To the right of the marina, the walkway along the water continues past the construction zone, paralleling the ocean. Cairns has no natural beach there used to be a mangrove forest along the water and now it is just empty mud flats, so the ocean isn’t a real pretty view. You can’t swim in the ocean, especially because crocodiles live in mud. Just beyond the marina begins a long park that the walkway runs through. The park goes on for quite a ways. In the section of the park closest to the marina there is an enormous “lagoon”, which is a man made shallow swimming pool that has a small bit of sand on one side to give it a beach feel. This picture only shows a small portion of the “lagoon”. The pool is really nice and it seems to always be packed with people.

There are a lot of trees in the park. Most of them look newer, like they were recently planted, but there are also quite a few older trees. The more mature trees have heaps of birds in them, and as you walk along the boardwalk they all chirp so loudly that it seems like they are screaming at one another. If you look carefully, you can see bats hanging upside down in the trees by day, and at night you see loads of bats flying around. There is an odd parasite plant that grows along the trunks and branches of a few of the trees, making the tree look hairy.

The Esplanade street parallels the park and the backside of the hotel in front of the marina. The Esplanade is an endless series of restaurants and tourist shops, with a gelato place on every block. There are a few newer, taller buildings, all with shops on the first floor, but most are older one to three story buildings that look like they date back to the twenties. A lot of the buildings even have gingerbread trim. Here is a shot of Esplanade street from the park.

Beyond The Esplanade street it looks much the same with mostly older buildings and a few new ones here and there. The parking spots are in the middle of the road, where the median normally is, instead of along the curb. We think that is clever. There are ornamental trees and bushes planted in and amongst the parking spots that really soften the street scene and make it more attractive.

Cairns main industry is tourism, and as such, downtown is mostly hotels, restaurants and tourist shops. The majority of the newer buildings appear to be hotels and condos. The farther away from the waterfront you get, the less touristy the merchandise in the shops become. A couple of blocks in you find grocery stores and stationary stores and hairdressers. There are a few government buildings in town, and only a few traditional downtown businesses like law firms and investment companies. Six blocks in there is a large indoor mall. Beyond the mall are businesses geared for locals, like car dealerships.

Our overall impression of Cairns is that it is really nice. In a lot of ways, we both feel like we are home. We are in a real city where everyone speaks English. The marina is a lot like the marina we were at in San Diego. The downtown has a similar feel to San Diego’s downtown, a mix of old and new, right on the water and really nice.

There is an overwhelming amount of things to do in Cairns. There are tour booking offices on every block and they all have walls full of brochures and fliers, an endless blur of bright colors. There are lots of reef tours, whether for fishing or snorkeling or diving. There are river cruises and inland tours going to all the different towns and forest areas that are within reasonable driving distance of Cairns. There are lots of zoos, farms and sanctuaries where you can see the local wildlife up close. Most of these activities are expensive. You could easily stay busy here for months doing all the different tours, and spend a small fortune in the process.

For dinner we went to yet another restaurant on the boardwalk. This time we tried Emperor Fish, which is similar to Barramundi but a little firmer in texture. It is quite good.