Out and about in Cairns

Saturday I took day to chill out and didn't book anything. I was intending on sitting my the pool in the sun but the weather was cloudy and cool. Not sunbathing weather. So I went into town for the day. I took Saturday off because I wanted to go to Cairns markets where all of the goods are locally produced. Unfortunately this week is Iron Man in Cairns so there was a fitness and lifestyle expo on instead. :-( But there were lots of very fit guys walking around so at least the view was good.

The Esplanade

The Esplanade runs the length of Cairns along the sea front and very pretty (though there isn't much sea there). There are also lots of free exercise stations (they are super fit here), BBQ areas, and play grounds along it. Because the beaches are pretty rubbish in Cairns, they built the Lagoon on the sea front for swimming.

Lagoon

Because of the weather I decided against going swimming and went to the Cairns Wildlife Dome which is above the Casino. If you have nothing to do and have small kids, it's fine but there really isn't a lot there. There is a rope bridge course but it's pretty expensive and small. But for little kids there are lots of birds flying around and they have regular tours and shows.

Red-tailed black cockatoo

Rat kangaroo

Goliath, a 4m salty

The small bird enclosure was fun

Blue tongued lizard, refusing to show his tongue!

I did however get my photo taken with a koala.

Cuddling a koala

His name was Micro, and he was so soft, cuddly and smells of eucalyptus. But his claws were huge - I wouldn't want to annoy him.

After the dome I went shopping for gifts (I found myself a great necklace and some presents for home) and another bottle of wine (a nice reserve chardonnay) as I am nearly through my semillion. I stopped a sushi place for lunch I had read some great views about, and had a large lunch (I made a mess of the first flying fish roe sushi before I took the photo, as you can see.)

Sushi lunch

I am going to spend the rest of the doing laundry (not very exciting but needs to be done), skyping home, working, and relaxing as I have to be up super early tomorrow morning, though it won't be by the pool.

:-(