Botanic Gardens

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Our last day in our lovely Cairns hotel has arrived. We've done all of the main things we wanted to in while we were here, so we look at various brochures for ideas about what to do today. In the end, we decide on the Botanic Gardens...

It's a beautiful day. We take the bus to a point near the gardens, and walk from there. The gardens turn out to be very different from what we had imagined. It is more like a natural rainforest with a path going through it. The going is quite tough in places - it's very steep! But it's a beautiful environment. A few mad Australians appear to think it's a good idea to jog up and down it; surprisingly few dead bodies are found on the ascent, though. We see a number of turkey-like creatures on the way, which seem to like digging around in the undergrowth. Apparently there are cassowaries in the area, but we don't manage to catch a glimpse of any of them. The views from the top are lovely, although the nearby airport detracted a little. Fun to look down on landing planes, though! The way down is easier going. Also spot a couple of tiny lizards.

Once we complete the circuit... we spot a sign to the botanic gardens! It appears that what we have done is the Whitfield Conservation walk, or something... it was a great mistake to make! So, we continue to our original destination and explore the botanic gardens. These are much more garden-like, as expected, and indeed rather botanic, which was also no surprise. The orchid house was particularly lovely there, and they had a wide range of other beautiful plants.

After a nice lunch in the gardens, we made our way over to the other side of the road, where there was a 'boardwalk' through the forest. This seems to be a very common feature in Australian forests, where a slightly raised path made out of boards leads you through the rainforest, with informative boards along the way, pointing out some interesting features of the forest. Having gone through there, we had the option of running for the bus which we thought would be due shortly, or whiling away just over an hour in the parklands which we found ourselves in. Being in a lazy mood on a beautiful day, we naturally chose the latter option! Another good decision... we spotted a kookaburra, the first we have seen in the wild (although we have heard quite a few... the first time I heard one I thought they had monkeys in Cairns!). We played on the swings a bit (what do you mean 'what age are you?'). And then we lay down in the shade, by a beatiful lake, and drifted off for a brief nap with the birds singing and the butterflies flitting around... aaaah! Then we made our way back to the bus... which turned out to be a completely different time from expected! So we waited for about 40 minutes before finally getting the bus home.

Evening - went into Cairns again and had a delicious meal in an Italian restaurant on the seafront. Had a couple of drinks to say goodbye to Cairns. We've had a wonderful time here... we'll be back briefly to return our campervan, but this is it really. Time to move on...

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