Cairns has a good market which is only open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays so on Sunday morning (8th) we high tailed into town to restock our fresh fruit and vegetable supply as we were completely out - had to resort to the tinned variety for breakfast which we are not used to! We had a great selection to choose from and felt the prices were reasonable, even though various reports say that Cairns is expensive. We only have to go in the dinghy 200 metres and there is a dinghy pier in the marina which we can tie up to and we are virtually right in town.

Monday was Queen's Birthday holiday here and it dawned a rather windy, wet day so we were boat bound all day.

Tuesday morning we went in to town to get a few bits of pieces and had a good look around the town, came back to the boat for a late lunch and then late afternoon went ashore and met up with our friends from Kassoumay who bought our remote for the inverter from Yorkey's Knob Marina where we had it sent and went with them up to Spotlight as both Christine and I wanted things from there and they had hired a car as they are in the Marina at Yorkey's Knob.

Wednesday we went into town and needed to get a few things which we could not get in the main part of the city as it is virtually all tourist shops, cafes etc. so we ended up walking all in all for 5 hours, made worse by the fact that we thought we knew where we were going and found that we were three blocks too far over so had to back track after studying our map. Certainly got back a lot quicker and was a bit weary by the time we arrived back at the boat mid afternoon.

Every day this week has been showery, but not enough to do any good and there are still wind warnings out but don't seem to be an end to them in the next few days.

Believe it or not, we have got a bit interested in the league here and watched the State of Origin game on TV where Queensland gave NSW a hiding. We are half expecting our friends from Catala to arrive tomorrow and if they do are having them for dinner, but if they don't arrive we will go ashore and find some place where hopefully they are showing the All Blacks game and also the Wallabies against Ireland. We gather the casino might be the best place. Gitano finally arrived here this morning but have gone into the Marina. Chris is going in to town tonight to find some live music!!

Yesterday morning we were up with the larks and ashore and picked up outside the Shangri La Hotel which is right at the Marina and did a full day tour which included Port Douglas, Daintree and the Mossman Gorge. We decided to splash out on a good trip instead of paying marina fees and it was well worth it as you will see by the photos.

After picking up other tourists from various resorts around Cairns we headed off to Port Douglas for a look see and a trip up Flagstaff Hill to see the view and had a place owned by Bill Clinton pointed out to us. Port Douglas is apparently one of his favourite places. From there we headed on to the Daintree River where we did an hour long cruise down the Daintree River and saw crocodiles in the wild and various other animals and bird life. The driver gave us an excellent commentary on the river and why mangroves are so important for the environment etc. We also had morning tea there before boarding the boat and our bus driver and tour guide, George, (who was Portuguese, been in Australia for 12 years) picked us up further downstream.

We then headed on to Daintree and visited a fabulous timber museum and there were some beautiful pieces but all very expensive and then on to the Daintree Tea House where we had a wonderful lunch with a good choice of menu but all our bus load of 15, except one person, chose to have barramundi which was served with various tropical fruits etc. The owner also gave us a really interesting talk on the various tropical fruits, how to use and serve them etc. The Teahouse was set in a beautiful setting as you can see by the photo. From there we called in at a Tropical fruit orchard where we bought some tropical fruit and continued on to Mossman Gorge where we had a walk through a small part of the World Heritage Rainforest. It was certainly a beautiful place.

Headed to Port Douglas again to pick up two tourists who had spent most of the day there and then we went to Hartley's Crocodile Adventures where we had afternoon tea and then watched the Crocodile Attack Show which was really good, and I have some wonderful video coverage of it. We had another little crocodile spotting cruise which was great, but you will notice the photographs from that are through a glass window as we were not able to stand up or move on the boat. Last of all at Hartley's we watched the so called Koala feeding frenzy. One can hardly call it a feeding frenzy. No wonder one of the ones that lives there is in human terms, 150 years old. They don't move much and sleep 14-18 hours a day!!

That was our last stop for the day but on the way drove through Palm Cove which is the next best up market place to Port Douglas. In fact I thought it was probably nicer than Port Douglas as most of the resorts etc. were on the beach front and the beach was more accessible. We were finally dropped off at the Shangri La just after 6pm and we truly had a great day and the trip was well worth the money. Our driver was excellent and was a mine of information, a really out door person, and did a lot of research to enable him to be so informative.