Arrive in Cairns
We arrived mid afternoon on the overnight 'Sunlander' train from Brisbane. Not being far from the station, we walked down to our hotel, the Pacifice International on the Esplanade. We had a top floor room which had a good view from the balcony; not that we spent much time there without the air-con ! We knew we had arrived in the tropics.
Cairns is esy to navigate around being built on a grid pattern. It's main attraction is as a base to explore the Barrier Reef and the rain forest villge of Kuranda. It is a lively place, having a lot of shops, bars and eating places. The beach, what there is of it, appears to be out of bounds, ('stingers' were mentioned), but there is a brilliant artificial lagoon with good facilities. The parks and gardens are kept in very good order and the vegitation is very lush.
One day, we visited a roof top zoo above the casino complex near the harbour. We found it was not as good value as the one in Kuranda later in the week. We stared for a while at the huge 'salty' crocodile waiting for it to move - it didn't; it remained absoltely motionless. If there had been a stick handy I'd have prodded it - oh yeh!
We had 6 nights in Cairns and had a pleasant and enjoyable stay.
