeeping is on their way now to change to one bed. They push the beds together and will add a mattress topper.”
I used to work hotel front desk and I had a bad feeling about this.
First we went for a swim in the resort's pool with what appeared to be a convention of loud bogans. Just horrible. After getting a drink from the understaffed and dirty swim up bar we decided to leave the pool to them . We walked around to the beautiful Nudey Beach but didn’t have towels. That would have to wait for another time. Instead we went back to Foxy's, the casual bar on the beach. Foxy’s is also open to day trippers.
Amongst our photios is one that epitomises the weird standards on the island.
It’s a picture of someone’s jocks hanging on the emergency assembly point. They were there on day one and still there on day four.
Foxy’s is such a nice bar and the most beautiful location just above the beach. The staff here couldn’t do enough for you. It had plenty of staff compared to the ‘guest only’ pool bar. Weird, but good for us. The sunset was spectacular.
We stayed until Foxy’s closed. Neither of us were surprised when we got back to the room after 9 and it was unchanged. It's never good having a couple too many drinks under your belt and being angry but it was what it was. I even started by saying I apologise in advance but that I'm angry.
The receptionist was lovely and immediately offered us a room with a verandah to sleep in, just for that first night, but that they'd get the room sorted in the morning and we'd then move back. I said it was truly a horrible room and that we didn't want it. I asked how much to upgrade to an ocean-facing room for all three nights. The receptionist played around on her computer and offered $200. I said done. I was told we might not keep the same room but it would be $200 more no matter what.
She wanted to check that the room she’d put us into was clean (it was supposed to be but she was clearly concerned) so we went together. It was clean. It was huge. It was on the ground floor. Even though it was dark I could still make out the yachts anchored off the beach.
I went up and got Al and took him down to the amazing room 114.
It had a home size kitchen, huge living and dining room, giant bedroom, huge bathroom and a beautiful verandah accessed by bifolds from both living and bedroom.
2025-05-23