23. Saturday, 28 February 1948. All hands except myself left at 6.45 AM this morning with members of the Cairns Naturalists' Club for a jaunt lasting overnight. I shall get details of the places visited when they return. I answered four applicants for jobs and got the books in shape for work. I shall try to get all bills cleaned up as of March lst. Things prior to that date, when we were scattered all over the place can be considered as odds and ends but now that we are together and presumably will remain so, it would be well to get ourselves systematized. I have a fairly heavy cold in my head, which seems to have been working up for the last few days. Presumably the modern airconditioning of Lennon's in Brisbane was too much for me. Anyway, there will be no more air condition- ing for some time to come now. Later in the afternoon I took a look at the swimming pool and sat on the little park overlooking the mouth of the bay for a while. Then returned to the hotel, did a little more work and got some letters written. Tomorrow I may try to wander along the shore in one or another direction. This turns out to be a big evening for Hices Hotel, the installation of a string orchestra, no less, and a most radical move, according to the waiters. Accompanying it is the opening of a cocktail bar and there is a Communist orator outside in the street busily engaged in haranguing nobody. The whole populace has gone to the movies to look at Anne Sothern. Sunday, 29 February 1948. Had a good night's rest and the cold is consider- ably improved. It is now about 2.30 PM and the boys have not yet returned but I think I shall get this finished and close up my letters. After breakfast I decided that I would take a walk in order to break in my field boots but what actually happened was that the boots pretty near broke me in. I have had no walking of any kind really since embarking on the train in New York and it is good that I was not our over the week-end. I wanted to reach a point which forms the northern side of the Cairns bay but was unable to get there as the way was barred by mangrove swamps, set in deep cozy mud. Foiled there, I scaled one of the hills to the north of Cairns and then start- ed back but found both feet blistered. The return took me about twice as long as the outward journey and was something of an ordeal. Shall have to do some walking every day until I harden up a bit. The heat is oppressive and except for the periods spent under the shower I think I have been sweating constantly since arriving here. On return- ing from my walk I looked as though I had had the swim, which was my original objective in trying to get out to that point. There is a nice-looking beach there but I guess I shall have to hire a boat to get there. Most of the houses are built on piles, to let the breeze circulate under as well as around them. They are made of wood, the walls being chiefly of lattice or trellis, and have roofs of corrugated iron. I think I covered somewhere around eight miles this morning, leaving at 9.30. The hills to the back north and south of Cairns, even at that hour had the tops in the clouds though they cannot be much more than a thou- sand feet at the most. They form part of the Great Dividing Range, which ap- pears on the maps and runs right up to the very tip of the Cape. It will be very interesting once I get my feet into shape to contend with them.