Awake at 5am, up and out before 9! Me! On holiday! Hope that soon wears off.

First proper day spent strolling along the esplanade, a walkway along the Bay front overlooking the mud, there’s no beach in Cairns you have to leave town for it. Seems you have to leave town to do anything round here.

Met up with Neil’s colleague Angelo and his partner Luca for lunch at an allergy free cafe, 2 sandwiches and bottles of water, $23! (£14.50) note to cafe: nuts dairy and gluten are not the only allergens…..

they went off to write their conference presentation in the afternoon so I came back and sat by the pool. Not sure it’s sunbathing when you’re wearing factor 50! Bit much after an hour tho so went for a snooze.

Spent the evening doing our favourite holiday past time, being gobsmacked at the prices in the supermarket and looking for things we can microwave for under $5. 2 bowls of long life soup and a packet of biscuits…..

Thinking Daintree rainforest later in the week (it’s older than the amazon) so going to hire a car to get there, will have to hang around suspiciously outside McDonalds as it’s the only free wifi in town to look for cheap deals online.

Looking in to bike hire also, have seen kite surfing lessons, only $75, but apparently our travel insurance doesn’t cover it. Grr