Delights of the Cairns area

Tuesday 11th June was another day for taking it easy, strolling around a few places, soaking up some sun-rays and cooling in the pool.

On Wednesday, energy restored, I went on a trip to the Saxon and Hastings reefs. Again the weather decided not to be in my favour (despite having specially booked the day with the best forecast) and wet suit hire seemed a good idea for keeping warm for the hours I would be in the water. I had booked to go on a scuba dive and after a slow start, and neeeding to be given extra weight to stop floating back to the surface, I found it exciting to be swimming among the marine life. Enough so that after the barbecue lunch I signed up for another dive in the afternoon at the second reef!

On the sea floor

Thursday was a good opportunity to take a trip up to Kuranda on the 'Skyrail'. As with the trip on Tuesday this relied on public transport and again meant a long wait in spite of having done prior research on the timetables. My friends from the hostel and I couldn't have asked for better weather though and the views from the cable car, both over the rainforest and out to sea were phenomenal. We spent a while walking around the markets in Kuranda before we ran out of energy and could no longer stand the heat, returning by bus to Cairns for a refreshing swim.

Barron Falls, on the way to Kuranda

The next two days showed more perfect weather, and the best way to make use of it seemed to be by relaxing by the lagoon (public pool to make up for the unsuitability of the sea for swimming), which I had not swum in to date. We also stocked up on supplies to make the most of the free to use barbecuing areas. The poolside thermometer read 39C in the late afternoon although we were dubious...

Cairns lagoon, overlooking the sea

Sadly I had reached my last day in Cairns; I managed to get a lift up to Port Douglas with a couple of German backpackers where I visited the beach and walked round the Sunday markets before meeting up with Tanya for the drive back up to Cape Tribulation.