1. The Lagoon – is situated on the waterfront in Cairns.  There’s a big pool with a beach, free showers (a great facility for grotty yachties) and it’s patrolled by lifeguards. There are free water-zumba classes (Angus is very excited about that🤣) an outdoor gym and fantastic free BBQ facilities. It’s a bit chaotic in the middle of the day during school holidays, but we’ve made a habit of going for a swim at sunset. The Reef Eye ferris wheel is also on the waterfront $10 per person for a ride. Top marks to the Cairns City Council, the whole waterfront is a gem. 👍

2. Cairns Botanic Gardens – A cool, green space in a hot tropical climate. We caught the bus, a $2.50 fare, and spent a couple of hours wandering through the Gondwana Heritage Garden, the rainforest boardwalk, the Flecker Garden and the Watkins Munro Martin Conservatory with its stunning collection of orchids. Loved it!

3. The Night Markets – a short walk from the waterfront and open until late. It has a great atmosphere with lots of stalls selling tee-shirts, souvenirs and tat. We didn’t buy anything except dinner at a busy Vietnamese cafe where we spent a memorable evening with Bob and Vera, a couple of adventurous octogenarians with whom we shared a table. They could be the subject of another blog post with their interesting stories of living in the rainforest, travelling and being a being a philatelist with a special interest in raptors. A gelato would be the perfect end to a visit to the night markets.

4. The Prawn Star boats – When in Rome, do as the Romans, when in Cairns…eat prawns. We dock our dinghy next to these boats every day. They just do seafood and $7 beers. A big platter of prawns to share between two people is around $35, there are no fancy extras like chips…just beautiful fresh prawns, bugs and crays. These boats are an icon in Cairns.

4. Rusty’s Markets – I can only say, wow! A fantastic array of fresh fruit and vege at very reasonable prices. There are also some other random stalls selling everything from coffee to sausages. On Fridays the restaurants and hotels buy their produce, Saturday the locals and by Sunday stuff is being sold at bargain prices. I’ll be provisioning from Rusty’s before we head north. Cairns is really the last stop before we can get fresh stuff again in Darwin.

5. Howlin’ Jay’s – The Friday night plan was to go to a free concert on the lawn of the old courthouse. It rained! Heavy tropical rain. So we ended up at Howlin’ Jay’s drinking $5 “Shit Beer” out of paper bags with our anchorage mates, Mitch and Clancie and Jan and Cecile. A great atmosphere sitting out on the verandah, with coloured lights, neon signs and some some cool beats. The food looked good, basic burgers and chips. The perfect Friday night meeting place.