Day 43 (Driving distance Cairns to Port Douglas, 67 km):

Tuesday, December 10. We had two flights between day 42 and 43. Day 42 we flew from Phuket into Sydney. The flight was 8 hours and 50 minutes, or there about. As noted in our prior blog, we both slept for most of the flight. All praise be to the Lord of the Pharmacy and her divine gift of Lunesta (snarky grin).

We landed in Sydney around 10:30. We had to pass through customs, collect our bags and turn around and check them again for our flight to Cairns (pronounced ‘cans’ for all o’ ya’ll ‘Mercans. Don’t ask me where they sent the ‘r’. Ask the British where the put the cest in Worcestershire that that they pronounce ‘Worstersheer’. Hey Aussie and Brit folk, y’all speak funny unlike us ‘Mercans).

We flew into Cairns and picked up our Hertz rent-a-car around 6 PM and then drove up to our B&B in Port Douglas. We made two stops along the way, Buchans Point Beach and Rex Lookout for our first views of the beautiful Coral Sea. Something I didn’t think about or expect, there is hardly any surf throughout the area from Cairns through Port Douglas and a good bit south. I think it is because the Great Barrier Reef serves as a giant breakwater. Didn’t look that up. Speculation based on observation of the wave relations to the reef location. "Damn, son! Get some sleep. Your brain is broken."  

And so, mates, it came to pass that our adventurers endured the trials of 20+ hours of travel with courage and pluck. We went to a pub for dinner, won a pitcher of our choice by correctly being the first to solve an anagram. Couldn’t tell you what it was now. I washed that memory away with about ¾ of a pitcher of hard cider.

And then they slept like logs from trees that fell deep in the forest. I know I made a sound called snoring, whether the trees did or not, well, I just couldn't say. Perhaps Schroedinger knows.

Day 44:

Wednesday, December 11 was a super lazy day. Faith wasn’t feeling the greatest, so she slept. Remember that bad meal I mentioned in the last blog? Doh! I alternated between swimming at the pool, doing a bit of blogging, and walking around town in Port Douglas.

I couldn’t tell you what I had for lunch, it was such a random day. For a couple of hours in mid-afternoon, I sat in a pizza place with the laptop plugged in and connected to the Wi-Fi. Their garlic cheese crust was yummy.

Day 45 (Daintree rainforest drive182 km):

Having a car while on vacation can be superb. Faith was somewhat better this day so we decided to chance it. We did a nice road trip into the Daintree Rainforest. This is the oldest continuously living rainforest in the world according to science claims. Something along the lines of 180 million years. I can’t vouch for it. I can vouch that it was stunningly beautiful.

We followed a common tour company route. We left about 8:30 and visited Mossman Gorge, The Daintree Discovery Centre, at lunch at Cape Tribulation, visited Cape Tribulation beach, the Mardja Botanical Walk at Oliver Creek, the Daintree Ice Cream Company and back to our hotel.

Mossman Gorge is known for a suspension foot bridge over the Mossman River. Some vandals had done some damage to the bridge and that section of the trails was closed. We took a shorter boardwalk that looked over the edge of the boulder strewn river.

I took a short wade in the river. I was surprised that it wasn’t freezing cold. I had expected it to be the typical snow runoff river we get in the mountains near Seattle. It is a rain runoff river and was probably close to 70 degrees (21 C). Not warm by any stretch, but not the typical icy mountain river I have experienced.

The Daintree Discovery Centre is on the north side of the Daintree River. We crossed the river on a cable-drawn ferry/barge. The river is filled with crocodiles though we didn’t see any. It was a bit creepy crossing on that tiny little barge.

The Discovery Centre is fabulous. It has elevated walkways that pass at different levels of the rainforest. The lowest level is right near the forest floor. The highest level that is above the treetops is reached via a sky tower in the middle of the complex. They gave us audio guides and a map for all the different walkways.

Dotted along the walkways were signs explaining the different visible plants and some of the animals that frequent the area. We spent about an hour at the Centre before the inevitable—rain in the rainforest. Surprise and shock. Silly us. We left our ponchos in the car. We got soaked before we could get to some umbrellas. Soaked at 80+ degrees outside. It was rough, but we managed.

We stopped off for a bite to eat in Cape Tribulation before heading to the beach. We were really hoping to see cassowaries. A cassowary is a bird that is larger than a turkey and smaller than an Emu generally speaking. They have a bald head and a large bony-looking crown. They say they can get upwards of around 180 pounds. That’s a big bird. But we were denied. Robbed. Skunked. No birdie-birds. It was a pleasant beach just the same.

The Mardja Botanical Walk is a boardwalk that winds through a rainforest creek/swamp area. Along the path were little signs similar to the Discovery Center. No audio. Just the beautiful sounds of birds, wind through the trees and the occasional visitor. We walked the path in reverse. A big group of young folks we had seen at the Cape Tribulation Beach arrived just before us. They were a bigger and rowdier than we were interested in dealing with. So, they went the forward way, and we went the reverse way. And we passed happily somewhere in the middle, goggling at white and green mud crabs.

Our final stop before returning to Port Douglas was the Daintree Ice Cream Company for a welcome respite from the heat and the humidity. Trust me when I say 85/85 is hot. 85 degrees and 85 percent humidity. 85/90 is even worse, as it was shortly after the cloudburst we had at the Discovery Centre. Not complaining. We had AC and we had ice cream.

Day 46 (Port Douglas to Cairns south of the airport, 74 km):

As we headed out of town for Cairns, we drove up to Flagstaff hill for a lookout along Four Mile Beach. We never made it to the beach in person while we were in Port Douglas. We were focused on Daintree and just chilling at the hotel. Pretty beach, at least from Flagstaff hill.

We had one super important stop to make on our way to Cairns. I had read about this place as a great spot to see them. You know, them. The little furry hopper things 😉Near Trinity beach, there is a place called Marlin Coast Bowls Club for lawn bowling and a place called Trinity Beach Sports Club. Between there to is a weed-strewn field. And in the field, right there in between the clubs are dozens of wallabies. Right there in the field. Just...just...right there. In the field. Wild. Wallabies.

I mean, we had to stop. It is the law. If you don’t stop, you go straight to Aussie traveler’s purgatory for 27 years, 53 days and three hours. Purgatory, I tell you. Well, I’m not going to purgatory even if the alternative is that I have to look at a bunch of flea-bitten, furry little…aren’t they just the cutest little things?

After being forced to look at the wallabies (it was brutal) we were too early to check into our hotel. So, we went to the Cairns Art Gallery. It was mostly textiles. Not really my cup of tea but it was okay. If you are into that sort of thing, I suspect it would have been super nice. The building is vintage and very nice.

After the gallery, we made a quick stop at a medical clinic. Faith was still feeling poorly from her meal on the prior Sunday. It was time for a fix. Given that we would be leaving town on Sunday to head further down the coastline, the doctor gave her some hardcore gut antibiotics (she felt significantly better within a day).

We checked into our hotel and went for a walk along the Esplanade admiring the beautiful trees.

Day 47:

Saturday, Faith hung out in Cairns doing some shopping, relaxing and recovering, while I went scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. It was…well…great. We went to Norman Reef and Hastings Reef. The Barrier Reef is spectacular. The colors and variety of the coral are mind-blowing. I did two dives of a little over 50 minutes each with a group of four other people and our dive master. The other folks were all from Germany, though they didn’t know each other before the dive tour.

I used Diver’s Den for this trip. It was a much smaller boat with way fewer people diving. It was beautiful like nothing I have seen underwater before. One interesting note. As wide a variety of coral as there was, there seemed to be a smaller variety of fish and other sea creatures. That didn’t diminish the experience. I just found it interesting that in Phi Phi Islands where there was significantly less coral, there seemed to be a greater variety of animals like sharks, turtles and eels.

Please believe me when I say that the observation is not a detraction from the experience. The Reef was phenomenal. The water was reasonably clear, and the dives were great fun.  

When I got back to the hotel, I was dog tired. We went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant that was recommended by James and Sab (the fellows we met on the dinner cruise in Zimbabwe). The place was called Samgasat Thai. They served northern Thai food like in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. The Kow soy chicken curry was the same curry dish I had in Chiang Rai. The only difference was the place in Chiang Mai also included cooked egg noodles in the dish, not just the crispy noodles on top that they had at Samgasat. It was delicious.

I was so tired when we got back to the hotel that I struggled to stay awake. I was in a post-dive, long-busy-day fog until I finally crashed around 10:30 PM. I think Faith was glad when I went to sleep (Mr. Crabpot may have been used at some point in the evening as an endearing and thoughtful moniker for yours truly).

- See you on Magnetic Island -