Cairns is the gateway to the barrier reef but unfortunately we were not able to get there. The ship was delayed by a medical evacuation so we arrived three hours late. This meant that a number of tours were cancelled and we couldn't book a private trip to the reef because we wouldn't have made it back to the ship before departure time.

The Cairns cruise port was silted up (the joys of government austerity) so the ship had to anchor out and we got to shore by tender. We landed at a marina about 11 miles from Cairns and took a shuttle bus into town.

Once we got to the town we found there wasn't much there. The public art gallery was closed for renovations and the private galleries were not open. Otherwise it was a typical tourist town with lots of souvenir shops, tourist restaurants and a shopping center.

There were some very nice mosaic benches and a public salt water pool -- actually a walled-off section of the beach -- that we would have used if we had known it was there.

All in all we stopped at the shopping center to get a mouse -- mine had died -- and I found a working class pub where I got some non-tourist beer (Carlton Mid)

The shuttle bus driver was very informative about the area and the ride in and out was enjoyable