Position 16 54.75S 145 45.43E

Cairns sits on Trinity Inlet, which is really shallow.  The water here is just covering the mud flats. 

As with everything in Australia, lovely walkway, but then they do have the good weather.  This is still crocodile country.  Because of that and fact it’s a muddy bay, what do you do?  You build a saltwater lagoon – refreshed and filtered at every high water – complete with fake beaches on the esplanade. 

The fish are fountains. You can make out one of the beaches in the background.  Paul loves the colour of the palms – he says they look like fakes.

Good collection of bikes.

There is a huge marina here.  This is the fuel (and quarantine) pontoon.  The boat alongside had just checked out with customs and was on its ways to PNG – another Australian acronym, this for Papua New Guinea.  When entering Australia you are given a 12 month bug clearance but as our boat will be in Australia for more than 12 months we have to have another inspection.  We visited quarantine at the airport and it now appears that vessels are cleared in and no longer have to have a further inspection.  The law changed 6 months ago. In the tropics maturation time for wood pests is rapid, so in the transit from the Caribbean and South America, any such pests on board should have hatched and be evident by the time you reach Australia.  Unfortunately we still have to be inspected but the good news is that Scarborough is now an official clearance port so they will come to us.  Hooray.

View up and down Trinity Inlet, respectively.

Entrance to the marina.

One of Cairns modern residential blocks.