Second day in #Cairns #Australia

After renewing ourselves with Cairns town centre, we decided to look at the trips available and explore further afield.  There was one; that visited a beach, some lakes and the Botanical Gardens. We chose this as it seemed the most interesting. 

​After the tender into Yorkey's Knob, we picked up the tour bus. Things did not start well, as it was the driver we had returned with the night before. He told us all the same points of interest he had already talked about. 

​We then arrived at Palm Cove a beautiful stretch of beach, which was not the area on the itinerary, we were supposed to visit.
We had a ten minute talk about the perils of going into the water, complete with pictures and a test tube containing  examples of the deadly jellyfish that could be found in the sea at this time of year. With some trepidation, we ventured off the bus for a twenty minutes walk.  Again, it seems such a shame that the only place you can swim is a small area netted off for protection. We did see two men collecting jellyfish in special nets and wearing protective wet suits.

​On one end of the beach was a lovely rock outcrop, which
​ I decided was interesting enough to sketch.

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Next stop was the Botanical Gardens. Here we had thirty minutes to wander around an area you couldn't cover in a day! Still, we managed to see a small part of it and had an interesting time looking around one of the greenhouses. Here there were some really impressive plants, including the trumpet shaped ones below.

We still had the lakes to visit and a view of traditional Queensland houses. The coach set off and on the way, the houses were pointed out to us; the same ones we saw on our way into town before!

​As for the lakes they never materialised and we soon found ourselves back in Cairns to be dropped off if we wished. We decided that we would stay on the coach and get back to the ship early and relax. 

​Not a trip that was as advertised, although the two main drop-offs were worth seeing, as we had not visited them before when we were last in Cairns. However, arriving back an hour earlier than stated in our timetable, we did feel a little cheated. Trips on cruises are not cheap!
​We considered complaining but after hearing about the compensation received by one fellow traveller; 4 chocolates at bedtime, we gave it a miss!
​We later heard that the same lady complained often and fully appreciated the sweet delight left in her cabin each evening!