Cairns

On Tuesday morning, I flew to Cairns. (Not a single person checked my ID at the airport which as a bit unnerving though they did select me to be scanned for explosive residue.) The view from the plane of the city was lovely. And I got a free $5 voucher for food on the plane. So I was very happy. :-)

Goodbye Sydney!

I have a nice little studio apartment at The Cascade Gardens in Cairns not far from the city centre. It's quiet and has a full kitchen and the pool looks very nice. (I was going to take some photos but then I dumped my stuff everywhere and it's too messy to show photos of now!)

The rest of the day in Cairns was spent buying food, unpacking and chilling out. And trying to stay awake until the evening! I brought a nice bottle of white wine while shopping. The guy at the shop made sure I knew it cost a whole $12 (apparently surprised I wanted to spend that much). It gave me an idea of the drinking people do here. :-/

I woke up super early on Wednesday morning so went down to the sea front for sunrise. It was very pretty and peaceful, though I ended up chatting to a guy from India before he started his sun prayers which was interesting.

But the sunrise was worn getting up for.

Cairns Bay at sunrise

Cairns beach (at sunrise)

On Wednesday afternoon I took a tour around the city and surrounding areas. It took me to some of the main attractions and good restaurants so I can revisit them later if I want to. There were only 12 of us on the tour and the other people were very batty and friendly. I would highly recommend this tour especially if you don't have very long in Cairns. The tour guide was funny and informative and happy to answer any and all questions, no matter how odd!

After a brief tour around town (where I saw a few places I wanted to go but I'm going to have to map to figure out where they were again), we stopped at St. Monica's Cathedral. It really wasn't very impressive from the outside.

Outside St. Monica's Cathedral

But inside the stain glass windows were amazing!

Australian history

Big Bang

Evolution

 We continued the tour around town, seeing the sugar refineries and port, which were interesting but not very pretty. Though there were lots of warning signs for crocodiles. After that we headed for afternoon tea, though we toured through a graveyard first which was a little weird and morbid. Afternoon tea was very tasty (and I completely forgot to take any photos). I tried my first flat white, an Australian must. It was one of the better coffees I have tasted (and helped keep me awake for the rest of the day) but I am still a tea girl.
From the cafe, our guide, Eric, gave us a tour around the Flecker Gardens which is part of Cairns Botanical gardens.

Our guide Eric, showing an elephant apple

A baby pineapple

Chainsaw flower.

No idea but cool!

We then drove into the hills to get a view across Cairns.

Cairns

We also went along the Barron river, where you can go white water rafting, and down to Surprise Creek Waterfall.

Surprise Creek falls

Barron River valley

 The final stop was up on Palm beach in the north beaches. The main beach in Cairns is very small and a little dismal. But the northern beaches are very pretty and much better for swimming. (Though there were still more crocodile warning signs so I am not sure if I would risk it!) Normally Eric takes people along the pier but unfortunately it was shut as some of the electrical wires were down. It was probably ok but none of us wants to risk electrocution either!

Palm cove

After the beach, we were dropped back at the hotels or in my case Woolworths and the off-license to get a few more bits and another bottle of wine. :-)
On the way back to the apartment, I looked up and the sky was full of hundreds of fruit bats, also called flying foxes. These bats are huge and when flying, silent. (In the day roosting, they are really noisy!) It was an a amazing sight. I am going to go back at dusk and get some photos (my hands were full of shopping). And apparently they really confused the stoned population of Cairns as a couple had to ask me what they were as they were freaked out by the amazing flying creatures. Odd city!