![]() Luckily, Cairns will take care of that, and feed you too. ![]() It’s the tropics, so you’re going to get thirsty. In tropical Cairns, the air is sweet.Īdvertise with NZME. I follow Ada’s mantra to “always, breathe”. Enticing in the heat is the Esplanade’s lagoon swimming pool. A flock of pelicans cruises along the mirror surface of the water near the seawall. Returning to my hotel from the wharf, I pass a couple on the boardwalk taking an evening stroll with their pet yellow-crested cockatoo. I would love to bring everyone I know back to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef. ![]() Still, the reef’s outlook has recently been downgraded from “poor” to “very poor”, so conservation efforts are as important as ever. Master reef guide Russell Hosp dispels some myths during the return to Cairns: the reef is not dead yet - it’s healthier now, he believes, than it’s been in years coral bleaching - where the algae that lives in the coral dies when the water temperature rises too high - does not mean the coral is dead. The lookout’s whistle blows and it’s time to reluctantly return to the boat. Shafts of sunlight, refracted through my mask, stream past my face from above as I scan the seabed searching for more treasures. The Great Barrier Reef is not dead yet but conservation efforts are as important as ever. As one day ends on the edge of the water, tomorrow I’m heading for the hills. The Cairns Esplanade Lagoon is a popular, and essential, public swimming pool for a part of the city where swimming in the sea is impractical. Walking south, the kaleidoscopic LED light display on the 35m-tall Reef Eye ferris wheel and its reflection in the sea is a double-disc dazzlement. It is a simple, moving daily ritual of remembrance.Ĭairnsites clearly love their Esplanade at any time, but after dark, sea breezes, plenty of lighting and amenities for all ages bring out the locals and visitors alike. There’s time for a pint of Tooheys Old dark ale – Australia’s best beer, according to a friend from Brisbane – to be poured and a seat found in the shade outside overlooking the war memorial, before an alarm sounds at the going down of the sun, everyone is upstanding for The Last Post and a rendition of For the Fallen. It’s appropriate then, that the promised cold drink is in the handsome Cairns RSL building right on the Esplanade. I stood stunned at the corner of Lake and Alpin streets as wave after leather-winged wave of these big bats flapped in from the hills to swoop, like jets returning to an aircraft carrier, into an enormous tangled tree by the roadside. In the early evening, if you are lucky, you’ll be treated to the spectacle of flying foxes arriving to roost in the downtown area after a day in the hinterland. I’m not tempted to go under the needle, but I do consider a souvenir t-shirt.įurther exploration on foot is best left until it cools off, or at least with the aim of finding a place for a drink. Peter’s ‘hip’ tour ends after we’ve peeped into more tattoo parlours and barber shops.
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