Botanic Gardens and Fitzroy Island

We ended our 6 night stay at Palm Cove yesterday by celebrating in style over a slap up breakfast with David at Nu Nu Restaurant, in one of the most beautiful beachfront locations along the Palm Cove esplanade .... 

I loved my spanner crab omelette (with a ginger infused broth). The friendly staff were struck that none of us had ordered the ubiquitous smashed avocado with any of our dishes .....

We moved to Ro's house in Smithfield, north of Cairns, after check out, a wonderful chance to experience more of this part of FNQ like a local!

While David attended to some chores (and Ro was away on work matters) we spent the afternoon at Cairn's beautiful Botanical Gardens ....

Once again we were impressed with the quality of the infrastructure and the level of upkeep at the gardens. The stylish Visitor Centre is completely faced with mirrored panels - which looked stunning in this setting - and its cafe served great lunches. 

This morning we were up early and on our way to Cairns Harbour, in plenty of time (so we thought) to catch our Fitzroy Island cruise boat at 8.30am. But unfortunately there was a fire emergency on the highway so traffic had to be diverted through Redlynch - with major hold ups along the way. We only just made it to the boat on time in the end! 

Departing Cairns ........

This was our first glimpse of Fitzroy Island (in the distance), just under 30 klm east of Cairns Harbour.

Approaching Fitzroy Island .... I like this pic because we walked up to the highest point of this island today - and this pic really shows how high it is!!!

It was warm today (28oC) and we set out walking to the island's old lighthouse first thing - well over 2klm from where we landed and all uphill! We were pleased to make it there!

But then we still had another 750metre climb from the lighthouse to get to the summit lookout.

This was one of the few times that Rob got ahead of us on the summit walk .......

We were all pleased to make it to the highest point on the island and know the rest of the way was all downhill.

But the views from here were spectacular - and made the climb all worthwhile .....

We enjoyed a l-o-n-g drink and a slow lunch at Foxy's Bar afterwards, leaving us enough time for an  snorkel along the beachside reefs - all part of the World Heritage Listed Great Barrier Reef. It was easy going for us in these shallow tropical waters and Rob and I scored the jackpot by getting in just about touching distance with a giant sea turtle, feeding amongst the coral close to shore. There were hundreds of fish too - all different types, some brilliantly coloured and beautiful corals too although there was much that was no longer alive! 

Our last glimpses of Welcome Bay, Fitzroy Island after we set off for the return trip to Cairns after an absolutely stunning day...........