Last week, in early December, I attended a regional science conference in Cairns, North Queensland. Getting there from Armidale was quite a lengthy process as, first, I had to fly south for an hour to Sydney (c 500 km) and then wait for roughly 2 hours before flying another 3 hours northwards back over New England (c.2000 km). Interestingly, I could see lots of bush-fires burning like the two pictured here. I guess I'm looking northwest somewhere over northern NSW or southern Queensland.
Here we are coming into land at the Cairns international airport. Although it did not rain during my visit there were quite a lot of clouds hanging around, especially to the mountainous west - home to the Atherton Tablelands.
This is the quite imposing entrance to the Shangri-La. The hotel had great dining and pool facilities and the bedrooms were large.
Nearby decking alongside the harbour was lined with great, but a little pricey, restaurants. A group of us, all staying at the Shangri-La, sampled some of the fare provided.
Near the hotel I saw a large number of people dancing to the music of a rather loud band, but everyone seemed to be having a great time.
The harbour was populated by a massive supply of top-end yachts and cruisers. I kept on trying to think how such a community as Cairns should have seemingly bigger and more numerous vessels than Sydney!
Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that the Cairns region has large-scale and I guess profitable agriculture and other resource-based industries.
The Cairns region is also huge. The Cairns district added to Cape York measures something like 900 km north-south and 500 km east-west (or 560 x 310 miles). OK, the population is very thin, but perhaps the surrounding economy is strong.
As I noted earlier, many companies vied to take holiday-makers on cruises to see the great barrier reef or islands. Others offered diving trips.
The vessels they had - see above and left - looked pretty impressive. Below left is the view from my bedroom over a mini tropical forest. Don't forget that Cairns is only 17 degrees south of the equator. On my morning walks I could admire the mountain-backed coastline. Note that the waters were also pretty calm - no surfing waves because they are intercepted by the reef system.
At low tide I loved to see the constellation of birds preening themselves on the sand - including many pelicans.
The sea-front was also a take-off point for helicopter trips up the coast and out to the offshore islands and the reef. I was sorely tempted to take a trip, but conference meetings and sessions took up my spare time.
The sea front also a had a good range of attractions like this pool where, in the heat of the day, people - young and old - chilled out beneath a variety of fountains.
There were sculptures like the one above and remnants from the second world war when the locals feared they were on the front-line of Japanese invasion. That invasion now occurs of course. but the arrivals are tourists.
The seafront also had some interesting pieces of architecture, like this building.
That's all for now. The trip there and back, plus the conference sessions, lasted just 4 days!
But it was a great time!
AS
On arrival in Cairns I checked where I was staying for three nights - the Shangri-La Hotel, which lies on the waterfront next to the boat harbour. It was a glorious location surrounded by a heap of nice restaurants. Nearby were the docks from which catamarans departed to explore nearby reefs and islands. In fact, the c. 150,000 people in the Cairns region are heavily dependent on the tourist industry and the local airport is directly connected to many southeast nations. That was also obvious from the large numbers of Asian citizens in the hotel and nearby streets.
Here we are coming into land at the Cairns international airport. Although it did not rain during my visit there were quite a lot of clouds hanging around, especially to the mountainous west - home to the Atherton Tablelands.
This is the quite imposing entrance to the Shangri-La. The hotel had great dining and pool facilities and the bedrooms were large.
Nearby decking alongside the harbour was lined with great, but a little pricey, restaurants. A group of us, all staying at the Shangri-La, sampled some of the fare provided.
Near the hotel I saw a large number of people dancing to the music of a rather loud band, but everyone seemed to be having a great time.
The harbour was populated by a massive supply of top-end yachts and cruisers. I kept on trying to think how such a community as Cairns should have seemingly bigger and more numerous vessels than Sydney!
Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that the Cairns region has large-scale and I guess profitable agriculture and other resource-based industries.
The Cairns region is also huge. The Cairns district added to Cape York measures something like 900 km north-south and 500 km east-west (or 560 x 310 miles). OK, the population is very thin, but perhaps the surrounding economy is strong.
As I noted earlier, many companies vied to take holiday-makers on cruises to see the great barrier reef or islands. Others offered diving trips.
The vessels they had - see above and left - looked pretty impressive. Below left is the view from my bedroom over a mini tropical forest. Don't forget that Cairns is only 17 degrees south of the equator. On my morning walks I could admire the mountain-backed coastline. Note that the waters were also pretty calm - no surfing waves because they are intercepted by the reef system.
At low tide I loved to see the constellation of birds preening themselves on the sand - including many pelicans.
The sea-front was also a take-off point for helicopter trips up the coast and out to the offshore islands and the reef. I was sorely tempted to take a trip, but conference meetings and sessions took up my spare time.
The sea front also a had a good range of attractions like this pool where, in the heat of the day, people - young and old - chilled out beneath a variety of fountains.
There were sculptures like the one above and remnants from the second world war when the locals feared they were on the front-line of Japanese invasion. That invasion now occurs of course. but the arrivals are tourists.
The seafront also had some interesting pieces of architecture, like this building.
That's all for now. The trip there and back, plus the conference sessions, lasted just 4 days!
But it was a great time!
AS
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