Our last two days in Cairns we toured around in a hire car. We visited the Morris Lake and had a spectacular view over Cairns. We then drove on up through the Barron Gorge to the Barron Waterfall and walked through the rain forest on a suspended walk way. Quite magical. We looked at the Village but decided it wasn't for us! But we did see the scenic route train arrive which was interesting and confirmed our susciptions that we were glad we hadn't wasted $100 [each] odd for the privilege of travelling with what looked like a good few hundred tourists!!!

Back down through the Gorge and along the north coast road again but this time stopping to visit all of the beaches. Very empty and lovely golden sand but my favourite is still Palm Cove and we found a lovely restaurant as you can see in the pictures.

The previous day we went south to the beaches and one or two were "nice" but we did prefer the northern ones.

Our last night in Cairns and we walked along the Esplanade for the last time but stopped to take pictures of this Cannonball Tree which has the most delicate flowers. We then visited our favourite restaurant and were given a lovely farewell by the girls which was nice and so to pack!

Being New Year's Evethings in cairns were getting busy with all the hotels full. The youngsters were sitting at stalls selling tickets for a pub crawl by coach!!!!!!!!!!!!! The thought????? On New Year's Eve they have fireworks on the Esplanade etc etc. I think we're glad we're not there!