Bay Villas Resort Port Douglas

... went out into the hills around Cairns with every intention of forging a path to Kuranda. He caught very ill, and was nursed back to health by a local tribe. They warned him not to continue, but he went anyways and was never seen again.
1901: A man was logging in the forests of what is now called Saddle Mountain, when he came across a bone-chilling discovery; he found a saddle in the top of a tree with a message carved hurriedly into it: "Something is here. Something is stalking me." He ...

Up early to get to Cairns for the boat at 8am - fabulous day - Graham had to eat lots of seasickness pills but once we got onto the beach at Michaelmas Cay and into the water he was fine. Saw some beautiful sights - and even went down in the semi submersible - Graham didn't - just aswell as it made me feel pretty queasy - saw a couple of turtles though. Too late when I came out of that to go for a ...

... just a game for fun. That lost us a few ice creams and had made for a quiet walk home a few times. Our new friends from Cairns, the Butsons, came up. Harry, Tommy and Emily and us rented some boards and a tube and hit the waves. After that, some pool time, lunch and then Pokemon cards. Now that's what I call a good day. This kid Tommy, he's only 10 and already a survivalist. His family was out hunting in the Outback and he camped overnight, by himself ...

... Also, it was treacherous to navigate the reef just to get to the land.

These days there are still hardly any people living there. I saw two or three hotels/hostels and NO houses. They must have been built into the rainforest itself. According to our bus drivers it is mostly hippies (and local Aboriginals) who live in the area since the only electricity is by generator and all the roads are dirt except for the main road ...

... beautiful pieces. The one that amazed me the most was a pair of hollowed bloodstone boots - looked so life like. I found a table i fell in love with but a mere $7000 was a bit out of my range - wouldn't of fit in the van either! We then headed though Mareeba before coming down the very steep and very windy road to Port DOuglas. It was a speed limit of 30km/h recommendation and even though I trust Jeremy's driving - was still pretty hair raising at ...

... of the biggest spiders I've ever seen. Clench your fist. Now start to expand it slowly. bigger... bigger... bigger... stop. However big your clenched fist is, the several spiders were bigger. I didn't interact much with them. They don't move much so I wasn't much interested. Cape Tribulation is very beautiful and the rainforest is pretty cool. It was nice to have a break from Cairns. Shame about the Ipod though...

... forest forms a roof over the road and we seem to travel through a tunnel of vegetation. The road was contructed as late as 1962. Prior to  that all transportation was by sea. We stroll on Four mile beach and a hike in the jungle before we return to Cairns again. På svenska: Lördag 2009-03-14 Orörd regnskog vid Cape Tribulation Hallå där! Cape Tribulation ligger 150 km norr om Cairns. Området från Daintree Reiver ...

... hopped on our bikes, loaded up on groceries at the store, and made our way back to the hostel to relax and meet up with Sarah. I chilled out with my Orhan Pamuk book, My Name is Red (Nobel Prize winning author's novel about love, passion for one's work, east meets west, the art of miniaturism all set in a murder mystery in 16th century Ottoman Turkey) and went swimming in the pool, while Mary went out for a run. Sarah eventually ...

... drinks. 27/01/2009 Cape Trib Day Two. A very lazy day. Went for a walk along the beach, careful not to get too close to the sea then lazed around the pool before an afternoon nap. Up for some food, a few drinks then headed home. 28/01/2009 Cape Trib Day Three. A sad day having to check out of the delux double. Torrential rain in the morning but it cleared in time for us to lug our bags down to the bar and wait for the bus ...

... along the wharf towards the vessel I noticed a couple of security cameras pointing at us, and we were also instructed to say our surnames to the attendants as they checked our tickets. Why on earth we had to do this I’m not sure. Perhaps it was some kind of complex counter-terrorism measure to catch out the odd Middle Eastern fugitive, quietly minding his own business on a nice day out on the Great Barrier Reef but who unwittingly lets his guard down for a moment and utters ...