Cairns - Part I

The minute we arrived in Cairns we could feel the difference between it and Sydney. It was warmer and the humidity was greater. It definitely felt tropical and it was. It was the first time I'd gotten to see land in a tropical environment. I was finally able to imagine what Hawaii looked like barring the muddy beaches in Cairns. We didn't go directly to our hotel the Tradewinds Esplanade. Instead, we went to a wildlife park where we were introduced to some of Australia's nasty and cute critters. The picture you see here is of an estuarine or salt water crocodile. These creatures are vicious and BIG. As I remember, the one in the picture you're looking was 8 feet long and they get bigger then that. It is these crocodiles that have killed people up in Australia's Northwest Territory. The territory where real Crocodile Dundee's would've lived.


One of the cute creatures we got to meet was a koala. For a fee, you could do as this member of our group is doing. You got to hold a koala and get your picture with him or her. I don't remember if they told what its sex was. After watching others in our groups get their picture taken, I had to give in and do it myself. It was kinda neat. The koala is very cute and it was nice experience barring the stain I got on my shirt from holding him/her.

We also got to meet some kangaroos. They were pretty laid back as you can see. We could buy food to feed them with if we wished. They were so use to humans that we could walk right up to them and pet them.





Another group of creatures we got to see through glass tanks were 10 of the most venomous snakes in the world. Interestingly, I believe Australia has 6 of them. Those were creatures I was glad I didn't get to meet any closer.

After the wildlife park, we drove to the hotel and checked in. I tried out the pool and have a nice swim. After that, I got changed and explored Cairns. It was a nice city and more quiet then Sydney. It was also a lot smaller. It had a lot of touristy shops which reminded me of Destin, Florida which is a big tourist town in Nortwest Florida. When I was stationed in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, I did a lot of scuba diving out of Destin. My scuba diving would come in handy later at Port Douglas (earlier I reported this as Port Arthur, I got the name wrong).

As I walked along the esplanade next to the beach, I took this picture. As you can see the beaches aren't very pretty and it is a tropical region i.e. the palm trees.





In the evening, the group had dinner at the hotel. The dinner was noteworthy because we got to try barramundi (an Australian fish), crocodile, and kangaroo. As I remember, crocodile actually tasted like chicken and kangaroo was a bit dry. Supposedly, it didn't have a lot of fat in it. The dinner ended up being very enjoyable.

The next day, we'd go to Port Douglas where we'd take a catamaran out to the Great Barrier Reef. I'll tell about that in Cairns - Part II.