Cairns and our Next-Tree Neighbors

We flew from the local airport at Ayers Rock Resort to the city of Cairns in North Queensland. It was like we entered a totally opposite world. While the desert weather we experienced  was actually quite moderate ( temps in the mid 90s), Cairns was tropical…balmy and humid. Cairns, which by the way is pronounced “Can,” only varies by wet vs dry months. We were in the wet cycle, but we got lucky during our stay.

The terrain also was a total opposite. While the desert was largely flat with sand and red rock, Cairns was on a beautiful coastline with a rainforest that came right down to the water before rising up into majestic, green forested mountains. I tried to capture these extremes in the pics above.

One very cool feature in town was the infinity pool at the marina. It is accessible to everyone, has sand at one end, and acres of pool to cool down.

But I want to tell you about our neighbors in the trees next to our hotel… A colony of fruit bats. During the day they chirped away and hung upside down.

Then at dusk, they wake up and start to leave the trees.

All of a sudden, they are all in flight, circling the sky above our city block. It is a sight to behold!! They fly here until the sun sets, then they turn west and head for the rainforest. The locals say these bats are very important. By eating the fruit and seeds, the bats pollinate the trees and plants for reproduction. In other words, these bats are Cairns’ bees.

Some in our party were freaked out by the bats, but I thought these observations were special. It was hard to say goodbye four days later. But I have some fun stuff to blog about from Cairns… Stay tuned.