Port Douglas

THURSDAY, 4 AUGUST 2016

Perched on a mine

Old Wharf

Another selfie

Under the shade of a large palm tree

Church

Port Douglas beach

Coastline from Rex Lookout

Looking for a paying passenger

Friendship rocks

A full week has somehow past and we now have less than four weeks remaining in Cairns.

Last Friday evening, we joined James and Maureen for dinner at the Cairns RSL – such a beautiful setting on a balmy evening (well, all evenings tend to be balmy).  Being good supporters of the RSL, both men bought tickets in the Friday raffle and Les was very excited with his meat tray win and James just muttered!  We did invite James and Maureen to share the pork chops with us, though.

Apart from a visit to our friendly Korean masseuses on Saturday and the kindly gentleman at Movenpick, the weekend was fairly quiet, with some long walks to help the ice cream guilt.  We enjoyed a lovely dinner on our deck on Sunday night, with the meat provided by us and the salads by Maureen, followed by a lemon drizzle cake for dessert.  The table looked very nice, with its hand embroidered tablecloth, matching crockery and cutlery, and small table lanterns.  The men cooked the meat to perfection, as well.

Monday, I was able to appreciate my birthday massage present from David and his family – how quickly an hour passes!   The weather continues to be very hot and humid: even the locals are complaining about not having a proper “winter!”  Unfortunately, neither of us were lucky enough to win a prize at bowls on Tuesday evening.

Yesterday we headed north along the beautiful, scene coastline to Port Douglas and spent a few hours wandering through the shops on both sides of the street and people watching.  Being a holiday resort town, the people who are out and about are very different from the ones we normally see in Cairns.  There are a lot of hippies (as opposed to international backpackers) and a lot of ladies who, unfortunately, seem to think that lots of heavy make-up, over-the-top jewellery and very bright clothes will make them look fifty years younger.  We also wandered along the foreshore and spent some time enjoying the soft breeze blowing off the Coral Sea.  The church, with its large picture window, looked like it was worth a visit, but a funeral beat us to it.  On our return journey, we stopped at the Rex Lookout for a photo of the coastline and the hang gliders (compulsory stop) before continuing south and keeping an eye out for the friendship rocks.  A couple of weeks ago when we drove this route, we came across a rocky beach with hundreds of “friendship piles” but unfortunately, somebody has taken great delight in knocking them all done, with one a few surviving now.  Perhaps they are starting to be rebuilt.