Cairns Festival Parade 2009
We hadn’t been to the Cairns Festival Parade for quite some time – don’t shoot us, we’ve just been a bit busy, so this year our son wanted to go and watch so we decided to try and record the Cairns event from a few different places.
I don’t know if there is a better spot to get a spectacular view of Cairns than Lake Morris Road on the way to Copperlode Dam, there is a viewing area where we took some photos of Cairns and Green Island, the weather at this time of year is just fantastic, 29 degrees every day, not a cloud in the sky – I wouldn’t be dead for quids.
As we were heading down Lake Morris Road we spot a good friend of ours Mark cycling UP TO COPPERLODE DAM, Mark is currently training for a charity event “Yellow Pages Cardiac Challenge – Cairns to Cooktown 09” raising money for the Hospital Foundation – read about it here http://www.everydayhero. com.au/event/cardiac_challenge09
Probably like most people in Cairns we thought that the whole of the Esplanade was going to be packed with people and there would be no decent viewing spots and with that in mind we parked at the very Northern part of the Esplanade and walked into the Lagoon area – what a beautiful place to be, the Cairns Esplanade was alive with people, a magic place, people quietly reading, there were bird watchers (both types of..) people making excellent use of the free BBQ’s and parkland, an international volleyball game was taking place – we estimate it was two team of 5 countries verses 6 different countries, the skate park, water park, cafe’s and viewing platforms got a great workout – If you have not taken a stroll along the Cairns Esplanade for a while then we recommend you do, you may be pleasantly surprised, we were.
So what about the parade I hear you yelling? It far exceeded my own expectations, we had a great time, the colourful floats and costumes, the wide mix of people both in the parade and the crowd (yes it was busy, but there were still plenty of places to watch comfortably from) from the traditional to the “out there” The Cairns Festival Parade had it all.
I would like to say a big thanks to all that took part, we saw a lot of hard work, not only in the preparation and obviously required practice, but last night people worked hard – fun, but hard work as well, the SES did a perfect job of keeping the crowd safe, the Police were very friendly and it all made for an excellent Cairns Festival Parade.
It was interesting walking around last night and I am not sure quite how it happened, but today I find myself going to Green Island from Cairns for the first time in 15 years, I think it’s about time I went back and if it’s good enough we will post some photos and a few words....
Click on images to enlarge
