Greg and Deb’s Circumnavigation of Australia Day 29. Port Douglas Day 1. 6 June.
We landed in Cairns at 6am, but we couldn’t get our hire car until 8am, so there was no rush. It took a little time for our bags to appear. It was interesting watching the customs dog check out all the luggage, both carry-on and checked-in. Once we had our bags we went through customs with nothing to declare and were out around 6:45am.
We eventually worked out that our hire car pick-up point was over in the domestic terminal, so we took a 400m stroll over there.
There were a couple of people working at our hire car desk, but they couldn’t help us yet, no cars were ready.
We went and got some breakfast, and while we were finishing up a woman from the hire car desk came over and said our car was ready.
I had ordered a mystery car, for a significantly reduced price you get whatever spare car they have, today, this was A BIG ORANGE FORD UTE!! Lol.
It’s a bit different to drive but went well and was reasonably comfortable. After checking the car over and sorting out the sat-nav, we hit the road.
The highway up to Port Douglas was smashed last year with landslides and wash-outs during a couple of cyclones. They are still trying to repair it, there are quite a few sections of just one lane for both North and South traffic to share. The normal easy hour drive took nearly 1.5hrs, but we got here.
Our Airbnb Beach Shack is a small white cottage at the end of a road, right on the beach. It’s literally less than10m to the beach from our “front” door!!
We did a quick unpack, and then rested. Deb was done, 6 hrs sleep in 2 days apparently isn’t enough any more. She put herself to bed and was out in no time.
I headed to the shop and got some provisions to get us started. The local IGA is a 5 min drive away.
I got back put the things away and got an hour or so sleep on the lounge.
After we both woke, we had a quiet afternoon finishing with a walk along the beach as the last of the sunset did its thing, very picturesque.
Steak and salad for tea, a welcome change, and then a quiet, early night.
Greg and Deb’s Circumnavigation of Australia Day 30. Port Douglas Day 2. 7 June.
A day of rest, this holidaying caper takes its toll on you!
We did all our washing and sorted our stuff out a bit.
Late in the afternoon we went for a walk along the beach at around sunset. We noticed there was a small bird standing in the water right at the edge where the waves wash up to. It didn’t look well, one of its wings dropped into the water and it struggled to get it back up. I went over to check it out, I put my hand out and it didn’t flinch, so I gently picked it up, and held it to me. It was soaking wet and shivering. I took it up the beach and put it down at the start of the “dune” area. Hopefully it will dry out and get some energy, at least it has a chance up there verses none in the water.
We had fish and chips, with salad for tea. It was very tasty.
Greg and Deb’s Circumnavigation of Australia Day 31. Port Douglas Day 3. 8 June.
I woke around 8am, Deb had been up for a short while. We had breakfast, a shower and then managed to get away and out exploring around 11:00am
We went up to the Mossman markets in the morning, Deb almost got some tea-towels, but the lady didn’t have a pattern Deb liked, but she will have them at the Port Douglas markets tomorrow.
From there we took a drive up to Mossman Gorge. Gee that place has changed in the last 20 years. Big car park out the front of a large visitors centre. It’s never a good sign when suv car parks are full! The only practical way to get to the Gorge now is by shuttle bus, full of people. I guess you could call us Covid Shy these days! We decided not to go up to it.
We drove back to Port Douglas, and had lunch at a bakery, and had a bit of a walk around. It was fairly busy in town. We walked to the recommended Seafood Shop and got some fresh local prawns and barramundi. From there we went to the recommended Ice-cream/Gelato shop. We both got a cup, and sat outside and ate it, they were good.
Then headed to the IGA for a few more provisions before heading back to the shack for a relaxing afternoon.
Greg and Deb’s Circumnavigation of Australia Day 32. Port Douglas Day 3. 9 June.
I woke around 6:45am, Deb had been up since 5am. I opened the curtains a beautiful sunrise was in the process of opening our day. We both went out to take it in, I think it was the best sunrise we have seen for sometime.
After we had breakfast and then headed out a bit before 9am, we still don’t know how we got out so early!!, and headed into the Port Douglas Market.
We had a list of the recommended best things at the market, and managed to check all of them off. Our haul included some hot twiggy sticks from The Port Douglas Smokehouse, some Rosemary and Salt Focaccia from Grand Impero, some “holes” from Dukes Donuts and a tea towel.
We then head off south for a walk along the coast to a lookout over Four Mile Beach.
It was a good walk, I probably should have worn shoes rather than thongs. We got a great view down over the beach and to our little Beach Shack.
We then walked back along the road, through the market and back to our “truck”.
We had a quiet afternoon, I watched a few people set-up and go outside surfing. One of them looked a bit out of control. Still later, I noticed a kite surf at least 1 to 2 km off shore!
We had bbq Bara and salad for dinner, delicious. While we were prepping, we had a visit from a jumper wearing, Jack Russel cross, he just walked straight into the shack, lol. I guided him outside and he soon took off.
An hour or 2 after dark we went outside to look at the stars. There are so many visible, the Milky Way is so bright. We always love the night sky when you get away from the big city lights
That ended our day.
Greg and Deb’s Circumnavigation of Australia Day 33. Port Douglas Day 4. 10 June.
Another beautiful sunny morning to wake up to, still doing it tough in our Shack in paradise!
We booked a reef and rainforest helicopter flight for tomorrow morning, no wait, unexpected maintenance required, rescheduled for Wednesday morning. (winning twice – chopper newly serviced and our preferred day).
Our plan for the day,…….. another lazy day in and around our Shack on the beach. Tough , we know.
Around 4pm we jumped in The Truck, and headed south down to Yule Point, about 10km from us. It was suggested to us by our Airbnb host to go down there at low tide. It is an expanse of sandbanks and mangroves. More sandbank than mangrove, but really worth the visit.
The foreshores here are very shallow, so the 50cm variation in tide was enough to reveal a vast area of heavily rippled sandbanks.
There were lots of indications of the local inhabitants, crabs (including Hermit Crabs) and worms.(Lug Worms), hundreds/thousands of them. Was truly amazing.
The crab casting are small balls of sand, and they are everywhere, but every now and then there is an outlier, and they form amazing patterns.
The Lug Worms form small mounds resembling spaghetti with a hole in the middle, really interesting.
We walked around on the sandbank for some time. We had to cross a small watercourse to get to the ocean, I was in thongs and Deb wore shoes, so I piggybacked here across, both ways. We laughed so much! Deb wanted to get a picture of us doing this but that was a crazy idea and just brought on more laughs as she tried in vain.
We stayed until about 30mins after sunset, the colours weren’t as good as we had hoped but still very special.
Deb took a liking to a small mangrove tree that stood out alone at a bit of a distance from us, so photogenic.
We were so glad we made the effort to go there.
Greg and Deb’s Circumnavigation of Australia Day 34. Port Douglas Day 5. 11 June.
Our (my) day started a little after 7am, I missed the sunrise but still got some nice pictures.
Around 8am I got a call from our Helicopter people. Our chopper wasn’t going to be ready/fixed in time for our flight on Wednesday, but they offered us an ”upgrade” to a larger helicopter, 6 seater, at roughly the same time tomorrow. We will be sharing with another couple. All good, glad we can still do the ride.
Around 11am we went into town. Our first call was at the other end of Four Mile Beach. We both thought we got to stay at the best end of the beach. We could see roughly where our Shack was, a long way away. From there we drove into town and parked on Wharf St opposite where the market had been. We walked down along Macrossan St, had lunch at a bakery, called into a gift shop (not much in it) and got some things from the supermarket before we headed back to the Shack for a relaxing afternoon.
Our plan was fish and chips for dinner, I drove down to the local shop only to find it had closed for the day at 4pm. Note to selves, read the signs closely, the detail counts. Luckily we had cheeses in the fridge, we had soon made up a delicious cheese plate for dinner.
We had just finished dinner when we heard a strange noise coming from the kitchen, the fridge to be exact. We got up and there was water streaming from behind the fridge. I went outside to turn the water off but couldn’t budge the tap. So we eventually pulled the fridge out from the cupboard to find the water hose to the fridge had failed. I turned the valve off and then we began to de-water the bathroom and toilet. Seems the floor has a slope towards the rear of the cottage. Any ways, we swept the water out, dried up what we could and were back on the lounge 40 minutes later. Deb had let our host know of the issue in the middle of all that. No apparent damage done.
Greg and Deb’s Circumnavigation of Australia Day 34. Port Douglas Day 6. 12 June.
Arrived for helicopter flight at about 8:40am
Another couple, Welsh, doing flight with us.
At about 8:55a we were told our helicopter had a fault and that they were flying a replacement up from Cairns and so a 30 min delay.
So this will be the 4th different helicopter we have been assigned to!
We were taken to the Mirage Resort to wait. But then, ….. Pushed out to closer to 9:50am start. No offer of coffee or anything for the inconvenience.
Meanwhile, Deb was off wandering the resort, I sent her a message to ask where she was, and I got this text from her ” I’m not a chair ….” , I thought, OK, I can go with that!! 🙂
We were eventually collected at about 9:35am and taken to the helipad across the road.
We took off at 9:50am and headed inland over the hillside forests. We flew up over Mossman, followed the river and gorge inland and then north and turned east as we crossed over the lower edges of the Daintree.
This is a globally significant point, the only place on earth where two natural world heritage sites meet, The Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.
Cyclone Jasper, went through this area late last year had devastating effect. Before there was only 1 landslide visible in the hinterland, now there are 100’s.
We caught sight of the peak of a mountain (the pilot said it was the 2nd highest in Queensland, but that Mt is south of Cairns) so we will call this one Mount “Questionable”, but it was poking its head above the clouds.
And then it was out over the seas and towards the Great Barrier Reef, a small portion of its 2300km length. We were told that the reef supports 10% of worlds fish population. As we flew over it, the water was about 1.5m deep on reef at this tide and descended to about 30m just away from it, and to around 2km+ deep at Continental shelf some 10km further out.
When the coral is under stress it initially turns purple, then in extreme cases white.
Landed at the Port Douglas light aircraft field at about 1050.am. We had to go here so the helicopter could refuel. We were then shuttled back to the departure helipad.
We both agreed that we were underwhelmed by the flight. On reflection we wouldn’t have done the flight over the rainforest, and now we have done the flight over the reef we don’t need to do that again. A bucket list tick, but not a memorable one.
From there we went to have a look around the Port Douglas cemetery. We do this every now and then, when it looks interesting. And this one lived up to expectation. There was one headstone that stood out from the others, it told a story of “treacherous murder”, not something you see very often.
There were others that told of accidental drownings, tramway deaths and the inevitable tragedy of families loosing children.
We got back to the Shack and a plumber had been to fix the cause of last nights drama. That will be a memorable event for this holiday.
We had lunch and settled in for our last relaxing afternoon in Port Douglas.
Greg and Deb’s Circumnavigation of Australia Day 35. Port Douglas Day 7. 13 June.
We got up in time to see our last Port Douglas sunrise for a while. It was beautiful.
Leisurely breakfast, final pack etc and we had left The Shack by 8:50am
The drive to the airport was pretty easy. The roadwork’s didn’t hold us up too long. With a quick fuel stop we had checked in and were through security etc by 10:45am.
Our plane started boarding a little late, about 12pm, it arrived late.
And so it left late, around 12:40pm. We landed at 3:20pm.
We did well again. No one in the seat between us. That makes for a comfortable economy flight. While Deb had a window seat, we some how managed again for her to get the “windowless” window seat!!
The flight was uneventful, just the way we like them.
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