Cairns - January 9/10

What a beautiful hour and fifteen drive from Port Douglas to Cairns! It's reminiscent of hwy 1 along the coast of Oregon and California. Spectacular vistas of turquoise and azure blue waters crashing against black volcanic rock. We chose all our hotels on hotels.com and Hotwire and based our choices mainly on the location since we don't have a car to drive just yet.
We lucked out with the Holiday Inn in Cairns, metres from the ocean and a couple of blocks from the centre of town. It is beautifully designed. At first glance the natural setting of Cairns with a  breathtaking view of the bay surrounded by mountains in the distance made us believe we were in one of the most beautiful places on earth....but with a closer look and walk about we realized that it's over commercialized...everything is mass produced and high priced and ran like an assembly line.
We did find a nice, quiet bbq restaurant called 'sauce' where we shared a pitcher of  beer. I had a bucket of prawns...and Norm had a hamburger and  we shared fries with garlic aioli.
The next morning we went to a nearby clinic to make sure that the moving pain Norm's leg was not a clot. It was an hour wait so we wandered down the street and shared a delightful breakfast while we waited. I am learning not to worry until it is necessary to worry. So why not enjoy life....The doctor was stumped. He mentioned that it could be a vascular circulation problem. We'll get it looked at again when we settle Melbourne. Would have preferred for it to be a muscular issue. Norm is on painkillers and muscle relaxants. So he's a groggy and happy tourist.
The day before, we had booked a cable car ride up above the  rainforest. It was humbling to see the magnificence of the forest. We had lovely lunch in the little town of Kandura (touristy) in the midst the forest and descended from mountain on a historic wooden train where we were had wine and cheese. The views were spectacular. 
We crashed after a $15 Chinese massage at night market. We fell asleep at 8 pm because had to leave at 3 am to catch our flight for Sydney.