Port Douglas
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
43
90
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
Port Douglas,
Queensland,
Australia
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Still in Alice Springs, we got the car back, with about 300 extra kms on the clock. But, there was no-one there to check it, just a box to drop the keys into. We'll let you know if they end up charging us for them. We trundled our bags into the tiny airport. For some odd reason the Australian check-in guy, who had been laughing and chatting to the French passengers before us, took an instant dislike to David and I - as he glanced at our passports he sighed, "..englishhhh...." handing them back and avoiding any eye contact. As he gave us our boarding tickets he added from over his shoulder, as if he didn't need to tell us, "oh, I've put you in emergency door seats, ok?" well, if it wasn't ok he would had to have to printed out our boarding tickets again. He didn't even ask us about seating! It was fine actually but to be asked would have been more professional and hence the realisation dawned on me that we would have to help and be responsible for fellow passengers in the event of a blow up slide evacuation
Port Douglas Beach
! Cripes!!Everything was fine though of course and we arrived in Cairns late that night. We collected our hire car. Everyone and anyone had urged us to not pay much attention to Cairns but instead concentrate on nearby Port Douglas, a gorgeous little beach resort. As it was only 8pm and Port Douglas was only 40mins away we headed straight for there. Being pitch black we couldn't see much apart from palm trees and our Hertz Sat Nav was as much use as a chocolate soldier on the Front Line. (David: It had an Aussie accent, and I don't think it liked us either: everytime we got near the sea it tried to direct us into it!) We had to find somewhere to sleep now and Port Douglas almost drove us out of town. It was a Saturday night. It was 9pm. Shops were closed. Bars were empty. Restaurant staff were putting chairs on tables. Rental apartments were dark and locked. Motels were also dark and locked. The streets were deserted. This was a beach resort!!! What does everyone do at night?? Where do they go?? We were almost going to ditch the place when we happened upon a street that suddenly leapt into Vegas light and sound with near-naked people thronging the outside of bars, waitresses zipping around tables with plates of pizza and live bands doing terrible renditions of The Beatles to pissed women! And as if this was an omen, we then suddenly pulled up outside a gorgeous terracotta coloured apartment block with a small fountain outside and palm trees and a sign displaying "Vacancies" outside
Road sign!
. Martinique Apartments were gorgeous and the owners were Dutch, really friendly, even at 10pm. Our apartment had a small kitchen, bathroom, living room, balcony all for approx £55 a night!! Incredible and it was all really tastefully decorated and spotlessly clean. We are a couple of lucky bastards!
The next day, we explored the surrounding area. Port Douglas was absolutely and utterly stunning. From the moment we stepped into the street, we fell in love with it. It was full of palm trees, wide roads, little boutiques, tons of restaurants, bars, everyone wandering around in beach wear, the sun was blazing down, it was just gorgeous little place. There was a faint whiff of Desperate Housewives about it with women cruising around in BMW 4x4's with long oiled golden legs and dripping in diamonds while handsome young boys strolled around in mirrored ray bans flexing their surfing 6-packs to rich women sipping wine in street cafes. But despite this the place didn't seem intimidating or shallow as you would conclude. It just seemed amusing and everyone was quite friendly. Indeed, just like Desperate Housewives! It was all very easy on the eye!
We drove up to Cape Tribulation about 40mins out of town. Cape Tribulation is quite possibly the most stunning place ever. You have the ocean, rainforests, rolling green Lake District-type vistas, lush Hansel and Gretal rainforests and snaky ascending roads with steep drops down following the course of sandy beaches resulting in soaring sights of our world. Exquisite. We visited a boardwalk through a rainforest. It was literally like wandering through a rich, overgrown mass of sky-reaching ferns, murky moss-covered lakes where crocodiles hid beneath - hence, around the lakes the boardwalks were fenced and chicken-wired high up
Rainforest boardwalk swamp
! We ached our eyes searching for croc bubbles in the water, but saw nothing but dead tree branches. Halfway through our walk, another couple whisperingly led us over to a clearing in the rainforest where there was an extremely rare sighting of a Cassowary. These animals are exactly like Emus but bigger! This sighting was special as apparently they are impossible to spot. There were about 6 of us tourists watching this creature tread softly amongst the wild ferns. The only sound you could hear was the occasional flutter of a camera lens and the odd snap of a twig from the Cassowary's feet - which are incidentally frigging massive! Like elephant clompers! We were told that if a Cassowary caught you, they would hold you down and rip out your insides in Olympic speed. Nice. Let's go, darling... (David: Yes, they have an incredibly sharp claw on each foot... they also have odd hair like feathers and a long red dangling bit - name escapes me - wobbling from their chins, and the oddest prehistoric dinosaur like horn ridge on their heads. Incredibly creatures!)We went on another short walk through a rainforest which was fantastic. Written warnings of Cassowary's freely wandering about gave you advice on what to do if confronted with one of these huge intimidating animals: Don't run, keep facing it and let it pass or slowly back away. If it comes towards you, try to get something between you and it... don't run; and especially... don't run. Hence, our walk was great if a little nerve-wracking at the prospect of every snapped twig in the dark forest resulting in a face to face introduction to these creatures.
Later on, back at the apartment, we had a great chat with our Dutch owners. Fred used to be a famous football player (if anyone has an extensive knowledge of Dutch football players, then you may know of him
David and I post helicopter ride
! Surname unknown!!) why he gave it up, we don't know. Anyway, he enthusiastically booked us onto a boat trip the next day to THE GREAT BARRIER REEF! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO.So, up early, we went and got onto the Quicksilver boat, along with approx 100 other people. We sat up top with the ocean wind blowing our brains out of our ears. It was great! Down below, people were vomiting their brains out! The sea was quite rough but it's always worse if you sit downstairs. The scenery was spectacular but didn't really stop your breathing until you actually got out to the Reef. Quicksilver had their own pontoon where we all disembarked and you were free to eat lunch, go snorkelling, sunbathe, people watch, go out on a semi-submarine to see ocean life. As it was our honeymoon and we were somewhere so magnificent, we decided to "in for a penny, in for a pound" so booked a half hour helicopter tour of the Great Barrier Reef. This is one of those events that I will never ever forget ever. If I wasn't breaking the sound barrier with my "Oh My God, LOOK!" screams then I would have cried with just utter adoration at the blinding hues of the olive and cobalt water, the sight of black sting-rays and grey baby sharks gliding 20 feet under the helicopter, turtles swimming and just the Reef itself in all its piercing exquisiteness for miles around. There was a solitary 30 x 5metre golden sandy island stranded amidst the Reef, home to sea birds
Our pontoon
. We flew about 10 feet over it, banking round, the whole helicopter flooding with greens, blues and sunshine. My god, it was just paradise. Paradise. If I returned to England now to a life of drudgery and depravity, I would consider myself rich with such a precious memory of this beautiful day (apart from my wedding day of course!). Blimey, bit emotive!! Barrier Reef info (thanks to Lonely Planet!):
- Only living visible thing seem from space
- 1500 species of fish
- 400 types of coral
- 6 types of turtles
- 4000 breeds of clams and molluscs
Anyway, I insisted David go snorkelling but I'm afraid I chickened out. I so wanted to do it and I was fully aware of what an appalling shame it would be if I didn't give it a go, but my fear of deep water was more overwhelming than the sight of the world's most beautiful marine life. There was one woman, travelling alone, who was clad in her flippers, mask and wetsuit desperately clinging onto the guide-ropes like a slippery seal and with the sympathetic support of a female crew-member she managed to put her face in for about 5mins next to the decked platform and that was her attempt at snorkelling
The Great Barrier Reef
. I was so proud of her. She was braver than me. I was pathetic. David went right out with everyone else and saw a giant clam and the most beautiful fish wafting past his face. I'm thrilled he did it. (David: It was great. Especially seeing the giant clam, which was a surprise; because I thought they were a Hollywood myth! It was bigger than me, and it was quite tempting to put my foot in it to see what happened, but sense stopped me in time... so I put a small child's foot in it instead... ok, I didn't really.)We also went out on the semi-submarine and saw some exquisite fish of minute and gigantic proportions obliviously gliding past you while soft, gentle coral waved forlornly at our submarine bobbing past. Coral of peach, sapphire green, yellows and deep purple like an undersea world of hidden mermaids.
The day was just so stupendously wonderful. We had witnessed another one of the world's wonders and after a day of windswept sailing and an adrenaline-exhaustive experience of natural beauty we were already asleep before we got home and I fell asleep ecstatically Gin-happy!!!
For our final day at exquisite Port Douglas, we checked out and then went for Breakfast with the Birds at the Rainforest Habitat
A big fish in the Reef
. Fred the Footballer told us it was wonderful eating breakfast while wild birds flew around you and sat on your table looking at you quizzically. When we got there, there were indeed some gorgeous little birds making a right racket above the breakfast tables and as soon as we sat down, all birds must have emigrated to New Zealand!! Did we smell??! We walked around the Rainforest Habitat laughing at koalas sighing with contentment on eucalyptus trees, rainbow-coloured parrots squawking at anything that moved, big crocs threateningly eyeballing you from below muddy waters..although one kindly showed me all his teeth very calmly before he gently closed his mouth and then glided off! (David: that's because I showed him my own teeth in response. I think we worked out who was the Daddy.) We also saw another Cassowary in a large natural enclosure. He was again massive, intimidating and strolling around, wobbling his under-chin red rubbery flap at anyone who dared look at him. One male visitor stared at him through the metal grill and the Cassowary went mental! And started violently pecking at the wire, desperate to yank the metal off and get to the guy's throat. The man was sensible and immediately legged it towards the koalas! Odd. (David: I think he was one of the keepers with some food...)Next, we went to nearby Mossman Gorge. Parking up, along with the million other cars, we then started our walk through dense woody forest towards the gorgeous Gorge that you could swim in
Coral
. (David: Luckily I'm from England, and in England I've been trained to sniff out parking spaces in seemingly full car parks. This skill came in very useful as I parked bang in the middle of the car park. The sweep of 'aha' moments on the Aussie locals faces was a picture to behold - it's good to know I've done my bit in dragging them into the modern world.) The Gorge was absolutely stunning. The boulder-strewn river flowed fast and swimmers revelled in the torrent carrying them towards the enclosed cove where people had strewn picnic blankets under shady trees. The water was crystal clear and rippling over rocks in natural beauty. Again, we had to get back on the road to head to our next destination so we didn't have time to swim. But Port Douglas and this surrounding area definitely ignited an adoration in us that we would explore much more in the future. (David: We heard a couple of days later of a flash flood flushing some people down the gorge, I don't think anyone was killed.)Our final day was only slightly marred by poor David's legs! After our rainforest boardwalk the day before, without mosquito cream on I should add, David's legs consequently turned into a profusion of chicken-pox like rash which was screamingly itchy. Midges were the culprits. Eating his skin as if it was a banquet. We went to a pharmacy to obtain some tropical itch cream which had mild anaestasia in and tons of Tea Tree Oil
David snorkelling
. It was good shit, but only on a temporary basis so when you started to rip your skin off with your nails then you had to re-apply immediately. Poor David. He was in so much pain. I also suffered but I must have some superhuman immunity. I tried to make David feel better by whinging incessantly about an itchy spot on my chin! We drove through Cairns. Nothing to report!
Our next destination: Mission Beach. Another East Coast beauty.
Love, us xxx
Comments
wowwwww
Hi guys,
This looks amazing...Aussie looks relly interesting, well certainly in terms of scenary and nature, anyways. Keep going. Just dark noght, rain, dampy, hale, more rain to report from UK.
Over and out,
Anitaxxxx David xxxx