Having had such a long, busy and tiring day yesterday, we awoke quite late, took our time over getting ready, had brunch then drove into Cairns to explore the town and engage in a little souvenir shopping. We also wanted to ensure we could find the car park and location of our Barrier Reef Tour tomorrow. Road works and closures hampered our progress but noting it will probably take just 20 minutes to drive from our apartment, we found a parking spot to enable us to spend time looking around Cairns.
In the absence of a proper beach at Cairns there is a manufactured lido with pool, sand, rocks and a lifeguard. Lots of folk were making use of the facilities, the sun was shining and when viewed from the land end the lido looked like an extension of the sea beyond.
Maybe we are misinformed but we could find no obvious town centre. There were a number of older style buildings from the first quarter of the 20th Century but without any information about them and with the Cairns Museum closed for renovation we decided to visit the market. Sadly, the rather large market is only open on Fridays through to Sundays so we went towards the railway station and a shopping mall. Not our first choice for shopping but we did find a shop where we purchased Andrew's bush hat made from kangaroo hide and a place where we could buy local coffee and tea.
I had my haircut, it was getting impossibly long and bugging me, we lunched at one of the many cafés but waited 25 minutes for our food which only actually involved heating a savoury filo pastry and quiche and placing some salad on two plates. However, we noted there was one chef working sequentially through the orders and then serving them at table. Still it was tasty and well reheated retaining the crispness of the pastry.
We wandered back to the car and went to the local large Woolworth's supermarket for some provisions and made use of the Target Store's free wifi. Returning to the apartment we prepared bags for our reef experience tomorrow, read, edited photos and cooked dinner. Lesley created me a tasty and attractive prawn and avocado starter and we made a savoury tomato sauce to go with some pasta twists. All very tasty and accompanied by the last of a Sauvignon Blanc and Shiraz, not together of course!
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