In the last blog Nige left you with the anticipation of a good night out in Airlie beach, well everything should have been perfect for a few bottles of wine and a good night out with the youthful crowd of Airlie beach, however the old dudes in the van can’t hack the pace anymore and settled for a dinner and early night instead (we will hit the town soon I hope!). At least however we were fully refreshed for our snorkeling and boat tour of the Whitsundays.
Idyllic Whitsundays
Us at the Whitsundays
First stop was Whitehaven beach, probably the prettiest beach that I have ever seen with glorious white sand and turquoise blue sea, one of those places that would have been idyllic if it wasn’t for the tour bus of people around you and of course the obligatory stingrays floating around. We then moved on to do our first bit of snorkeling of the holiday, and oh my god I have never seen a fish so big in my life, the Napoleon Wrasse, so big that I was actually saying it was a shark and that there was no way I was getting in the water (most people did look at my like I was stupid). It was a beautiful fish though and so gentle and a great sight. After spending a hour floating around amongst the bright coloured coral and amazing fish, it was time to go but was a fantastic day.
Next stop was the search of some slightly cooler weather so up the mountain we go, and into the rain forest where it certainly was a lot cooler. We headed to Paluma, a little tiny village at 2000ft in the rainforest with nothing there apart from the obligatory pottery shop (we are beginning to learn that the majority of Australian villages have one of these). We finally managed to do a bit of walking which we had been missing due to the heat and headed down to our campsite at Paradise Hole.
Mossie ridden rainforest
Well Paradise it was not! On first impressions lovely, peaceful, solitude, sun and a water hole to swim in. As soon as the sun went down MOSQUITO’S and oh my god so many of them, literally all over us, then the rain started and this was all before 7pm, so a night locked up in the van drinking our cask Stanely wine it was.
Mission Beach was our next stop, another idyllic beach, stinking hot and once again you can’t go in the sea because of the Jelly Fish, blah blah blah same old story, by now we were getting really bored of not getting in the sea!
Anyone for swimming
But anyway Mission beach did bring other delights in the form of Abi and Chris ( Hi guys) and finally our night out! Well, to say that Nige and I certainly can’t handle our hangovers any more is an understatement. A great night followed by a 7am wake up call from the birds and the blistering hot sun burning through our tin can was not a good awakening. Abi and Chris seemed fine, damn them, however we were certainly feeling our age!
Finally the Australian scenery is getting better (not just dirt desert roads with not a lot else). Heading north it all gets greener with rainforest, flowers, grass and mountains, a very welcome change.
Wet tropics
Continuing North – nearly scuppered by a broken alternator, but a quick trip to the garage and the cinema whilst we waited sorted that one out! Our drive up to Port Douglas from Cairns was by far the most beautiful of all the drives and reminded us a lot of New Zealand and the joys of only having the drive an hour and you would be at your destination!
Arriving at Port Douglas was great, it had a lovely holiday atmosphere to it which we were more than happy to soak up. Unbeknown to us it was Melbourne Cup day, a big horse race, the same as the Grand National, however with the same high society feel as Ascot. It was time to get dressed up and make a bet so that finally we can sleep in a posh hotel, eat at all the best restaurants and drive a proper car. A couple of problems though, we don’t have any nice clothes and clearly were not going to win!
Nige and Fran in Melbourne Cup finery!
Fran and Nige three hours later
It didn’t matter though, the atmosphere was fantastic, all of Port Douglas were out in force in their finery. Posh frocks and big hats were everywhere (mostly on the floor by about 7pm), we managed to meet a lot of locals on that day and were reliably informed that we were definitely in the best place in Australia for that one day only – I think I believed them!
The final icing on the cake of Port Douglas was our diving trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. A slightly scared and hungover Fran joined a gammy toed Nige (last nights Melbourne Cup injury) in the most amazingly clear and beautiful water. The Fish were amazing, Angel Fish, enourmous Clams, cleaner shrimps, a Shark and even Nemo! It was a great day and 3 dives later we were well and truly shattered but on a massive high of fish loving!
