We rented an apartment in Yorkeys
Knob, a small community on the beach about 20 km north of Cairns. It was named
for George “Yorkey” Lawson, a fisherman from Yorkshire, England who homesteaded
there. We looked in Cairns, a city of 150,000 on the east
coast of the Cape York Peninsula, but chose a more relaxed town on the beach
north of the city. Cairns spreads out along a mud flat south of the Barron
River. The downtown was crowded with traffic and tourists, and we had to pay to
park everywhere. In the morning, a constant stream of buses dropped off
hundreds of tourists at the marina where they boarded day-boats going to the Great
Barrier Reef. Tourists that didn’t go to the reef wandered the Esplanade eating
in the restaurants and visiting gift shops and boutiques. I stopped at
three dive shops for information on trips to the Great Barrier Reef, and two underwater
camera shops to get parts for my camera. Unlike Airlie Beach, dive shops and
dive-boat operators are thriving in Cairns. I made a reservation for a day trip on the
Tusa 6, which was recommended by one
of the dive shops.
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| Coral bommie (pinnacle) at Hastings Reef |
