Latitude 16 Beachfront Terrace Port Douglas

... mould. Quite off putting in my view, however it did not deter Roelof who whipped out his Leatherman and embarked upon an enthusiastically, heavy duty scraping effort that sent spores flying.

I should also make special note of our alcohol (over) supplies. We have bought every form of the good grape or spirit from the ‘cupboard under the stairs’, and have created our own special Mintie Hunt throughout the car as we try to ...

... suits" - quite cute.

Port Douglas is supposed to be 'up market' but I think that only applies to the many exclusive Resorts lining the road into town. The town itself is nothing special, even the stretched limo that I saw was a Ford !
Port Douglas is however, an ideal launching pad for Mossman Gorge, the Daintree tropical rainforest, Cape Tribulation & of course the Great Barrier ...

Cape Tribulation is a small village within the Daintree rainforest. That is probably the oldest rainforest in the world; reckoned to be growing continuously for the past 110 million years.
The forest, which is a national park, actually runs right down to the sea. We camped right on the shore, and had a deserted beach just outside.
Did a few walks through the forest and hung out on the beach a bit. It was a really peaceful location, and was as far north in Oz as we went.

... Bay state park.  The campground is just off the beach and the only thing crowding us was the kangaroos hopping around our tents in the morning.  We continued on, camping at some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  Places like Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise, Crescent and Brunswick Head are all popular surfing spots.  Crescent Head is actually a protected area specifically for surfing.  We bought a surf board to join in on the fun.  So far we are measuring our time stood ...

... watschel, es ging los. In aller Ruhe konnten wir das Equipment testen und auf einer bequemen Sitzbank im Wasser anziehen, wo wir schon von einigen Fischchen und Fischen begrüsst wurden. Mit Hilfe von einer Meeresbiologin sind wir dann bestens gerüstet losgeschwommen. Dank Schwimmwesten ging es erstauntlich einfach und schon konnten wir das Reef und auch viele Fischchen sehen! Die restliche Zeit verging wie im Flug, am Schluss mussten wir uns ...

... adult saltwater crocodiles can potentially eat any animal within its range, including monkeys, kangaroos, wild boar, dingos, goannas, birds, domestic livestock, pets, water buffalo, gaurs, sharks, and humans, among other large animals as well. Along the way, Mary was allowed to drive the boat. We also saw a tube snake, surprisingly I was able to stand pretty close to it and check it out along with the guide and Sarah, while ...

... cool to see. There was also a big suspension bridge over the gorge that we crossed, and we got to walk in the really deep Daintree rainforest. At this point, we had to hurry back to the airport to catch our flight, and funny enough, we ran into my roommate and all of his friends from Michigan getting off of the plane that we were about to get on. We then flew home, returned to my apartment and took it easy the rest of the night after a long trip.

... that the lightning eneded before we actually go in the water. The rain kept up and our ride out to the reef was dramatic...no clear skies for us. But also none of the wind that is typical here so the water was not choppy at all. Once at the reef we got into our electric blue lycra unitards (to protect us from the sting of jellyfish who are common at this time). We looked like the Australian tour of Blue Man group. And ...

... br>Once at the Great Barrier Reef, you may choose explore the reef whilst snorkelling or diving. Perhaps experience "Ocean Walker", a unique way to see the fish life whilst being underwater. Or you can stay dry and view the stunning reef from the comfort of a Quicksilver semi-sub, just one metre underwater. Watch the fish feeding from Quicksilver's underwater viewing platform and underwater observatory, or fly in a helicopter over the reef taking in the ...

... wine. Unfortunately, the sun on the eastern side of Australia doesn't set on the ocean. Oh well, at least we had our bottle of wine. The next day we headed out to scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef. We were lucky because it was raining in Pt. Douglas for days before our trip out. The day we went out to sea to scuba, it was immaculate. We actually arrived at the counter to check-in and the attendant asked us "How are you going?" Kind of stumped, I said by the boat ...