Rainy Day in Cairns

We arrived in Cairns under rainy skies, our first full rainy day of the last month.  With umbrella in hand, we left the ship and went for a walk.  Papa stopped for a haircut along the way, and I continued walking for five miles, along Cairns Esplanade.  The waterfront of Cairns is absolutely beautiful, with old growth trees in a long grassy landscaped garden lining the boardwalk.  It has wide bike paths and walking trails, playgrounds, exercise areas, picnic tables and benches, and a salt-water lagoon.  It is lined with restaurants and shops and is the heart of the city.  Cairns is home to 170,000 people.  It is a major tourist destination in Australia, with access to two UNESCO world heritage sites, the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.  Cairns is beautiful, even in the rain!

Billabong Sanctuary and Townsville

After arriving in Townsville Harbor this morning, Papa and I took a ship excursion to the Billabong Sanctuary, with animals of Australia.  We enjoyed seeing dingos, kangaroos, wallabies, crocodiles, meerkats, wombats, koalas, cassowary, turtles, birds, and more.  We had fun!

After seeing the Billabong Sanctuary, we took a ride through the town of Townsville, with over 200,000 people, and the largest Australian military base in the country.  Downtown was scattered with historic buildings, and there was a military fort built in the 1800’s and used during WWII.  Castle Hill, a pink granite monolith overlooks the whole town.  We hiked up to Kissing Point - site of a military fort built in 1891 and rebuilt through the years, then used during WWII in defense of Australia, along with the Americans help, against the Japanese.  We hiked down the other side of Kissing Point and around the Strand Rockpool.  Rockpools are built into coastal rock shelves, offering calm, saltwater swimming year round.  We’ve seen them everywhere we’ve visited along the coast and they are quite popular.  Townsville is Australia’s largest copper, lead and zinc port.  Townsville was a substantial, very nice city!

Fly Over the Great Barrier Reef

Our ship arrived near Airlie Beach this morning by 7.  We took a tender onto the shore and then a bus into the small town of Airlie Beach and walked along their boardwalk, past the lagoon, and into a few shops.  Airlie Beach is a nice upscale town.

We took a bus to the airport for our flight over the Great Barrier Reef.  It is absolutely beautiful!  And it goes on and on, 344,400 square km/132,973 square miles, covering an area the size of Japan or Italy.  We saw Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island, known as one of the most beautiful beaches on earth, 7 km of 98% pure white silica sand.  And we saw heart reef, a small reef in the shape of a heart.  We also saw dozens of islands with smaller beaches - all beautiful!  An amazing day!