We woke up a few minutes before the alarm, feeling rested (though Jess was a bit sore from the prior day's paddling). We had a leisurely breakfast on the deck, our now-traditional tea and yogurt, plus Jess's orange-poppyseed muffins and Jer's spicy Thai ramen (which was quite good). Then it was time to do the dishes, pack and check out of Palm Villas. As we checked out, the proprietor booked us seats on a coach back to Cairns and gave us directions to the local bus.
We walked up to Macrossan St. and waited less than 5 minutes for the bus. The route was rather circuitous and took us by a number of Port Douglas's larger hotels and resorts, before depositing us in front of the Rainforest Habitat. We bought the 4-park pass, which gave us entry to animal attractions in Kuranda and Cairns as well, then headed inside. The Rainforest Habitat has three main areas - grasslands, wetlands and rainforest - but we were on a mission: koala cuddling. We headed straight for the koalas, only to be to told by a friendly maintenance worker that the presentation and koala photographs took place in another area. We followed his directions and arrived in time to learn about koalas and the challenges they face in nature, and we were the first in line for koala cuddles! The keeper, Michelle, placed Lucky (a 7 year old female) in Jer's arms, and Jess snuggled up to them both. The zoo photographer took our picture with her, and we were both grinning from ear to ear.
Our koala cuddle complete, we watched a few other visitors cuddle Lucky, before setting off to explore the rest of the Rainforest Habitat. The main areas of the wetlands and rainforest exhibits were aviaries filled with parrots, lorikeets, ducks, moorhens and lots of other birds. We were particularly fond of the many dusky moorhen chicks hopping around.
At 11:30am we took the guided grasslands walk, where we saw (and learned about) many types of wallabies (including nail-tails, parmas, swampies, agiles and pademelons), Eastern grey kangaroos, saltwater crocodiles and freshwater crocodiles, and the zoo's breeding pair of Lumholtz's tree kangaroos (Jake and Janine, plus their 6-week old joey, which hadn't yet peeked out of her pouch). In the open-air aviary, we saw lots more birds, including Australian pelicans, magpie geese (big black-and-white primitive geese with little webbing on their feed, but with big bumps on their heads, particularly the males), two types of whistling duck (both brown, one fairly plain and the other with prettily striped wings), and a biggish blue moorhen (called a pakeko in NZ). At the end of the tour, our guide, Michelle, gave us handfuls of roo food and sent us off to feed the kangaroos, wallabies and ducks. We managed this, though it took us some time to coax the wallabies to come to us; naughty folks who walked up to the kangaroos and wallabies were finished much quicker. As we wandered around, we spotted a bunch of kangaroo and wallaby joeys, some peeking out of their mamas' pouches and some out exploring. They were very cute.
After exploring Rainforest Habitat for about 3 hours, we picked up our souvenir photo with Lucky and hopped the local bus back up to Macrossan St. We wandered around for a bit trying to decide on lunch, before stopping at a cafe on Grant St. Jer got an Aussie cheeseburger (topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, sliced beets and barbecue sauce), which he enjoyed, and Jess liked her less-exotic griled ham and cheese with tomato.
We had arranged a 3:30pm transfer to Cairns, so we trundled back to Palm Villas to pick up our bags and wait for the coach. We didn't have to wait long, and we got seats on the left for ocean views. The drive back down the Captain Cook Highway was even more beautiful in daylight than it had been at dusk; it would have been nice to stop at some of the deserted, golden sand beaches along the way. At the Rex Lookout, we saw a guy getting ready to paraglide off the cliff, but the wind didn't hold and his parachute deflated before he could get going.
After dropping off the rest of the passengers, our coach took us down the Esplanade in Cairns to the Bellview. We got checked in and booked a trip to Kuranda for the next day (NB: the Bellview gives its patrons a good discount), then headed up to our room. It was very simple and plain, but fairly clean and spacious. We hoped our neighbors were polite, as the walls were thin! We got settled in, had some tea and rested a bit while looking at some of the day's pictures.
Finally motivating ourselves to go see a bit of Cairns, we walked north along the Esplanade, catching the end of the sunset. After a while we headed inland to the Bay Villas, a hotel known for its Balinese restaurant, Bayleaf. We got a table outside, under the tiki torches. Our amuse-bouche was rice puffs with a slightly-spicy tomato chutney. Then we shared a delicious tuna, cucumber and sprout salad with sweet soy and lime dressing. For mains, Jess had tasty corn fritters with green papaya salad, and Jer had yummy sweet and spicy Balinese fish with a shallot-chili chutney. For dessert, we split cinnamon and orange brulee with vanilla ice cream and spiced oranges, and a glass of Michelton Boytrytis dessert Riesling, all of which were very enjoyable. Balinese food is delicious and different - if the opportunity presents itself, we'd recommend trying it.
After dinner we stopped into a convenience store for breakfast provisions, then we walked back along the Esplanade. There were signs along the beach warning that saltwater crocodiles inhabit the area and croc attacks can cause injury or death - duh! Once back at the Bellview, Jess updated this journal before bed, while Jer charged up our electronics. Jer thought he might be getting a cold, so we decided an early night was in order.