Wed 19.Feb.2025
Cairns, Qld, Australia
Saturation humidity... I got rained on in my hotel when I left the balcony door open to warm the
room up. The moist air condensed on the ceiling and dripped on me! Made the bathroom floor
dangerously slippery until I used the bath towels as mats.
Welcome to the tropics, 17 degrees south latitude.
Cairns, Queensland, is best-known as a base for tours to the Great Barrier Reef, which I
didn't mess with this time. If I ever get re-certified for scuba, maybe then.
OTOH, A tropical coastal town is a nice enough change of pace after big-city Sydney.
Some of the most interesting birds were too elusive to get good photos. The eerie-whistling
nocturnal
curlews wouldn't stay put long enough for me to get them in clear focus. Similarly the
Peaceful doves with their pale blue heads.
These gorgeous pelicans are another story.
No ibis up here, or magpies. Completely different birds from Sydney.
The lapwings look cool.
The magpie larks have a lovely song (unlike actual magpies).
Some local wildlife is best left unseen!
On the tourist strip, this place had a tasty - if not particularly Mexican - burrito.
A little indie cafe near my hotel made my capuccino a work of art! Seemed a shame
to drink it. (But coffee is coffee!)
Apparently banyans are a subset of ficus. A sign said that this tree is both fig and banyan.
Doesn't this bright bush look tropical?!
Two different pre-dawns from my balcony.
'Tis the edge of the rainy season, a time for
misty comings and goings.
The Lagoon - a vast wading pool near the harbor. No head-bonking allowed.
Evening by the coastal mud flats.