These flying fox bats are huge and nest in downtown Cairns. They fly out around 7 p.m. each night. Their faces actually look like furry nosed foxes!

Buildings in downtown Cairnes. Tomorrow, Thurs., we are scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef on a one day boat trip! We'll do 2 dives. Look for more pics. I think we'll have access to underwater camera. If not, we'll send you a postcard picture or you can go online and see the same thing:)

That's it for the botanical garden and bird walk. Following pics are of downtown Cairns.

Here we got a decent shot of a spoon bill. We also saw a large darter in a tree--a very large black crane type bird. We also saw various parakeets, a rainbow bee eater, a frog mouth papoon (looks just like the branch it nests on), king fisher, white ibis, etc. Some of these we only saw through the telescope; too far away for our Coolpics to take good pictures.

Board walk through the botanical garden. It was very dense at this point. We've seen many birds, but our camera doesn't do pics well. Will post what we can.

The Tanks, a performing arts center that was closed today. The tanks are actual oil tanks from WWII hidden in the trees. Oil was used for refueling our ships. Tanks have been transformed in to art center. We hope to go back. This is not far at all from where we are staying.

John is setting up the telescope for viewing. The scope allowed for excellent close up viewing of birds.

Our bird watching group.

John, our bird guide. Quite a knowledgable fellow. The walk was well done.

Back to the Botanical Gardens on Wed. for the birdwalk. The following pics are some of the flora/fauna.

Here is the view from the highest point at Tree Tops.

That's it so far. Will post more later in the week. We hope to take the train to Kuranda where we will take a rainforest tour, see Koala Gardens with crocs, wallabies, etc. and the butterfly sanctuary. www.kuranda.org

On way to get groceries, we stopped . . . .guess where . . . the botanical garden. Are you surprised? It actually was right on our way. How nice.

Our pool :) We are heading there this afternoon as soon as I finish this blog!

Balcony for continental breakfast, which we had this morning. But, we will eat in our room from now on as we've made a shopping trip to the supermarket today.

Maybe Dad won't miss his koi pond. The balcony dining area overlooks this waterfall and pond.

Our view from the kitchen table.

Our digs. Bdrm is first with bath to the right. Kitchen and living area through the door.

Our front door.

Up the drive to the office.

Entering Tree Tops. Thick, tropical vegetation everywhere along with tropical, humid temps!