Downtown in Cairns

 Shield st in Cairns has a great park between Lake st, where we were staying and Sheridan St, it also has shields displayed at one end.

Different birds feature on seats around the trees and they were massive.

Iron man Cairns

 We had no idea that this was scheduled while we would be visiting.

The start at 7.38am and it was a staggered start. There were two different ones, a long one or the short course.

Long one consisted of 3.9km swim in the sea, followed by a 190 km bike ride up and around Pt Douglas, we drive that road last year, very pretty but windy and if course hilly. Then finally there was a 42 km run.

Short course was 1.9k swim, 90 k ride and a half marathon, 21 k run.

We walked down and saw some riders coming in and then running out again.

We almost saw a guy come off his bike at this turn. There was a group of about a dozen in a short time, he was able to pull his bike around so there was not a fall.

Lost hat

 Going out this morning, Warren was looking for his hat. Not that many places it could be. He did the washing last night so we checked there on the way out.

Realised that he had it yesterday lunch when we walked to the seafront, as we were heading that way, its on the way to down town, we did a little detour to the park bench where we had been sitting.

Yay, there it is! He had taken it off to take a selfie of us to send to a friend. I guess he put it in the seat while he sent it and then didnt retrive it. Hat was on the ground behind the seat. 

Parks in Cairns

 We went for lunch at a seafooď buffet, $15 two blocks away. Came back to "home" via a great park. Lunch was pretty bland and not much of it so we crossed that off our list for a second visit. Dinner is buffet, lunch was set with two courses.

Beaut park that we discovered, had to get some info from the information board.

Jelly babies? They are quite large. The flower was the first and only one on a bush a couple if metres high.

Park run Cairns

 The start was 1.8km from our motel so we left at 6.10am. They usually have about 220 to 230 but there are lots of people visiting and the numbers swelled to 380.

It was in two laps, 1.5 out and return but not on the same track, then 1k out and return. There is a board walk along the fore shore and a few metres away through the park is a concrete path.

Warren is in the last shot. The dress was green shorts and blue top., in honour of a member who had passed away. 

We walked back afterwards, stopping for coffee where a young famiky of four ordered breakfast. Kuds were about eight and ten and all had done the park run. We dont know them but they were wearing our local running shirts. Breakfast cost them $91, eating out sure is expensive here. We have been doing a mixture some meals out, some things bought from supermarket.   

Green island 2

 Time for lunch after the glass bottomed boat trip. I was getting info about an Earth cache so Warren ordered lunch, only two places to eat plus a small bar.

He had got us a hamburger each and a cocktail from the bar. Must have been rge sea breeze as we rarely have alcohol. The hamburgers were $23 each and cocktails $18.

I really felt the effects and we sat chatting to an English couple for some time over lunch before we walked through the rain forest and finally got our gear fir snorkeling. 

We ran into them again ar the beach as she was going for a swim and a snorkel, they had no intention but I think Warren persuaded her to have a go. She was so excited as she saw a turtle and a couple of rays. We didnt but then I followed some fish as they were feeding off sea grass, there were about fifteen if them. They seemed quite close and a reasonable size. 

Came back for a coffee at 3pm and could only get an icecream as the coffee place was closed, the bar closed at 3.30pm and everyone had to wait until the boat arrived at 4.15pm to go back to Cairns. 

Green Island

 We had to be at the terminal at 10am so it was a leisurely 2km walk and wait for our boat.

A very comfortable catamaran. Teas, coffee, biscuits and sea sickness tablets were available on boarding the craft. It was a 50 minute trip.

Our ticket included glass bottom boat trip and snorkling and before getting off at the jetty, we needed to be on a smaller boat for the fish viewing.

Seen through the bottom of the boat.

It is a marine park but they are permitted to feed the fish when coming back in and this was the frenzy when fish food was thrown in.