Day 3

Today was an exciting day of adventure!  The day started with a 9am run up the mountains of Cairns with my new friends Will, Frances, and Steph, who all happen to be runners AND live within twenty feet of me--which is very convenient because it means I can just step outside and yell if I want to talk to them.  

The pictures don't do them justice--the mountains are HUGE.

The view from our campus!

Yep, we tried to run up the mountains.  'Tried' being the keyword here.  We actually did quite well at the beginning, running up and down trails, but most of them dead-ended after a short while.  We found a nice trail, but it was so steep that our run quickly devolved into a hike.  It was lovely to hike through the rainforest, which is actually very pretty!  It's winter here, so it's not very hot, and the rainforest isn't very wet either.  That makes it nice for running, but apparently once the rainy season begins the rivers in the forest will flood and possibly get crocodiles?  Only time will tell.

After running/hiking and brunch, we all showered and took a bus into the city of Cairns.  (I technically live in Smithfield, which is about 30 minutes outside of Cairns.)  The city is lovely and clean, although not quite as touristy as I had imagined.  There are lots of small restaurants, shops, travel agencies, and dive and tour booking shops.  LOTS of tour booking shops.  We walked around a bit, checked out the Esplanade and the Lagoon, and wandered around town looking for lunch.

Cairns!  (It was a bit cloudy today.)

The Lagoon is also known as Cairns' 'toilet.'  It's a large shallow sand-filled swimming pool right in front of the bay. which isn't a bay so much as a mud flat.  The tide was out and the mud flat was full of shorebirds and tiny mud crabs.  It wasn't warm enough for swimming (for me, anyway) but plenty of people were out in bathing suits, and kids were playing in the Lagoon.  Apparently Australia has an ozone layer problem and there's still a high level of UV even on cloudy days, so I guess you can get tan on a cloudy day here.  (But it's still cold!)

There's sand in this pool!  I guess the mud flats were nice sandy
palm tree-lined beaches before World War I, when they
dredged the bay.  The Lagoon is nice too, though.

It sure looks nice!  And the water was pretty warm, too.

The lifeguards have such cute uniforms!

I had heard that there would be public barbecues here, but what I had in mind were those crappy ones we have in the states where you have to bring your own charcoal.  Nope, these are WAY better!  You just press a button to turn them on, clean them up when you're done (or use foil), and they're very nice and pretty and clean!  I plan to buy some kangaroo and crocodile meat (which is at the grocery store, I hear, sold right next to the beef) and head back to Cairns soon for my own barbie! 

Today I pulled a Reverse-Asian-Tourist! 

There was also a large marina in Cairns that had some amazing boats and incredible views!

Check out those mountains!  They're huge!

If I was a Bond villain, this would be my boat.

Yes.  I tried to run up one of these today.  Not my best idea ever.

But how can I resist?  They're so pretty!

And then we did a little birdwatching off the Esplanade, mostly because the birds were kinda neat.

What?  Crocodiles can cause injury?  I had no idea!

That building is a casino, I think?  Probably.

Mud flats!  (There's water out where those boats are, though.)

Look at this bird!  Will made some new birdwatching friends
today who called this a Masked Plover.

We couldn't see the sun set from Cairns,
but this view sure was worth the wait.

 All in all, a lovely day!  Yesterday was a long boring day of orientation, full of rules and information on exciting things such as insurance and textbooks.  But I did get a really cheesy mobile phone, AND I learned some important things:

- Using a cell phone while driving is illegal.

- Biking without a helmet is illegal.

- Drinking in public is illegal in Queensland, even if the label is covered.  The legal blood alcohol content level here is 0.05.

- Drunk biking is a worse offence than drunk driving here.  A drunk driver can go home, but a drunk biker will be arrested.  Apparently drunken bikers cause a lot more accidents than drunk drivers. 

- Pay phones are still popular here, and they can send text messages!

It's true!  They send text messages!

Okay, so I guess that last one wasn't very important.  Anywho, tomorrow will either be a visit to the northern beaches, or a more well-prepared hike up a mountain, depending on the weather!  Woohoo!