Cairns Festival

Monday, 20th August 2012


Saturday evening and it was time for the Cairns Festival Parade – we joined the many thousands heading to the Esplanade with our stools and were lucky enough to find both a parking space for the car and a front row parking space for our stools. The balmy weather added to the enjoyment of the 58 floats entered by many community groups (and there wasn’t one fire engine in the whole parade!). The Japanese community had by far the biggest contingent of participants and floats, but the Chinese did have the dragon and dancing lions – a very close contest. (Unfortunately, a finger malfunction saw all the parade photos deleted from the camera.) The parade took an hour to pass us, then it was a mad dash to the waterfront to claim a front row seat for the fireworks. These were quite spectacular, especially the grand finale. A meal at the RSL was a very pleasant conclusion to the evening’s festivities.

We had planned to play bowls on Sunday afternoon and were quite surprised to find the green covered with players in uniform when we arrived at the club – definitely considerably more than the eight players we were expecting. Leaving the bowls in the car, we headed to the clubhouse to find out what was happening and were met at the gate and literally pleaded with to play. A tour group of New Zealand bowlers had asked to play a social game at Edge Hill and the club desperately needed a few more players. I immediately became an honorary Edge Hill bowler and Les joined the New Zealanders. We were very careful NOT to mention rugby! It was a little strange joining in part way through a game and discovering how different carpet plays during a very hot afternoon. We were even treated to afternoon tea between the two games (and didn’t have to pay green fees because we were “guests” for the day). To make the second game really interesting, the skies opened and we had a tropical downpour! Luckily I had my wet weather gear in my bag but nearly everyone else had to continue as they were – plenty of contestants for a wet t-shirt contest when we finally came off. My rink won our two games but the Kiwis won the day – just! We discovered later that the rain was very localised and confined to the area immediately around the bowls club. At least it was warm rain and not sleet.

Today was cloudy and humid, following a very warm night. A touch of retail therapy was called for this morning, followed by some more news exchanging with Margaret this afternoon.