Cairns, Swimming Holes and Waterfall Slides

We drove into Cairns for breakfast and a swam in their epic public pool on the esplanade. From the very beginning, we were in for an adventure day when we parked in front of their courthouse and below a block of trees with thousands of huge fruit bats! They were about 18 inches from wingtip to wingtip when they were flying around! They hung on branches upside and crawled around and ate berries and SCREECHED. We were captivated.

On to a quick stop at a lovely beach side cafe for a delicious breakfast of hand squeezed juice, delicious pancakes and (be still my heart) granola, fruit and yogurt with chia!  We left stuffed and happy. On to the pool!

We walked along the downtown esplanade and wove through the Saturday market with a quick stop at the city center tree to make me happy.

The pool! The public pool on the waterfront downtown is called The Lagoon and it's 4800 square meters of bliss right next to the ocean. On the left is a lovely deck and on the right is a white sandy shore to play on. We spent hours here and the kids made an epic sand castle village with about 8 other Australian local kids. Sidenote; the kids have made new friends everywhere we've gone and I think Australian children are some of the most polite, sweet and outgoing kids we've ever encountered on our travels. Our kids are in playmate heaven!

~ Lindsey

Budaadji Canopy walk! We drove inland to a beautiful canopy walk that led to Barron Falls. 

Barron Falls.  Wish we could have found a way down to swim!

This is a very cool and long stickbug. 

Secret local swimming holes (Crystal Cascades).  They were very fun and good for cooling off because it was 90 degrees!  The waterslides in the distance were made out of smooth rock and had a place to climb up on the left side.  The current wasn't too strong, so we could stand up and choose when we wanted to slide.

There were many local people that we met.  I met two nice girls and one boy that played with us for part of the afternoon.

Some people jumped off the big rocks on the right and left of the waterslide!

Swimming in the deeper pools was fun, especially since the current made it challenging to get to the shore in places sometimes. This was the deepest pool we went in and we had to climb down a really steep bank to get there.

There were 3 slides and 5 pools in all.  I liked this one second best because there were twists and turns. 

There were many fish in the water.  Every time I threw rocks into the water the fish thought it was food and would go crazy trying to eat them. 

Pay no attention to Ireland crying in the background.  She was just jealous of Parker, Everly and Mom going for a slide! This is the first slide and the first pool.

We climbed all over the boulders all down the river. When we wanted to move pools we climbed on the rocks and swam in the water to get down the gorge.

~Parker and Everly