Latitude 16 Garrick House Port Douglas

... Port Douglas. Later that evening, we enjoyed dinner there with friends in town for Debra and Steve's wedding.

Life in Port Douglas is very quiet and tranquil. Apparently, this place attracts its fair share of movie stars and other famous people. After a day of just hanging out in Port Douglas, I can certainly see why. It is the perfect place to de-stress without having anyone bothering you. And that is exactly what we did today.

... br>
After all our fussing around to find a home for the campervan while we are diving, events have overtaken us. We turned on the light in the van, only for it to go out. Simple case of blown bulb thought Tony and removed said item, only to find that the whole holder had substantially melted and was not going to to remedied by a simple bulb change. This is a really small but annoying problem as the light is above the cooker and we now have to cook in the dark! So we phoned ...

... got around to that yet). The water was cold and quite choppy which aren’t ideal snorkeling conditions. The girls found it quite hard going in the open water. We finished off at the underwater observatory before heading back to the boat for a hot cup of tea. The journey back was much better for us, although much rougher water. Paul and Ella stood at the back of the boat for most of the way home getting soaked with spray and being jostled around like a ...

... sessions. The boys had a great time checking out the crocs, venemous snakes and wallabies. Not to mention some sleepy, but still awake, Koalas.
At one point I suggested to Ethan that he should climb into the pen of a 4.5m croc and sit on his back so I could take a photo of him and send it to his friends back at school. He asked why and I told him it would be a ...

... up and coming to eat with us - so we chatted and had fun in the evening before falling asleep fairly early because of our jam-packed days. In the morning we woke up early, checked out and decided to go on a long walk as we weren't getting picked up till one. So we set off down Cape Tribulation beach and walked up and over the cape and down onto Myall Beach on the South side of the cape. As it was early and we were the first up, we had to walk with our hands ...

... Our guide (Sam) told us never to call them fins, because that is what the "bubble heads" (divers) call them. We all laughed! The experience of going snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef was amazing. Sam our guide was very good, and we learned about the different types of coral, and fish.  Some of the fish that we saw were wrasses, cod, bass, trout, Parrot fish, and angel fish. We also saw anemones, sea cucumbers, and ...

... kelly got her scuba certification! go kelly!! She was happy. so let us tell you a few things about thre reef. It rocks! even snorkling was amazing because the visibitlity, even after a cyclone was, incredibly clear. the coral was like nothing we had ever seen. huge and colorful and the textures were unbelievable. we saw a clam the size of a human, turtle, crazy bright fish a shark and so on. it was truly mind blowing and ...

... reluctantly we all accepted the fait acompli as the train was due to leave at 14:00 come what may. We arrived at 14:20 and they had held the train for us, much to the annoyance of the other passengers already sitting in the carriages (without AC). We were surprised as we understood that previously another P&O excursion was late arriving and the train left without them, much to the annoyance of the passengers as you can imagine. We set off with the first ...

... was just what I wanted. Since we hadn't really had a night out since we got the van G wanted to go out in Cairns. We got ready and headed to the city, ending up in an Irish bar first. It was the final of the rugby league cup so there were a few crazy aussies about (and new Zealanders since that's who they where playing) - NZ won. We went to a few other bars and found the people in Cairns just as crazy as last time. Woke up on ...

... en profitons pour faire une balade dans la fôret qui regorge d'espèces d'arbres et de plantes absolument fascinentes. Nous passerons également un long moment à marcher au bord de cette magnifique plage et à regarder l'horirzon, encore l'un de ce moments ou l'on voudrait que le temps s'arrête...