Cairns 22nd - 24th June 2010

Tuesday 22nd June
Into Cairns and Grafton Street to the Canopy Art Gallery. www.canopyarts.com
1000 sq mts of space that's dedicated to showcasing Queensland's indigenous artists. We had a great chat there with someone who explained some of the stories depicted in the prints and etchings which brought then to life and gave us a whole new appreciation of the art.
Wednesday 23rd June
It rained most of the day so we decided to stay at home reading and a brief walk in between the rain showers. However it was still a warm day.
Thursday 24th June
The weather was much better today with no rain forecasted so set off to Atherton in the tablelands heading for Mareeba where we stopped off for a coffee at the Coffee Works.

                        Beatrice having a taste of the coffee berries from the bush
On through Atherton to Herberton an historical village which we seemed to have missed when we were here last year. Not  many people around so we were able to take our time and wander around the place at our leisure.

Herberton Historical Village     www.herbertonhistoricalvillage.com.au      

Having  had a full day and quite a long drive back to our home base and with the rain clouds gathering we started  the drive down to Cairns which was at least an hour away .

                                                          

15th June -18th June Cairns

CAIRNS 15th - 18th June
The weather has been perfect for the last days. However it did rain quite hard  on Wednesday evening.

Since last posting we have visited the Flecker Botanic Gardens where we also had a lesson in playing the steel drums and then joined in on a couple of numbers.

           Swimming hole at the Cascades

Visited;-
The Crystal Cascades where we did the scenic walk along side the cascades. Here we had to watch out for the stinging tree.

Also the Tanks Art Centre near the Botanical Gardens.( Read the history as to how they made use of these huge tanks that once held oil to service the war requirements during WW11). It is now an Arts Centre
We also decided to go up to  Kuranda on the scenic railway, something we haven't done for 20 odd years and then return on the Sky rail which  hadn't been built at that time.
Kuranda, aptly named the village in the rainforest which has been listed as World Heritage  www.kuranda.org.

All this has kept us quite busy and we still have lots to do whilst we enjoy this lovely warm climate.
We have also been into Cairns a few times,on one occasion enjoying a $10 lunch deal at the Irish Pub located in one of the original buildings.