Tuesday 26th February 2019 - to Port Douglas

We had just a few hours this morning before getting to the airport to go north, so decided that we would walk across the harbour bridge. First of all we had to find how to get onto it, which was a bit interesting with all the different road and path levels, but we made it! Once on the bridge you get different views of everything and we were heading over to Kirribilli which was unfamiliar territory. The view over to the opera house was a bit dominated by a cruise ship that was moored up in Circular Quays. It was huge! You could count 8 floors with balcony’s and then there were more above and below. We could even see a climbing wall!!

As a passenger I might have felt a bit gutted to have got this far and then not sailed under the bridge. So near yet so far!!

The bridge was built between 1923 and 1932, costing over £10 million, and is constructed of steel. It is 1149m long.

Breakfast in Kirribilli, which was a rather nice neighbourhood area, was followed by a return walk to our hotel to check out ready for the trip to the airport. The late breakfast was also to assist with probably not getting lunch because of the timing of the flight. A shrewd move as it turned out! However, Virgin Australia did provide a snack on board. We were really surprised and nearly missed out on it as we weren’t expecting anything and had just asked for water. 🙄 Note to self to remember next time, and all the other times we are flying with them on this trip!

And so we arrived in Cairns and were driven north for an hour to Port Douglas. It was a pleasant drive through some rain forest and then following the coast road. At one point there were loads of wallaby’s just chomping away on the grass. Our driver told us that there had been really heavy rainfall over the last 2 weeks in parts of Queensland resulting in severe flooding and the loss of thousands of cattle who couldn’t get away from the flood waters. This comes after a long drought so is really tough for the farmers.

Our hotel here is small, as is Port Douglas and it is really exciting to have taken our decent clothes out of our suitcases and put them in drawers or hung them up. The first time in almost 6 weeks!! The walking gear has stayed put and as that takes up most room unpacking was quick and easy! There are also some clothes that have not been worn - warmer things for Hong Kong and New Zealand which weren’t needed. There is also a laundry here which again is exciting. We can move on again with clean clothes! All I need now is a hairdresser to tidy up my mop of hair and I’ll be fine!

So, here we are, in the tropics, and you know what that means? Nasty things like crocodiles, insects, snakes etc!! New Zealand had none of these challenges. You could walk through long grass, bop behind trees if necessary, walk across the grass at night, without worry. As it was about 6pm before we arrived we decided to have dinner at the restaurant here. It overlooks the water and it was delightfully warm to sit outside. We had a tasty dinner of fish - maybe mali mali, but caught out on the reef - and were sitting having a coffee when Geoff says “ I think I just saw a snake” Look of horror 👀 crosses my face! ”Where?” I reply. “Just out there, it crossed the path” he says. (There was about 3yards away!!) We then spent the next 10 minutes staring into the darkness, looking at concrete! Give me fruit bats any day!!

On leaving the restaurant, not via the path outside, but back into the hotel, 😅, I asked the staff if we really might have seen what Geoff thought he had seen. “Oh yes”, they confidently reply! 🤦‍♀️ Probably a tree snake. More around at the moment escaping from all the wet. Great! They say they don’t come into the hotel or the pool area so I don’t need to check under the bed at night, or do I?

I hope you are all highly amused at this little discourse. Just remember I might not like snakes but I did survive Costa Rica that has 120 varieties, and there I spotted the yellow, black speckled pit viper, and didn’t go into a blind panic!!

You will now all be on the edge of your seats, waiting for the next edition!