Day 4 - Cairns Challenge Triathlon

Today we moved an hour down the coast to Cairns where we are spending two nights.  After an action-packed day of scuba diving yesterday, today was all about watching others in action!  Today was the first ever Cairns Challenge Triathlon - think ironman - encompassing a 3.8km swim, 180km bike and marathon (26.2 mile) run.  We thought checking out this event was a perfect way to spend the day.  So we made our way to the start of the race at 645AM (before the sun rose!) in Palm Cove.

The start of the race also doubled as the first transition point between the swim and the bike.  It was amazing to watch these competitors swim 3.8km in 45 minutes and then quickly get onto a bike!

After watching the first transition, we decided to check out the area around Cairns.  Figuring that it would be 7 hours or so before the triathletes came to the finish line in downtown Cairns, we had a lot of time on our hands to explore!  So we ventured up to the Kuranda Rainforest area.  Although most of this place was overrated (think tweetsie railroad near Boone, NC), we did manage to get these pics on our way up the mountains and in Barron Gorge.

In the late afternoon, we traveled back to downtown Cairns to watch the end of the race.  Chris McCormack, a local Queenslander, won the race with a time of 8 hours and 15 minutes!