Road trip to Port Douglas
After coming off the liveaboard we relaxed for a night in Cairns and went to PJ O’ Briens for a meal out with a voucher we had acquired from our Uncle brains tour. A meal and a drink for $9. Trust me when I say that’s cheap in Australia. Most meals are around the $15 point (£9ish). We couldn’t really argue with that. The meals were very nice and I even got a glass of sparkling wine with my meal deal. OOOOO ERRRRR
Got up early the next day to collect our hire car which we thought would be a tiny little Toyota, Hyundi i20 or something similar, but when we got there all they had left was a Hyundi i35. This car is very similar to a Nissan Quashquai or Honda CRV, which is the type of car we would like to purchase next, so we were very pleasantly surprise. We decided not to have a car for the whole time because it would work out too expensive in the long run, so after these 6 days it’ll be the Greyhound bus for us.
So off we set. It took me a while to work out that I needed to keep my left foot pressed to the floor as the car was a semi automatic which no clutch. A very interesting experience trying to get used to that. Our first destination over night was Port Douglas, but on the way we decided to stop off at Palm Cove as we heard it had a lovely beach. We really enjoyed our few hours in Palm Cove, reading our books and swimming the ocean. I still find it bizarre that the water is 28 degrees. Compared to the UK it’s like a bath tub.



After that we took a brief stop at Rex lookout which had amazing panoramic views of the mountains and beaches of the area. Have a look;


Moving swiftly on to Port Douglas we checked in at Dougies Hostel which was a little strange, to say the least. It was quite busy and seemed to be quite full of people in Australia on their working visas. Some of the people at this hostel had been living their for months either in the hostel itself or in the camping grounds at the back. It felt a bit clicky and we felt like outsiders who had intruded on their community. But the hostel facilities were pretty good despite the kitchen always being busy. There were 4 supermarket sized fridges stuffed full of cooler bags with all of the ‘residents’ food, so we struggled to keep our stuff safe and not damaged during our time here. We thought we had followed all the rules when putting our stuff in these fridges only to find out the next day our stuff had mysteriously been misplaced/nicked?
Anyway that night we went out for pizza which was very tasty and we also went for a walk along four mile beach. It was huge (4 miles – duh!) and lovely white sand. Port Douglas itself was quite expensive and it seemed to be catering for a clientele with more money to spend than your average backpacker so beware if you are looking for a cheap spot in Australia. Whilst we were eating our dinner at the Pizza place there was a table with a ‘family’ – both kids on iPads and a Mother and Father. However, turns out it wasn’t the Mum, it was the Nanny. Some of the conversation we heard from that table was interesting…. But it seemed like a lot of people had a lot of money there.
On another day we went to Hartleys crocodile adventures which was Simon’s favourite part of this area the first thing we saw upon getting there was the amazing crocodile feeding display. Massive, un-evolved powerful dinosaurs! The sound they make when snapping their jaws together can only be compared to a very loud hand clap (very loud!!!). We saw some more crocs that had gotten too big to be in with the main group and went on a boat trip to see more feeding and jumping crocs.
We fed some wallabies and kangaroo’s and I fell in love with this little Kangaroo Joey who I just wouldn’t leave alone. See the pics (many of them). I also got to have my photo taken with a Koala and Simon had his with a year and a half old saltwater crocodile which he wanted to take home. Why I have no idea?!? They also showed us the side of the business where they farm the crocs for crocodile leather and meat. Still not sure how we feel about that? All in all a great day out good value for money and would fully recommend.
(Can you see the baby Koala in the last pic?!)
The next day we started to head up to Cape Tribulation, but that’s a whole other ‘creepy crawly’ story.






















































