Saturday, 14 July 2018
Port Douglas
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Beach babes |
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St Mary's by the Sea Church |
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Blowing up a mine |
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Lady Douglas |
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Tough at the Top |
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Old pearl lugger |
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Crocodile |
Cairns Indigenous Art Fair
Cairns Aquarium
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Blue yabby |
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Sawfish and barramundi |
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Cute turtle |
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Tunnel view |
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Green snake |
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Up close and personal |
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Golden orb spider |
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Another crocodile (about the same size as the first!) |
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Fish |
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More crocodiles (same size as all the others) |
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Reef watching |
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Spotty stingray |
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Bright pink starfish |
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Nemo and friends |
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Hermit crab |
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Only its mother would love this stone fish |
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Shark watching |
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Under the aquarium |
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The big picture |
Happy Bastille Day to all the French people.
Last Wednesday we farewelled to Jenny and Brian in the
morning and welcomed Kathryn in the afternoon, with her staying until next
Thursday.
Thursday was a day of catching up, some pampering, with
Kathryn experiencing her first (and definitely not her last!) massage, checking
out the menu at Movenpick and some retail therapy. We enjoyed dinner at Cazaly’s and Kathryn was
most disappointed not to increase her spending capacity although Himself once
again added to the washing machine money!
With clear, blue skies and no breeze on Friday, we headed to
Port Douglas, stopping first at Four Mile Beach, along with more than half the
tourists currently in the region. Such a
beautiful beach made even better by the weather. Following a walk along the sand, we returned
to the car and headed to the lookout over the beach and town, before beginning
the search for a car parking space. It
didn’t take too long to do the shops, although Kathryn did get rather excited
in the Greg Norman Outlet, and after lunch we walked to the marina and boarded
the Lady Douglas for a cruise down
the river. We were welcomed on board
with a glass of bubbly each, followed by a good selection of fruit and nibbles
as we cruised passed the “white boats” (expensive cruisers) and kept a close
lookout for crocodiles when we reached the mangroves. The captain spotted a couple (no one else
seemed to see them) before he saw a large crocodile on the mud immediately
before a small fishing charter boat sped past us and scared the crocodile. When the same boat came up to us later and
was forced to slow down by the position of our boat, our captain left the
offending fishermen in no doubt as to his displeasure!!! We were lucky enough to see a small crocodile,
about 1 metre long, sunny itself, before we headed out to the head of the river
with views of the cold sugar wharf and St Mary’s by the Sea Church.
Today, with the weather continuing in the same vein, we
visited the annual Cairns Indigenous Art Fair and admired some beautiful work
before wandering around the weekly Esplanade Market. The highlight of the day was without doubt
our visit to the new Cairns Aquarium – definitely the best we have
visited. We commenced the tour in the
freshwater section and were lucky enough to have our visit coincide with a
presentation on the fish in the large freshwater aquarium (predominantly barramundi,
but with a freshwater sawfish as a highlight) before we viewed the many smaller
exhibits, including snakes and spiders. The
saltwater aquarium was massive, with us able to walk through tunnels in order
to obtain the full experience. The small
crocodiles were being fed headless mice as we watched and after pretending we
didn’t really want to pat any of the fish in the petting tank, we crawled under
the reef to get a closer view of the very pretty spotted stingrays. Unfortunately, the dim blue lighting didn’t
help with photography.
1 comment:
Aquarium looks impressive, will have to come back.x
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