We completed our morning ritual of a walk to get the paper, no need to buy bread as there was still a little left from yesterday.
A couple of jobs completed and it was time for John to head off with Andy to watch the AFL grand final at Steve Fords house. Hawthorn flogged West Coast, apparently the game was very one sided.
While they were watching the game I drove down to the botanical gardens not far from the airport and about 10 kms from Yorkeys. The Cairns Botanical Gardens are the best I have seen so far, I guess because they have been established for almost 140 years , some of the trees are very well established.
The gardens cover several botanic spaces and include a rainforest boardwalk, centenary freshwater and saltwater lakes, Gondwanan Heritage garden and Flecker Garden which was the highlight.
These tropical gardens meander along a creek bed with a dense canopy above and epitomise the variety of flora that can be found across the worlds tropical regions.
The huge Raintree a native of Central and South America was rather spectacular, although several of its limbs had broken off, I am assuming in high winds.
The orchid, bromeliad and fern enclosure was delightful especially as it housed some large dazzling butterflies that flitted amongst the greenery.
The brilliant neon blue Ulysses butterfly was hard to capture in pictures as the iridescent blue is only on the upperside of the wings. The underside was a subdued black and brown. The Ulysses typically has a wing span of about 14 cm, not as large as the Cairns Birdwing which I spied alighting on some ferns. The Birdwing is Australia’s largest butterfly with a wingspan of 150cm.
After the Flecker Gardens I walked the rainforest boardwalk which was quiet and cool. The Pandanus Swamp area made you feel you were in the Everglades, ( sort of).
By this time the football had finished so I drove to Trinity Beach to pick up John from Steve’s very large house.
Apricot chicken and rice for dinner and once again I fell asleep in front of the telly.