Walkabout Cairns
Walkabout Cairns
Marilyn and Heather at Sunday farmers market
We spent two weeks in and around Cairns, which included two dive trips, and a four days in Herberton at Heather’s ‘tree house’ in the Atherton tablelands. The weather was hot and sticky, typical for tropical Queensland in the summer. But we enjoyed the weather, remembering all the ‘winters’ we’d spent in the U.S. with blizzards, freezing temperature, icy roads, and shoveling snow. We also enjoyed the tropical foliage, palm, banana, tree ferns,, magnolia, mangrove, and gum trees. As well as the exotic colorful birds and wildlife.
Fruit stalls
Cairns was casual than other towns we’d visited been in Australia. The coastal town is a major tourist destination for cruise ships and divers coming from around the world to experience the Great Barrier Reef. Australians also come here, traveling in vans, campers and RV’s, staying at the many vehicle camping places we saw.
Downtown Cairns was pedestrian friendly with wide sidewalks, parks, shade trees, benches, and cafe tables to enjoy people watching. Streets aren’t clogged with traffic and cross walks are well-marked and safe. Most buildings downtown are two or three stories, with only a few high-rise hotels and apartments, but no sky scrapers. It’s quite pleasant, letting tourists and walkers enjoy views of the mountains and forests west of town and the beautiful bay and marinas.
Sunday Market
Vegetable stalls
Our last Sunday in Cairns we took a boat to Fitzroy Island to spend two days at a resort. On our way to the marina to board our boat, we walked through an open air farmer’s market in a walkway between two streets. Stalls were selling a variety of produce, crafts, souvenirs, and jewelry.
The most eye-appealing stalls were selling tropical fruits grown locally: coconuts, banana, mango, pineapple, papaya, grapes, and exotic fruits we hadn’t seen.
Juicy mangos
Tropical melons
Tropical fruits for sale
Pineapples anyone?
Locally grown bananas - no Dole
Dragon fruit that taste like kiwi and strawberries
Rambutan, a tropical fruit we hadn't seen before
Fabrics, clothes, crafts, and jewelry were attractively displayed.
Fire coral necklaces
Coral colored necklaces
Fire coral necklaces
Tropical color fabrics
Tropical flowers were colorful.
Bird of paradise flowers
Fruit bats
Walking through Cairns was a bit eerie; fruit bats the size of kittens flew over the city, roosted in tall trees, hanging upside town, fanning their bat wings, making raucous screeching noises. They looking somewhat menacing, but eat only fruit from area orchards and farms. All during the day, and especially in the late afternoon and early evening, the sky was filled with these bats which are called, ‘fur-headed flying foxes.’ They’re considered a pest by many for the messes they make on lawns and sidewalks, but they’re a protected species.
We heard there was a steep fine for anyone who interfered with the bats. But from the numbers we saw, they don’t need protection, they’ve adapted very well to their tropic paradise. We’d also seen the bats in Sydney and Melbourne in botanic gardens where they have plenty of trees to roost in, breed, and raise their young.
I have a video of the noisy ‘flying foxes’ roosting in the trees which I’ll post in the future. My still camera was acting up our last few days and the only pictures I took were with my video camera.
* * * * *
Next: Cairns lagoon
We welcome your comments to our travels Down Under. We want to hear from you!
In addition to this travel blog, I also write mysteries and romantic suspense novels available on Kindle, Nook,
and Smashwords which distributes to ereader devices. If you read books on ereaders, I hope you’ll consider
reading and reviewing them. I’ll be publishing a new murder mystery, REX ROYALE, in a few weeks. Let me
know if you’d like to read a preview of the opening chapters.
jacklerickson@gmail.com
