TUESDAY, MAY 6

Alice Springs was much busier today – since it wasn’t a public holiday. We managed to get a noon checkout (instead of 10 a.m.) so we headed to town in the morning and browsed through the souvenir shops and other stores.

Todd Mall isn’t a mall in our sense of the word – it’s a street that is closed to traffic with a lot of open air stores and cafes.

Apparently, Alice Springs downtown district is a “dry” area (in public spots). Most of the signs simply say – No Alcohol Zone but this one caught our eye:

After browsing for the morning, we went back to the hotel and checked out – leaving our luggage in a locked luggage room (but carrying the laptop around in the backpack). On our walk, we had spotted a Reptile Centre so we decided to spend some time there before it was time to leave for the airport. What a neat place – they do tours throughout the day (and on our tour there were only 8 people) and bring out some of the “residents” for a show and tell and holding session. The guide started with 3 lizards – a bearded dragon, a blue-tongued skink and a shingleback (sorry no picture). The skink likes to “give kisses” – we took a lot of photos trying to catch him with his tongue out but no luck so I had the idea of taking a video which managed to capture him with his tongue out. Wish I could post it but we haven’t figure out how yet.

Chris with the blue-tongued skink

Then she brought out Olive, the olive python. She also likes to be held and she feels so smooth and it tickles when she moves around you. She moves until she finds a comfortable spot (she likes the heat of backs) and then she just cuddles. She really liked John’s hat and actually got it off him when the guide was taking her off.

John with Olive

The Centre also had a fossil room with some really neat looking fossils and skeletons.

They also had some green tree frogs (must be cousins to the ones you have Lalena *s*), some perentie lizards (the biggest in Australia) and a saltwater croc. It was a good way to spend a few hours before heading back to the hotel. We still had a little time to wait for the taxi, so we sat by the pool (in the shade) and talked to a man from Perth. The other thing we learned was that Thorny Devils are like snowflakes – no two are exactly the same.

We had asked for the taxi to pick us up at 2:50 but were still waiting at 3:05 (I think that taxi company runs on manana time) – when John tried to call them to find out where the taxi was, all he got was a busy signal so the receptionist at the hotel called a number for him to talk to the cab company. It turned out that she called a different company and the taxi was at the hotel within minutes – just before the other one arrived.

We were at the airport early but could check in about 15 minutes after we arrived and then we whipped through security. We thought we would get something to eat but the grill in the restaurant was closed so we bought a snack and some beer and sat in the outside area until the flight was called. As for the flight, Qantas is tops in our books. It was only 2 hours and 20 minutes but we were served a snack, immediately followed by a dinner. John had beef, rice and veggies and I actually got a fruit platter. I was so impressed that there hadn’t been a glitch.

We arrived in Cairns at 7:50, found a cab and were regaled by stories of man-eating crocs and staying away from the mangrove swamps. Reception at the Cairns Queenslander was closed but we followed the late arrival instructions (and noticed that the taxi driver had waited to make sure we got in ok – what a nice guy). The apartment here is more than I expected – there is a hot plate as well as a good sized fridge and microwave. I thought we would be making do with just the microwave and a small fridge. It is also a lot larger than we had thought – it’s a great deal for $105 a night.

Our first impression was that it was warm and humid – a nice change after the dry heat of the desert.

Temperature: 27 C – sunny

WEDNESDAY, MAY 7

No activities planned for today so we had a “lazy” day. We walked the 1.5 km into town by way of the pathway along the waterfront. It’s a well maintained path, with lots of information signs along the way. On the way we saw

a few of these exercise stations (all with different exercises)
and this sign:

Cairns has a large saltwater pool near the waterfront. It looked inviting but was closed for cleaning at the time we were there. We kept walking and found a coffee shop in a fancy hotel. I ordered a coffee and John had a mocha – word of advice – if you’re ordering a mocha in Australia, it’s not sweetened. Next stop was the information centre to find out about Great Barrier Reef cruises. There are way too many choices. The receptionist at the hotel had a few suggestions and the girl at the info centre had a few others. In the end, we narrowed it down to 2 different choices and then finally chose the one with the short helicopter ride included. We booked it for Friday and on Thursday we are going to Kuranda via the Skyrail and return via the train.

Our choice finally made, we wandered into the downtown area to browse and have lunch at a Mexican restaurant (and yes, I did have nachos as usual *g*). Cairns has lots and lots of souvenir stands – some good, some tacky. We didn’t buy anything today because we thought we would check out the Night Market first. So, after dinner we walked back downtown and found the market. The prices weren’t any better than in town and it seemed like they were more a lot of the time. The store owners seemed disinterested and we were disappointed. We didn’t buy anything and will probably shop in town on Saturday.

Hopefully the internet will be working on Thursday – the date on the server is out of synch (or so the tech support guy said – it’s showing January 1, 2000 right now) so it won’t let me buy time.

Temperature: 29 C – sunny, but humid