Chapter 14 - Port Douglas

We were met in Cairns by a driver who took us to Port Douglas. We’re here to see the Great Barrier Reef, and our stay is at “By the Sea” guest apartments overlooking the Coral Sea.
Port Douglas was ranked No. 3 on Australian Traveller magazine's list of 100 Best Towns in Australia, and it’s obvious why. This is the quintessential tropical paradise with coconut palms lining the white sand beaches. It’s not jellyfish season yet, so we can even go in the water which is warm, warm, warm!

Where we had to deal with 98° days in Darwin, here it’s a pleasant mid 80s. Our driver told us that there are wallabies, wild pigs, and dingoes in the area.

And lots of tropical birds, of which we have seen many already. And of course, there are crocodiles that come out of the estuary next to Port Douglas, which is itself a peninsula.

The driver also took one look at us and told us the story of the old American hippie who recently tried to sleep on the beach, and was only saved because the disappointed crocodile ended up with only his sleeping bag.

Flames of the Forest
We enjoyed an aboriginal dinner show, Flames of the Forest, in the tropical
rainforest. We were surrounded by plants that we are used to seeing only in terrariums. We were served typical Australian cuisine, including kangaroo, emu and barramundi. This was accompanied by a fascinating didgeridoo lesson and performance by brothers of the Kuku Yalanji people. They told us a Dreamtime story that we were asked to pass on. It’s about a duck who felt unhappy staying in her small home pond and set off to wander enjoying her freedom immensely. She came to rest unwittingly on the home of a river rat, a natural duck enemy. But this rat was so lonely that he began to court the duck. They married and had children who looked like…duck-billed platypuses! When the duck took the children back to visit her family, they were ridiculed. So she went back into the rainforest to raise them. This how the platypus came to be according to this thousands-year old Yalanji Dreamtime story. And the funny thing is…well, Google the evolution of the platypus yourself! Of course our retelling does not have the dramatic didgeridoo interludes, but we promised to pass it on and so we have. Now it’s your turn!

Port Douglas, Day 2: the Reef

With a sunny day forecasted, we donned our suits and slathered reef safe sunblock for our day trip on the Quicksilver catamaran which is how old people see the Great Barrier Reef nowadays. We’ve found that our snorkeling stamina has diminished the last few attempts so for this king of reefs we chose a company that has its own platform on the outer Agincourt Reef. This means provided Lycra suits (in case of stinger jellyfish), full snorkeling gear, a submerged platform and even guide wires for beginners!

Oh boy! No more jumping off the side of a boat or clambering back up!

And the reef! Simply stunning!

The marine biologist onboard told us that the reef contains about 1,500 species of fish and it seemed like we saw all of them!

There are also about 400 different corals and 10,000 species of sponges, which is mind boggling! The coral has been making a comeback in the area we were exploring. We saw very little bleached corals.

Six of the world’s 7 species of sea turtles are around but we missed them. ??

Port Douglas, Day 3
On day 32 of our trip, it finally rained! We had to use umbrellas to get to breakfast at a seafront open air but well-covered restaurant. But half way through our eggs and waffles the sun came out. This is good, because we had a visit to Kuranda Village planned.
But first—the curlews. We have seen the long billed curlew in Texas and considered their sightings exciting because they are elusive birds. There are also curlews in Australia and they’re not easy to find here either. But they are very easy to hear. In the middle of the night we were awakened by a murderous screaming! And then two and three! We were told the next day that those were bush stone-curlews and we’d be treated to this serenade every night!
We traveled up to Kuranda by a 7.5 km Skyrail that took us just

above the rainforest canopy. The trees were full of ferns, including a huge staghorn fern, a type we had on our wall in Warren when we first got married.

Kuranda village is up in the rainforest and was originally built to accommodate gold rush days. Nowadays, it is a place for tourists to see koalas, wallabies, native birds, and butterflies.

The koala/wallaby encounter held a lot of sleeping koalas. The warden/ranger/girl working there bought out one that was awake. Or at least its eyes were open. We thought sloths were slow. These little cuties may have them beat.

The wallabies were a different story. They hopped back-and-forth, brushing our legs, and yet pretty oblivious to us. We may have been just a food dispenser to them.
Australia has so many cute animals, and many of these were babies which pushed the cute-o- meter off the charts.

The bird aviary was awesome. As we entered, the ticket-taker warned us about our rings, because they are shiny which attracts the lorikeets and parrots. But it was Joe‘s hat that attracted the most attention. Somehow the bird knew that the button on top of the hat was shiny underneath its canvas covering. So it worked on that button until it ripped the cloth off and sure enough there was happy shininess! This took about 30 seconds! We were afraid that it was going to actually eat the button, but it was really hard getting that bird off the hat! That took another 30 seconds —probably more.
They had a beautiful cassowary, a very endangered bird that looks a lot like a very fancy emu. His coloring was amazing. In fact, all the birds were so colorful. Pink, green, blue, red, yellow.

We stopped for lunch at Frog’s where we had a Sri Lankan dal curry with naan. Yum!

The butterfly encounter we almost skipped because time was getting short. But we figured a quick trip through would have to do. And we’re glad we did. Another riot of color! The lady who sold us the ticket, gave us a paper with butterfly attractant on it. She said no guarantees —they don’t always land. We weren’t two feet into the exhibit before three butterflies landed right on the bullseye!

One of the most unusual butterflies we saw was the largest one in Australia called the Cairns Birdwing. It was green and black and so beautiful it makes one want to sprout wings.

While we came up the mountain using the 7.5 km Skyrail Rainforest Cable car that took approximately 20 minutes, to travel back down we boarded the Kuranda scenic railway that took an hour and a half. This included a Kodak moment where the train stopped at the Barron Falls and gorge. The train was an old fashioned, narrow gauge, and we enjoyed beverages and a snack of cheese, crackers, and a spicy dip while envisioning gold rushers packed in traveling back and forth between boom towns. They probably didn’t have many koala cuddles or wallaby encounters back then.

Back in Port Douglas we had a nice leisurely Italian dinner, and then went back to our room to pack. We have an early flight tomorrow to Uluru and booked transport for pickup at 4:14 am…

…which never showed up! We sat outside in the dark for an hour waiting and hoping, but by then we knew we were never going to see Ayer’s Rock or the Outback. ??

Port Douglas, Day 4

This day, totally unplanned, has been a much deserved R&R day. We weren’t able to stay at the same resort but they were able to book us into the colorful Port Douglas Motel which would have fit right in on Coco Beach, Florida. And it had even more stars and awards from Tripadvisor, Booking, google etc. than our original resort.

We walked the entire town which we hadn’t had a chance to do. And we ended up seeing some live music in a sort of open air pub. We absolutely splurged on dinner since we were saving quite a bit of money on a car rental and hotel. We will be well rested when we get to Adelaide.

Great Australian
Road Signs
#2

Is the bottom sign an afterthought?