Saturday 22nd May 2021
We woke up childless this morning, which was a lovely change for one night. We missed her morning cuddles, but she enjoyed her night with Babcia and Dziadzio.
We made our way over around 930am for a day out in Cairns.
We left for the Cairns Botanic Gardens.
Madeline led us with her map around the gardens.
Gondwana Heritage Garden
We first walked to this heritage garden.
Australia’s Gondwanan Heritage Garden is an Evolution Garden tracing the evolution of plants from the first photosynthetic bacteria to the modern flowering plants.
Emphasis is placed on the Gondwanan component of the plant kingdom and in particular the development of the distinctive Australian “Wet Tropics Flora”.
The Wet Tropics Area houses Australia’s highest concentration of plant Families and species, in an area comprising of less than 0.01% of Australia’s total land mass. There are more than 3,500 named vascular plants including 65% of Australia’s Fern species, 21% of Australia’s cycad species, 37% of Australia’s conifer species and 30% of Australia’s Orchid Species. It also contains representatives of thirteen of the nineteen Primitive Flowering Plant families found worldwide.
Flecker Garden
We then took a stroll through the Flecker Garden which epitomises the diversity of tropical flora that can be found across the world’s tropical regions including plants from the steamy jungles of South East Asia, South America, Africa and of course Tropical North Queensland.
Watkins Munro Martin Conservatory
We walked over to the beautiful Watkins Munro Martin Conservatory which was designed to resemble the iconic licuala palm (which is featured on the Cairns Regional Council logo).
The structure was built in 2015 to safely house and exhibit some of the Gardens’ most valuable and tender plants and a collection of local butterflies.
Inside the Conservatory, a one-way walking path meanders through carefully landscaped botanical displays featuring aroids – including the Gardens’ significant amorphophallus collection – as well as bromeliads, tillandsias, carnivorous plants, cycads, ferns, palms, orchids and tassel ferns.
Botanic garden’s restaurant and cafe
We had a beautiful lunch at the gardens cafe.
Cairns Esplanade
After lunch we headed to the Esplanade on the Cairns Foreshore.
We played at Muddy’s Playground.
We walked the foreshore.
We played in the shallows of the Lagoon.
We then went back to the accommodation for a rest and relax before dinner.
Tomorrow
We are going to mass at St Monica’s Catholic Church in Cairns.
We will then be having lunch out and about.
The afternoon we will explore more of Cairns.
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