Cairns - a wonderful week of activities

This is the lagoon on the Esplanade in central Cairns. It is a giant swimming pool surrounded by grass and flanked by barbecues on one side and a host of restaurants on the other. Lovely balmy weatehr at this time of the year, can't imagine what it is in the steamy wet season. Cairns is a buzzy, lively city full of tourists and backpackers. We spent a week at the Cascades Caravan Park and enjoyed it very much.

This is the marine platform on the outer Barrier Reef where we had a wonderful day of snorkling. Saw lots of fish and colourful coral. It was a great day. Sadly, no underwater camera so can't share our underwater adventures.

Next we went on a day trip to Kuranda by the scenic railway that traverses the impressive Barron Gorge. The construction of the railway early this century was an engineering feat to carry the cane sugar. We returned by Skyrail which are gondolas high high up runnign on overhead wires, like a skii chairlift but much much higher. Very scary for a height averse person like me but fun. Sadly our camera battery decided to die on us on the way back so no photos, only memories.

And lastly, the main reason for our long stay in Cairns, the Barrier Reef Bridge Congress over the long Queens Birthday weekend. Here we are playing against Nancy and Kath from Mackay whom we had met previously when we played at their club on the way here. The bridge capped off a wonderful week in the cpaital of the wet tropics.