CAIRNS, Australia
1) Our Cairns hotel room 2) View from our room 3) Its pool (too busy to use it!)
1) Municipal pool 2) Aboriginies out for a stroll 3) Dick and a fellow birder.
Mud flats beside the street provided great opportunities for the intrepid birder.
1, 2) Street scenes 2, 4) Cairns as viewed from a boat.
A days adventure on the Great Corral Reef was the highlight of our trip! The boat was a catamaran.
Michaelmas Cay had 10's of thousands of birds. All but a small portion of the beach was a protected area.
1) Those dots are the snorklers 2) For $3 we could rent a protective suit. It was not really necessary for
poisonous critters, but did protect against sunburn. 3) Some people went diving.
We went on a semi-submersible: it doesn't go completely under water, but you can look out portals in the sides.
Sandy took these pictures while snorkeling. The coral was amazing.
We purchased an additional day tour to a rain forest west of Cairns. We were bused to the Kuranda Scenic Railway which took us up the mountain to the tourist town of Kuranda.
In Kuranda, Dick and Sandy went their separate ways: Sandy to visit a butterfly house and Dick to visit Birdworld. 
Still in the Kuranda area, we went on a "duck" to see some of the rain forest up close. Too bad they didn't
also offer a hike.
There was also a wildlife park. The animals were not too crowded. Some we could play with and others not!
A cultural demonstration introduced us to some Aborigines.
We descended the mountain via the Skyrail which let us travel over the rain forest.
