We woke up this morning with our heads still buzzing with our trip yesterday but now we needed to turn our attention to the next few days and in particular today and tomorrow when we overnight at Cairns or more specifically the tender port of Yorkeys Knob. We had nothing planned for day one because of the late arrival so decided to see once we get ashore if we could hire a car either for both days or just tomorrow. Day two we have something planned and all being well we won’t experience the same tender experience as Airlie Beach. Yorkeys Knob doesn’t have much in the way of facilities and the the tenders arrive at the local boat club.
Again the ships focus was tours out to the Barrier Reef and they were the priority passengers leaving the ship. The next 3 days that destination will be the number one priority.
We had a very leisurely relaxed morning which was in complete contrast to yesterday.
We arrived at 10:30 and we just sat back today as everyone else scrambled to get ashore.
You can just about make out Cairns on the left of the photo above and Yorkeys Knob to the right. It would have more appropriate to call this port Yorkeys Knob (Cairns) instead of the other way around.
As everything settled down we used our loyalty status to get us to the front of the queue for the next available tender and were ashore by 11:50. There is very little at Yorkeys Knob and the shuttle into Cairns takes 30 minutes each way and would have cost $18 per person. Having been to Cairns before I know there was little of interest to us there so we decided to do a bit of preparation for tomorrow and hire a car. Taxis at Yorkeys Knob are few and far between and we need to be somewhere at 9:30 so to hire a car seemed like a more reliable option. Below is the main street that runs through Yorkeys Knob.
Once we had organised that we headed for the local beach where they have a safe swimming area set up to protect you from the stingers. The water was the warmest I have ever swam in ever, it was so refreshing and very welcome to be able to escape the humidity for a while.
Whats in the bucket you ask? Only the local life guards pet Box Jelly Fish.
We stayed on the beach until about 3:30 before making our way back to the ship. An early start tomorrow so we won’t be late up tonight.
