A 1990s tea towel depicting Cairns. I had taken the picture a few days ago at an exhibit at Queensland State Library.Here’s our Boeing 737-800 on the tarmac at Brisbane airport. A ground personnel person from Qantas came running up and said ‘No pictures, please!’, so I couldn’t take one from the top of the stairs at the tail. Aw.As we approached Cairns, the turquoise and teal colors of the shallow waters and reefs on the seabed started to appear.Here’s Cairns, population 150,000 or so. Latitude-wise we’re now 17° south of the equator, the closest I have ever been. (Flying over the equator doesn’t count, and some years ago I did spend 2 hours in the lounge at the airport in Lagos, Nigeria, 6° north of the equator).It was 32 °C (90° F) here today and very humid. We couldn’t check into the hotel with our early morning arrival, so we walked to the downtown Cairns shopping mall for cool air and for a bite. (It was a slog). Here’s the 1926 Grand Hotel right across the mall.
We made it into Cairns, with a 6.05 am departure out of Brisbane.
We took a taxi into Cairns, which was just a few miles away from the airport.
