20th & 21st February 2010
With yesterday’s very early flight, most of the day was spent just relaxing, catching up on emails and blogs and sleep. We didn’t venture too far from the hostel due to the varying quantities of rain falling from the sky during the day, ranging from light to torrential.
Cairns is very much a base for exploring the Great Barrier Reef and areas of far north Queensland such as Cape Tribulation and Port Douglas, and the inland rainforests of the Atherton Tablelands. Tourism is its main industry and it is very much a city about doing, rather than seeing with few monuments, natural or otherwise.
This morning brought some sunshine so we headed down to the sea front, past the reef fleet terminal where we’ll be catching the boat to the reef tomorrow. We walked right along the Esplanade past the mud flats and watching the wildlife such as the wading birds, great egrets and crabs. There was plenty of air activity with commercial flights and helicopters coming out of the airport and seaplanes coming into land at the reef fleet terminal. While we were walking back, a medivac helicopter flew into the field in front of the hospital so we sat for a while and waited for it to take off again.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing (hard life this) as we’re off to the reef on a tour tomorrow.