Port Douglas & Cairns

Saturday, 14 July 2018

Port Douglas

Beach babes

St Mary's by the Sea Church

Blowing up a mine

Lady Douglas

Tough at the Top

Old pearl lugger

Crocodile

Cairns Indigenous Art Fair

Cairns Aquarium

Blue yabby

Sawfish and barramundi

Cute turtle

Tunnel view

Green snake

Up close and personal

Golden orb spider

Another crocodile (about the same size as the first!)

Fish

More crocodiles (same size as all the others)

Reef watching

Spotty stingray

Bright pink starfish

Nemo and friends

Hermit crab

Only its mother would love this stone fish

Shark watching

Under the aquarium

The big picture

Happy Bastille Day to all the French people.

Last Wednesday we farewelled to Jenny and Brian in the morning and welcomed Kathryn in the afternoon, with her staying until next Thursday.

Thursday was a day of catching up, some pampering, with Kathryn experiencing her first (and definitely not her last!) massage, checking out the menu at Movenpick and some retail therapy.  We enjoyed dinner at Cazaly’s and Kathryn was most disappointed not to increase her spending capacity although Himself once again added to the washing machine money!

With clear, blue skies and no breeze on Friday, we headed to Port Douglas, stopping first at Four Mile Beach, along with more than half the tourists currently in the region.  Such a beautiful beach made even better by the weather.  Following a walk along the sand, we returned to the car and headed to the lookout over the beach and town, before beginning the search for a car parking space.  It didn’t take too long to do the shops, although Kathryn did get rather excited in the Greg Norman Outlet, and after lunch we walked to the marina and boarded the Lady Douglas for a cruise down the river.  We were welcomed on board with a glass of bubbly each, followed by a good selection of fruit and nibbles as we cruised passed the “white boats” (expensive cruisers) and kept a close lookout for crocodiles when we reached the mangroves.  The captain spotted a couple (no one else seemed to see them) before he saw a large crocodile on the mud immediately before a small fishing charter boat sped past us and scared the crocodile.  When the same boat came up to us later and was forced to slow down by the position of our boat, our captain left the offending fishermen in no doubt as to his displeasure!!!  We were lucky enough to see a small crocodile, about 1 metre long, sunny itself, before we headed out to the head of the river with views of the cold sugar wharf and St Mary’s by the Sea Church.

Today, with the weather continuing in the same vein, we visited the annual Cairns Indigenous Art Fair and admired some beautiful work before wandering around the weekly Esplanade Market.  The highlight of the day was without doubt our visit to the new Cairns Aquarium – definitely the best we have visited.  We commenced the tour in the freshwater section and were lucky enough to have our visit coincide with a presentation on the fish in the large freshwater aquarium (predominantly barramundi, but with a freshwater sawfish as a highlight) before we viewed the many smaller exhibits, including snakes and spiders.  The saltwater aquarium was massive, with us able to walk through tunnels in order to obtain the full experience.  The small crocodiles were being fed headless mice as we watched and after pretending we didn’t really want to pat any of the fish in the petting tank, we crawled under the reef to get a closer view of the very pretty spotted stingrays.  Unfortunately, the dim blue lighting didn’t help with photography.