Not a happy camper....

Port Douglas 4 mile Beach

It turns out that Cairns is not all it is made out to be so we kept on going. We booked a rental car for 3 days and took off on a road trip north. First stop was Port Douglas and all of the beaches in between the two locations. I loveeeed this town. It reminds me a lot of Newport Beach/OC where we go on fam vacations a lot. It was a very resort tourist town. We got there on a Wednesday afternoon and headed straight for 4 mile beach. It was so pretty! Mountains as far as you can see. We decided we were feeling adventurous so we camped out for three days. Well, at least as much camping out as we were up for. There were tents; however, we had access to a bathroom and there were beds in it. After checking in we headed down to the Yacht Club. Apparently on Wednesday afternoon if you go down to the club around 4:30 for happy hour members take you out on their sail boats. I suppose this is a way to get business to the bar. We headed down there and of course our luck out of nowhere it gets really windy and rains; therefore no one got to go out on the boats :(. We ended up enjoying the pretty marine with some glasses of wine before retiring really early to our tent. We both fell asleep at about 7 and woke up at about 10 pm wide awake. We decided it was as good of time and any to do laundry so we trek out around the bush to start a load of laundry. Out of nowhere headed straight as us is this little creature that looks something like an oversized hamster like the size of a small cat. We saw one in the zoo and was saying how cute the little fellow was. Not so cute when he is coming out around your tent headed at you. Needless to say after a little shrieking and running I was a little skidish around the tent from then on. Actually the tent was one of the best night’s sleep I got… until about 9 am when it turns into a sauna! Apparently we get the morning sun and it goes from upper 60s to about 95 degrees in there in no time. Not cool (no pun intended). Thursday we headed north to Cape Tribulation and Daintree Rainforest. First stop along the way was a Crocodile Spotting boat ride on the Daintree River. I must say, although I am terrified of crocs I was a bit disappointed when we only got to see one guy the whole time. At one point on our croc spotting adventure, ole tour guide states to look in the bush to the right of us because there are always big crocs around there. Getting us real close for a good look…. We get stuck. He tells us there is no need to panic; however, the look on his face says something completely different. We get to move from side to side on the boat to shift the weight. He then proceeds to tell us that it’s going to be ok in his 10 years of giving these tours this did happen once before and the guests had to wade to shore. Now I don’t know WHAT this kid was thinking because he is going to have to get out and push the boat before I get in the water after he just told us this location is where all the large crocodiles hang out. No worries though, after moving from the front of the boat then to the middle we eventually got unstuck. On we went after the River cruise to several different hiking trails throughout the rainforest. One of the walks was known to have the large Cassowary birds all around it. These are actually the deadiest birds because of their large claws. Good news is that we got to see one in the zoo and not on our hike. Anne however did have her pepper spray on hand just in case. I told her I thought it might be frowned upon to pepper spray an endangered species, but we never encountered anything so we were good to go. Next we headed up to Cape Tribulation and hiked a bit where the beach, Great Barrier Reef, and rain forest all comes together. We played on the beach for a while here and Anne and I made a new friend. Literally, we made a new friend—her name is Sandy and she is pictured down at the bottom. After playing in huts, with coconuts, climbing palm trees, etc we decided to get back on the road to head back down to Port Douglas before dust. We decided to make dinner Aussie style on the Barbie outside the tent. We have actually learned how to budget very well. The best way is to buy the discounted food that expires that same day—still tastes good and ½ the price! After cooking out we headed out for the night seeing as though there is not too much to do sitting in a tent especially because we have now spent three weeks together and it’s not like there is any catching up to be done. Saturday morning we awoke similar to the day before BURNING alive. We put on our swimsuits and headed across the street to sleep the day away on the beach. Half of the time I just spent looking at the beautiful scenery. The pictures don’t do it justice. The mountains extend as far as you can see. Decided dinner turned out so good last night that we would do the same again tonight. Then off to attempt to get ready for the night. I am pretty certain that we were the only 2 people or EVER in the campground that we were staying that had to take turns teasing each other’s hair with the aerosol hairspray in the tent because there was no mirror therefore couldn’t see to do anything yourself. Then off we went out for the night to see some Cane Toad races. If you ever have the opportunity to watch one of these please do—VERY entertaining. Toads are put in the middle of the table and “whips” (birthday horns) are used to make them jump. The goal is to get your toad to jump off the table the fastest, catch it, run over and put it in the bucket on the other side of the bar. I guess we look like new kids to the toad races because the announcer made us “VIP” for the night and got to sit on the stage, get free drinks, and mentioned our name about 30 times throughout the night. Anne got to be the writer on stage and keep track of the contestants. I feel as though we jinxed ourselves for the last night in the tent. Before bed we were saying how much we liked it and went to sleep. I woke up at 6 in the morning to a downpour. I thought to myself how relaxing then I realized it sounded more like a waterfall. I popped out of the bed to see our flooded tent and water pouring into it. I headed out in the bush in the pouring down rain to try and re tie the front part to prevent water from leaking. We finally got it stopped for a couple more hours of sleep. I was drenched, my clothes were all soaking wet, the majority of the stuff on the floor was wet and I was NOT a happy camper to say the least. This morning we woke up, headed in the rental car back to Cairns to get on a greyhound and head to Mission Beach. Anne got a job here for the next three months as an activities coordinator. We arrived an hour late because apparently the greyhound people do not know how to stay on a schedule. I dropped off my stuff in my room. Anne and I are in different places now because she is with the staff and I am with 6 other people. I was not thrilled however to find the room feels like an OVEN and there is no air conditioning so this should be interesting. I went to the front desk to ask where town was because I love wandering around cities and they said the grocery store was the city center and it closes at 5 and was not opened on Sunday. I am thinking this is serious small town! Especially because there is no cell phone service and our broadband internet will not work here! Oh well! Instead I put on the tennis shoes and went for a run on the beach which was probably much needed anyway! Looking forward to tomorrow to get to go exploring. Pictures are as follows: 1. Port Douglas 2. Between Cairns and Port Douglas on a lookout 3. Our tent 4. Sandy 5. Cape Tribulation 6. Daintree Rainforest 7. Cane Toad Races