Our last morning in Port Douglas started with a walk into town to have breakfast at The Little Larder. What a great choice! We got a table inside where there was some A/C (as with all places in PD if they have A/C they also have the doors wide open so it pretty much negates any positive effect) and Ken and I both ordered the Turmeric Crab Omelette which had mounds of Blue Swimmer Crab meat and a little ramekin of VERY spicy Chili Sambal which I enjoyed adding to each bite.
Yolanda and Greg headed back to the apartment while Ken and I did one last stroll along the shops. Since the shuttle was picking us up at 10:00am that didn't leave us much leeway, and most of the shops weren't open, but we did enjoy the quiet stroll together.
The shuttle Greg had arranged was right on time. Though unlike our shuttle from the airport to Port Douglas on the 31st, we didn't have this one to ourselves. The trip took just over an hour, including a stop at the airport to drop off the other riders, to the Doubletree Hotel in Cairns. Our shuttle driver told us we'd picked a great hotel and that it had a good pool so we started looking forward to an afternoon at the pool.
Panorama of Cairns from the Marina
Check in was 3:00pm and we were there shortly after 11:00am so we had time to kill since our rooms weren't ready. Gee darn! I guess we have to do some exploring (just because that was exactly what Ken and I had planned on when picking the Doubltree which is right on the Esplanade).
Sculpture on the Esplanade
Walking half a block to the water's edge the first thing we came across was a stylized sculpture. I had an immediate flashback to our trip in 1994 where I thought we'd seen this then. But almost as soon as I started to say something out loud I realized the flashback was to our Mexico trip and what I think was a sculpture on the Esplanade in Topolobampo. I may have to look back through old pictures to see if I can find what I was thinking of...
Close up of the Ray - note the engravings all over it
Yolanda chose to sit on the grass under a tree while Greg, Ken, and I walked out to the Marina. It was mighty hot and I was grateful for my hat.
Tide was out - quite a ways out
As we walked, we came across a big pool. What they call the "Lagoon." What a great place! It had one sandy shoreline, a shelf along every edge for sitting, and a few sculptures that sprayed water to the delight of the children (and some adults). There were 3 lifeguards that I saw and lots of happy people. I would have hopped in but our bathing suits were at the hotel and I was wearing sneakers so I couldn't just dip my feet in. Rats.
The device on the corner of the pool is both security and free Wi-Fi. Yep - you read that right. The whole Esplanade had Wi-Fi routers set up every couple hundred yards. Nice!
These sculptures sprayed water (and they reminded me of the Thai fish Christmas ornaments my parents had given me from Thailand in 1966)
The sandy shoreline of the Lagoon
We walked out to the jetty of the marina and admired the view and took the requisite picture before heading back to Yolanda and some shade.
Hardly looks like it's 90+ degrees with 80% humidity does it?
Pretty, shady, walk
Cairns also has a memorial to those who served, and it was at this spot when we were here in 1994. it is a sobering reminder of those who sacrificed all, around the world. There were also two large guns positioned to the side of the Cenotaph.
Though our feet were tired and we were hot, after a brief stop at the hotel to see if our rooms were, by chance, ready early, we continued on to the Cairns Aquarium. Definitely a place Debbie, Ken, and I visited in 1994. So much to see! Some of which we'd seen in the wild during our stay, some of which we'd wanted to see.
Salt Water Crocodile - we didn't see one in the wild, much to Greg and Yolanda's dismay (I was quite happy not to see one in the wild)
I took a picture of this so that you could see that the next picture really does have a fish in it
Do you see the fish? I had to look twice and change my angle to make sure I was really seeing what I thought I was seeing. This fish never moved.
Dory!
This is the largest tank I think I've ever seen. It was monstrously huge and had many varieties of Shark, plus some Rays, a giant Grouper, and who knows what all else.
Yolanda and Greg dwarfed by the tank - you could view it from 3 sides, including a half bubble that you could stick your head in to look inside the tank (yes I did)
This Grouper was close to 3 feet long
We finished the Cairns Aquarium at just about 3pm and
Success!
Our view through the double sliding doors
We got a room on the second floor and Greg and Yolanda got a room on the 7th. While I was hoping for a higher floor I was more than happy when I walked in and saw that we had double sliding doors that opened to a balcony overlooking the water and that we could hear the music from the bar below. Nice way to end our stay in Australia!
Ken enjoying the music and the view
We quickly unpacked enough to find our bathing suits and hot footed it down to the pool! They had a pool bar and I got the first round. Chatted with the cocktail hostess for a bit when she looked surprised that I asked for a Bundy and Diet. She said not many people order that because it is their house rum so I let her know it wasn't something I could get in the States and it was going to be my last chance. She had no idea it wasn't exported. It wasn't the first time I'd heard that about Bundy, either. If only our house rum was as good here in the States!
Ken enjoying the mildly cool pool
Two Phoebe-like birds feeding their young. They picked a pretty safe spot under cover by the pool, with lots of bugs handy.
Yolanda and I getting our last swim in
The pool is pretty nice sized, has greenery all around and you can even see the ocean from the pool. That isn't our hotel in the background though.
After spending about an hour at the pool we went back to our rooms and changed into Cairns dinner attire (yeah, shorts and tank tops). Am I going to miss the warm weather when I get home? Hell yes!
Our view before we headed out to dinner
We met at our room before dinner
I wish we had more time to spend hanging out on our balcony. Would have loved to see more Flying Foxes.
Dinner was fabulous! Ken and I had our last fresh caught Australian fish - we both ordered the Coral Trout (same thing Ken ordered at 2Fish in Port Douglas) though he had his Macadamia crusted and I chose the Karumba style (When Yolanda asked what Karumba was she was told it is a suburb...so we never did find out exactly what it meant, other than a name). I made the right choice.
View from our table - just enough view of the sky to see the occasional Fruit Bat
My fish was topped with prawns and hollandaise sauce and was absolutely perfect. The picture may, or may not, have been taken after I'd eaten a prawn and some fish.
After dinner we walked a bit more, but since we had to get up at 3:00am we didn't stay out late.
The Esplanade after dark
It was so clean, and safe, walking around Cairns Esplanade after dark
We walked back by Barnacle Bill's where we'd had dinner so I took a picture of the sign so I'd remember where we ate.
Thus ended our last day in Cairns. Sigh.
That sculpture looks EXACTLY like the Christmas ornaments!
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