Arrived in Cairns in yet another heatwave! We can almost feel how sorry you feel for us!
Our digs for this 3 day stay is a nice apartment with full facilities – time to get some overdue washing done – eh, what’s that Caroline, did I say us - sorry?
Nice place but no beach as apparently the harbour was dredged during WWII and all the resulting mud dumped on the front. It’s stayed there ever since and now is a protected mud flats area. Interesting.
However, a short hop up the coast and there are a number of incredibly nice (almost) unspoilt beaches – our favourite being Palm Cove, idyllic setting with palm fringed sands.
Only downside is that you cannot swim in the sea at this time of year due to the presence of Box Jellyfish – get caught up in their tentacles and its curtains unless you get to hospital pronto. However, most beaches have ‘stinger’ nets – areas cordoned off in the sea by huge nets to allow safe swimming.
We’re not looking for beach holidays anyway! So, there are plenty of fantastic places to visit. Our first tour is to a place called Kuranda. In the 60’s it was a small hippy community where the local constabulary turned a blind eye to the ‘things that hippys’ did in those days’! It is now popular as a centre for visiting many neighbouring beauty spots, most centred around the incredibly large and breathtaking rain forest. We travelled there on the Kuranda Scenic Railway, a winding journey of an hour and a quarter, and well worth it too. The more popular Skyrail, a cable car journey apparently not to be missed, was out of service whilst we were there!
Cairns is a bustling seaside resort style, not what we were expecting but nevertheless very enjoyable and a good base for visiting plenty of amazing places in close proximity.
Now on to Port Douglas.
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