September 30, 2009 - Cairns Botanical Garden

I got to talk to Dad and Dianne today and to Ashley and Therese. I tried calling mom, but I missed her and Jim.

Wow, what a day! Who knew how much we could see on a 10 hour tour! We got picked up at noon by David. I have to say up front that he was absolutely the best tour guide we have ever had. David was in charge of taking us on a tour of the highlights of Cairns. He was knowledgeable, personable, and had hands on manipulatives for the passengers to look at. He had photos of local wildlife taped about the bus. He had copies of major news stories - big fish to crocs to floods. He had a cane toad in a jar and some bugs in jars. And he was funny, warm, and friendly. He made it a point to get to know all of our names and where we were from. He was truly a wonderful guide!

First David dropped us off at St. Monica's Cathedral in Cairns to look at the Creation Story in Stained Glass and the Peace Windows. Please, take the time to click on the link and learn about both the Peace Windows and Creation Story Windows. I took some photos but they are no where as good what you will see on this website (though I did load them up to Flickr). I would have a hard time going to this church...I would be spending all of my time staring at the windows.

Next, David drove us about Cairns pointing out good hotels, shops, and restaurants. He told us about sugar cane and sugar production, about tourism, and he showed us a naval base and shipbuilding. During this part of the tour, he showed us a sign that I had to get a photo of:

What you can't quite see in my photo is that this sign is beside a roadway. However, in times past, when there has been flooding, boats have traversed the road and the warning has been so they will note the overhead wires.... We learned that growing sugar cane is a big source of income here in this part of Australia. We saw the fields and the buildings where it was processed. Bet they have a really high Orkin bill!

Next we drove to the local headquarters of the Flying Doctor Service. When we were in Alice Springs, we learned about Reverend Flynn when we visited his grave site. He was the force behind the beginning of the Flying Doctor Service which over the years has saved tens of thousands of people. Because of the Flying Doctor Service, medical help is available to those living in the rural areas of Australia. But, they don't just provide emergency medical service, they also provide medicine chests for these areas (so when people are sick or hurt, a designated person can call in, consult, and dispense the medications). They are providing wellness and immunization services as well. We watched a brief film, toured the museum, saw the inside of a retired medical plane and perused the gift shop.