Blogs from Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

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Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Port Douglas February 20th 2024

Queensland is Australia's take on paradise. Warm, laidback, and heartbreakingly beautiful, its sweep of pristine beaches, luxuriant jungle and ethereal peaks conjure a southern Shangri-La. Situated in the northeastern region of the continent, it is the 2nd largest and 3rdmost populous of all the Australian states. Due to its size, Queensland's geographical features and climates are diverse, including tropical rainforests, rivers, coral reefs, mountain ranges and sandy beaches in its tropical and sub-tropical coastal regions, as well as deserts and savanna in the semi-arid and desert climatic regions of its interior. Nestled along the picturesque coastline of Far North Queensland lies the sultry haven of Port Douglas, and along with the city of Cairns (aka Yorkey’s Knob) - just 40 miles away – the gateways to two UNESCO World Heritage-listed natural wonders, the ... read more
Gateway to the Great Barrier Reef
Mossman River in the Daintree National Park
Prawns in Yorkey's Knob

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Port Douglas December 10th 2022

We set off for Cape Tribulation this morning, another lovely sunny (very hot!) day although they were predicting cloud and potential thunder and lightening today. Our accomodation has an underground car park which we thought would be great for keeping the car cool. Apparently, this is an impossible feat in this area and even in the subterranean car park it was 32 degrees! The drive out was once again on the lovely, picturesque road that you essentially have to go back up again once you get out of Port Douglas in order to get up to Cape Tribulation. We passed a few places that we thought would be good to stop off at on our return journey time permitting. We were enjoying the drive and about an hour in, as we were approaching the Daintree Ferry ... read more
2. Ute Advert
3. WWII Bomb Site
4. Wildlife Habitat

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Port Douglas December 9th 2022

Today was our last opportunity to use our 3 day ticket at Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures so we set off aiming to get there in time for the 9am activities. They predicated rain and thunder/lightening today, but it was sunny, clear blue sky and 29 degrees already! The drive back down from Port Douglas along the coast is probably one of the prettiest roads we’ve ever been on. At times, you are right next to the incredible blue water lapping onto a very narrow strip of beach. I don’t think you could ever get bored of driving down it. It’s not all perfect though, they’re doing roadworks at the moment removing fallen rocks and unstable rocky overhangs and the size of the boulders they’ve dislodged are massive! They block half the road! We got to our destination ... read more
2. Tawny Frogmouth Owl
3. Barn Owl
4. Swamphen

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Port Douglas December 7th 2022

We’d booked a trip on the Skyrail today, our outward gondola journey was booked for 9:30am so we were up and out by 9am to travel the 15mins from last nights accommodation to the Smithfield station. It’s a hot one today! Already 34 degrees by 9am! Unfortunately, there were no parking spaces in the shade at the terminal, so we had to leave the car and all our belongings in full sun. Just as we pulled up a coach arrived, so we rushed over and managed to get scanned in before the rush. There was no queue at all so we went straight through and jumped aboard our first gondola. The first stop is Red Peak station where you have to change as there are actually two different gondola cable runs. At this stop there was ... read more
2. Smithfield & Coast
3. Barron Falls & Karunga Train
4. Feeding Crocs at Hartleys

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Port Douglas August 13th 2022

As we drove into Port Douglas, it was apparent that the town was next level to anything we had experienced on our caravan journeys to date. From the exclusive golf resorts lining the main road into Port Douglas, the luxury condominiums as we edged closer to town, the Italian style rent-a-recliner chairs at Four Mile Beach, to the designer shops and trendy bars lining the main street, Port Douglas is the place to be seen. Lifestyles of the rich and famous. The town was almost totally destroyed by a cyclone on 1911, and was close to dying out, until developers discovered the town in the 1980’s. It has certainly come a long way since that time. We were happy to play the wealthy tourist, and stroll up and down the main street, visit the beach and ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Port Douglas June 15th 2021

We decided to risk another trip and booked an Outback Spirit tour to Cape York. Up very early for our 6:20 flight. It was foggy. The taxi arrived on time and we checked in at 5:40. Arrived in Brisbane, had a coffee in the lounge and then boarded for Cairns. The weather was humid so we collected our bags and sat in an outdoor cafe for lunch. Cold beer and a toasted sandwich. We met another couple from our tour from Wagga Wagga. At 1:20 we saw our bus. Met Lorraine and Ron , our married tour directors. A brand new bus. There are only 13 on the tour as 4 people were from Melbourne and could not join us because of their COVID lockdown. After temperature checks we boarded and left the airport for a ... read more
Mirage Resort
View from our room
Our room

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Port Douglas June 13th 2019

Forecast!!!! Cloudy, winds from 10k to 100k and the possibility of some showers. Oh No! But, Yes, for the 11days I spent with Warwick driving from Cairns to Cooktown and back, this was the daily outlook. As with all forecasters they did get most of it right but quite a bit was wrong. We didn't really get any rain apart from a couple of showers that didn't affect our plans. We did see quite a bit of sunlight, but nowhere near enough to satisfy our wants. We did get wind, some gentle, some strong enough to dull the mood. While in Cooktown we had some gusts strong enough to necessitate adopting the 45degree walking style. Did we enjoy ourselves? Oh Yes!!. I loved the whole time. For me, seeing this part of Australia for the first ... read more
Warwick and I.
A Tree Hugger.
The Closest I Got.

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Port Douglas April 19th 2019

" Once you have travelled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey." Pat Conroy Travel involves time. In Australia allow for LOTS of time. It’s a very BIG country and to prove the point, here are some boring statistics. It is a country of 7.69 million square kms. That’s just a number but herein lies the relevance. SA boasts an area of 1.22 million square kms which means that Oz is 6 times bigger than our little piece of turf. So, what’s the point you may ask? Our flight from Perth at midnight took just over five hours to get us to Brisbane. A distance of 4315 kms. The upshot of this was that we were stuffed by ... read more
Wildlife Habitat
Wildlife habitat
Daintree wetlands

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Port Douglas July 22nd 2018

There isn't really any birding to do in the area immediately around the accommodation and my family doesn't exactly get up early so we weren't out until half the day had gone at 10:30. This is what makes travelling on your own so much better, except of course I wouldn't be able to do this without a car. So they wanted to use what was left of the evening to visit Port Douglas which is a nearby town and I decided that the best thing for me to do would be to be dropped off at Wildlife Habitat Port Douglas on the way in which is just on the edge of town. This is a zoo in case their obscure name doesn't make that clear. I would also like to note at this point that all ... read more
Black-necked Stork on Nest
Banded Lapwing
Northern Nailtail Wallaby

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Port Douglas July 27th 2017

The boys have made it out diving on the reef..sharks and sting rays and a million beautiful fishes to see.. Hope we don't destroy this amazing place..... read more
Our dive boat..shame we havent got any under water photos..
Agincourt Reef off of Port Douglas




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