Travelling Worm

This is the blog of Mark Wordsworm, the travelling worm. I’m a 36-year-old bookmark (give or take a few years) and I proudly boast my own Hallmark serial number, 95 HBM 80-1. You’ll probably want to read all about me and my Travelling Companion (the TC).

Today’s travel notes

This worm and the TC spent a few days in Far North Queensland, where the sun is warm and the sea is calm. When it’s not holding a storm party, that is. Let me show you around the lovely town of Cairns, gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.

The book I’m in

Moonraker’s Bride by Madeleine Brent. A good yarn written in this author’s inimitable style. Yours truly is always happy when the TC puts me in one of Madeleine’s books. Madeleine Brent is the alter ego of Peter O’Donnell, best known for the Modesty Blaise series.

Recommended restaurant

The Chambers, Spence Street, Cairns City. Excellent food in a comfortable ambience.

The photos

Me with Ray, guardian of the Great Barrier Reef.

Ray is a life-size sting ray, part of an imposing sculpture on the Cairns Esplanade. It’s titled Reef Guardian (Citizens Gateway to the Great Barrier Reef), by Brian Robinson:

Beyond the sculpture, the bay of Cairns presents an ever-changing vista. At low tide, it’s a mud flat with mangroves popping up here and there:

In the distance is a Black-necked Stalk, stalking (that’s right, stalking) the shallows for a bite to eat. Here’s a closeup view of the rather lugubrious character:

Needless to say, I stayed well out of sight. That beak, those eyes!

The TC, bless her cotton socks, was captivated by the tranquility of the scene. She doesn’t look like food to a stalk. Here she is, captured on film in a rare unguarded moment:

Along the bay runs the Cairns Esplanade, where Cairns folk and visitors take the air. One corner of the Esplanade is the favourite haunt of a couple of pelicans:

The Cairns Esplanade Lagoon, a gently-sloping series of pools, leads the eye down into the Coral Sea. If you zoom into the picture, you’ll see Jonathan the seagull and his pals swooping above the Esplanade Lagoon. Perhaps they’re mimicking the frozen flight of fish that swoops there too:

Trees and grass in the middle of the Esplanade offer relief from the tropical sun. This flowering tree caught my eye because the flowers grow on stalks low down on the trunk and quite separate from the canopy of leaves:

This is the flower:

And another view of the flowering branches low on the trunk:

On one side of the Esplanade lies the Coral Sea. On the other side, enticing eateries and shops line the road beyond the green sward:

Cairns is a town of wide avenues with some interesting architecture. An example is the Cairns Post building, established in 1882 as home to the Cairns Post news corporation. The building is currently for sale, so now’s your chance to hop in if you have an eye for architecture and a few million dollars to spare:

The next photo shows a building erected in 1910 for the Adelaide Steamship Company:

Here’s a closeup of the central gable, showing the building’s name spelled out in relief below a sculpture of a company ship:

An alleyway in the city centre:

Let’s finish the story with a return to nature and its oddities. These weird-looking mushrooms, which the TC, bless her soul, spotted just off the Esplanade, are Veiled Lady Mushrooms:

That’s all for today, folks.