July 7

Josh is still out on the Reef doing scuba, so today was a slow day. Did some shopping, mailed a couple of postcards, visited a grocery. Food in Australia is expensive, 50% more than it would be in the US, sometimes more. Yogurt cups, for instance, might be US$0.80 at home, whereas the cheapest ones here were Aus$1.69. You're rarely going to see a restaurant meal for less than $15.
In the afternoon, I drove up the coast road toward Port Douglas. Saw a couple of college kids with huge backpacks hitchhiking, so I picked them up. Becky and Lucien, from Germany. Went past Port Douglas to Mossman, dropped them off there and turned back to Cairns. Becky has been here for a while. We drove past sugar cane fields and she said that the burn the fields during harvest, and the air smells like caramel.
The coaast is gorgeous. Tropical forest right down to the seaside. In a lot of places the coast is rocky, but there are stretches of sandy beach. The forest is overwhelmingly green, but every now and again there are flashes of flowers, pink or orange or yellow.