Today we are visiting the city of Cairns. We are going to dock at Yorkeys Knob, and it will
take some 20 minutes to get to Cairns itself. A tender to the shore was organised and the water was a little rocky
but not too bad. Again there was a free shuttle and the trip was made very entertaining by the coach captain
who gave a brief overview of the city.
Cairns is situated in Northern Queensland and has tropical weather all year round. It is characterized by
the picturesque green foliage and the typical Queensland houses that are light coloured and many built up on
wooden stilts to allow cool breezes underneath. Beautiful beaches and flora can be seen here and being a gateway to
the Great Barrier Reef as well as the Skytrain and the Scenic railway give visitors lots of options. We passed a statue of Captain James Cook along the way as after he landed in Botany Bay in 1770, he then sailed
north and had to land in Northern Queensland to repair his ship after hitting a reef. He was at Cooktown, some 215 north
of Cairns for 7 weeks.
As we did not have lots of time, we decided to check out Cairns itself and so we walked down to the sea and
enjoyed the wonderful shoreline as well as the great pool area. then it was back in the town and off to see what the shops had to offer.
All in all a great day and after a rough tender trip back to the ship, we relaxed with a drink or two and
looked forward to 4 days at sea before reaching our next port of Guam.
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