July 1 Wednesday I spent a lot of time walking around today, probably put in seven miles. First down to the harbor to see the America naval vessels, the USS Essex, a carrier, and the USS Tortuga, its companion supply ship. Some of the 6000 sailors have been wandering town for the past week or so and will be for another week. The haircuts give them away. Which reminds me I need a haircut myself and made a note of a barbershop, while walking around. Then a serpentine path throughout the first few streets up from the promenade, ending at a shopping center that has one of the main grocery stores in Cairns. With my supplies, I returned to base. Lunch was a veggie pizza for $7. The place called it a large, but they only offer one size so it is kind of misleading. It was plenty big enough for one person, that is for sure.

July 2 Thursday I spent the morning online exploring and catching up now that I know I have a stable internet source for a while. I bought a world map. It is not my first choice. The Japanese guy I met in Madang had a really nice, compact multi-page atlas, but it was Japanese. This is a single world map and it will have to do for a wile, but I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Thank you U2. I had a banana and chocolate crepe on my way back to base after wandering around for several hours.

July 3 Friday. I made the decision to stay here for at least another week, after getting an email from Gabe about his progress. I've talked to several travel agents about various packages and like I thought the choices are overwhelming. I'm also looking for volunteering opportunities. My visa does not allow me to work, and from talking to other travelers, the jobs are all taken right now, anyway. There are A LOT of travelers here right now. Friday's the Asylum hosts a bbq and probably 70 of the residents where there. They actually made special food for the three of us that identified ourselves as vegetarian. It is a cornucopia of nationalities here. I was at a table with a French guy, a Chilean, two German girls, two French Swiss girls, a German guy, and a Japanese guy. Some have been here for months, some are here for school, some for work, most for vacation. Some have bought cars, some are hitchhiking, etc etc etc. The language differences slow us down only a little. While out for the afternoon, I bought a couple Nussgipfel at a Swiss bakery. These will be for tomorrow. I got some bread and cheese and more juice at the supermarket.

July 4 Sabbath. Happy 4th of July everyone back in America! My day started off with cornflakes and banana slices plus an orange, then a pleasant 40 minute walk to church. The Cairns SDA church/school is located in a nice neighborhood a couple miles in from the shoreline. The attendance was sparse, only because most of the members are at a campmeeting at Townsville, which has been running for the past week. Normally it is a busy church and they have a potluck every week, except this weekend. A 79 year old man gave the first sermon of his life, since the main pastor was also at the campmeeting. He went over a bunch of the promises given in the Psalms. People were friendly and wanted to know if I would be around for a little while. One lady brought a bag of pomelos to distribute and I got one. I had it with my lunch and it was good but very tart.

July 5 Sunday I slept in this morning, but went power walking in the afternoon; about 20 km, including a 7.5 km loop in the mountains behind the Botanical Gardens. The peak of Mount Lumley had some decent view points, but most had trees blocking significant parts of them and made picture taking moot almost. The Mount Whitfield side was similar. The Gardens are free, but they close early in the afternoon, so I only got through part of it and will go back to see the rest later. There are Bush turkeys everywhere and you can see immediately that they do not have any predators of substance, because they will let you get within a couple feet before they even look up from eating. My return home was through part of the rainforest/swamp in the center of town. It has a nice boardwalk winding through the park and signs say crocodile sightings are not unusual, although I have yet to see one.

July 6 Monday. I went on a day trip to the little town of Kuranda today. I was picked up by a shuttle at 7:25 and taken to the Kuranda Railway station. By 8:30 the train was loaded with passengers and we made our departure. The train makes its way slowly up from the coastline floor, along the Barron River gorge, past several waterfalls, most notably Barron Falls, and to the town of Kuranda. There was a lot of historical information given during the train ride about the man who single handedly envisioned the railway and through sheer determination saw it to completion. The main falls was impressive even though it is not the rainy season, but the pictures of it in full flow are amazing. The water's power is harnessed by an Australian power company in several places down the gorge. After a brief stop for photos, we continued to the town.

Kuranda itself is a tourist trap, with endless souvenir shops and pricey eateries. I skipped all of that and went to three places: The Butterfly Sanctuary, The Koala Garden, and Birdworld. I spent a long time in Birdworld, long enough for a cockatoo to bite off a piece of my camera. It still works fine, but the lens is not covered completely when the camera is turned off. Luckily I have a good case for it. Next, I spent a long time in the Butterfly Sanctuary. Dad would have loved it here. I remember going to the Butterfly exhibit when they first opened it at Marine World. There were many many butterflies, and each time I went back there were less and less. This was like that first trip magnified by ten. Butterflies everywhere including many of their signature ones: the Ulysses and the Cairns Birdwings. The Ulysses has brilliant blue coloring on its upper wings, but that is only visible when they are flying because the instant they land their wings are folded up. The Birdwings are like the butterfly in my picture from PNG. They have bright yellow on their undersides and a reflective green on top that shines in the sunlight. There was a photographer there who said it took almost 800 shots to get one of the Ulysses with the wings opened. He was relieved to have gotten one. He was still trying to get the green of the Birdwing in flight. I got a picture with two of them that shows the green, even if they are slightly blurry. I would recommend other visitors skip the Koala Garden. It was a small facility, the highlights being a kangaroo and wallaby petting area and a place where you could get a picture taken with a koala. The pictures were more than I would be willing to pay and feeding the wallabies was nice, but not really worth the price of admission. The other two places were wonderful. I also walked a couple miles out of town to a viewpoint looking back to Cairns. Good exercise.

The return trip to Cairns was via the Skyrail, a six seat gondola ride above the rainforest. You can get out at two different midway points and visit lookouts/small walking tracks/etc. This was definitely an interesting way of seeing the terrain, but not for those afraid of heights. My camera battery decided to run out on me at the second midway point, so I missed a few great shots as we crested the final hill and had spectacular views down on Cairns, but I had a thoroughly enjoyable day

At the Asylum, Monday means Mad Monday, where the majority of the residents collectively go out to dinner and then basically a pub crawl. A group of almost 80 went this time. There is free food, games, giveaways (I won a free bungy jump!), discounts, lots of music, and of course, general madness. I got home at 3 am.