CAIRNS & THE FESTIVAL

Monday, 26 August 2019

A beautiful flower garden

A  couple of little Korean cuties

Bigger Korean beauties

Serious work

First of the "flesh"

Butterflies are always lovely

As are mermaids

A flamingo pretty in pink

Also pretty in pink

Plenty to look at - admired their ability to walk the parade in such high shoes

A vision in blue

Look who turned up!

Mowbray River - how many crocodiles?

Rex Lookout

Murky view from the lookout

Trinity Inlet

Old wooden piers

Landscaped walkway

HMAS Melville

Sculptures

The weather continued warm and sunny on Saturday, just perfect for the annual Cairns Festival Parade in the late afternoon.  We joined the many thousands who made their way to the Esplanade and were lucky enough to spot a couple of vacant parking spots in the RSL carpark.  With the service ribbons sticker on the back window and intending to purchase some food from the RSL, we thought we had all the parking criteria covered.  Unfortunately, the security guard at the back of the car park didn’t think so; we had to replace our folding chairs in the car and make our way inside the RSL to watch the parade.  We had a pretty good view, but about half way through the parade, we retrieved our chairs and moved to a better viewing point.  The parade was up to its usual standard, although there did seem to be more flesh on display this year!  John and Jason White even participated with their Targa car (Targa FNQ next weekend).  Following the completion of the two hour parade, we had a thirty minute wait for the traditional fireworks display.

Sunday morning was overcast but very warm and humid, so we decided to undertake our planned trip to the Port Douglas market.  However, we had only gone about a third of the way when the mizzle commenced, then became heavier.  By the time we crossed the Mowbray River, it was absolutely pouring.  We continued into Port Douglas and were lucky enough to find a parking spot in the main street; we sat and looked at all the brunching crowds, looked at the market set up at the end of the street and looked at the rain.  It didn’t take long to convince each other we didn’t really want to get wet and cold, as well as very muddy.  We drove off without even getting out of the car and headed south to drier skies and warmer temperatures.  After a quick stop at the Rex Lookout, we continued to Cairns and enjoyed a very nice lunch at Dundees.

Today, it was clear blue skies and a gentle breeze as we strolled along the shore of the inlet, south of the Esplanade.  This walk has now been fully landscaped with many restaurants and coffee shops and some magnificent views of the inlet and further east.  We watched HMAS Melville depart, with her crew on parade on the foredeck; not long afterwards another much smaller Naval vessel (inflatable, actually) returned to port.  There was also plenty of other water traffic, with tourists boats, tugs and the dredge all moving about.