Blogs from Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 4

Yet another HUGE driving day today. We couldn't leave Bowen at stupid o'clock because I had left the laundry in the dryer and they locked the laundry. It didn't open till 6.30. Soon after though we said goodbye to this seriously beautiful place. From here on it was pretty much, drive, drive and drive a bit more. We passed through some beautiful scenery and towns though. The famous Burdekin river, Townsville ( a really huge city, surrounded by army barracks) Tully and Ingham. I was always trying to get photos along the journey out of the window, but it never does the scenery justice. Because we were trying to make up time, it wasn't possible to stop much. Maybe another time! We did have lunch in a beautiful town called Cardwell. It was on the ocean ... read more

A good flight to Cairns with a magnificent sunset at 33000 feet. We were met at the airport and taken to the hotel in Port Douglas, about an hour away. The road followed the coast and was quite windy, however we did not see much as it was pitch black so we will have to wait for the return trip for the scenery. As we were arriving late we had been given a code to enter in the key safe to get access to our room. On the way to the room we met a couple who came from Titchfield, just a couple of miles from home, how odd is that. The room turned out to be a fully equipped apartment and we subsequently learnt that we had been given an upgrade again, what luck. After ... read more

Blue skies and sunny days make me want to be out doors but the Cairns summers can be unbearable. "thank God for air con, we just stay indoors" so many people say to me. The idea of locking myself in on a gorgeous day just seems so bizarre to me... But something that I'm growing accustomed to after 7 years in Far North Queensland. However, this particular weekend, I had that urge to be out enjoying the great outdoors. So I jumped on Wotif to see if there were any bargains for any of our favourite close areas- Palm Cove, Atherton Tablelands or Port Douglas. A spontaneous weekend by a pool or a reprieve from the humidity on the Tablelands was getting me excited... I found a "Mystery Deal" in Port for $132. After a little ... read more

The first booking that was made for this whole 10 week trip was the entry into The Great Barrier Reef Marathon Festival. This was done way back in january. Once that was done we could move on and plan routes, book flights and so on. Throughout our summer in Haute Provence, this had been our motivator to get out and run, which we did several times every week. As it turned out the Provençal landscape was perfect preparation for the marathon run, lots of hills and rocks, at that point though I hadn't sussed the fine points of the actual race route, so the similarity was lost on me. Once back in England we had continued to run, on the flat of course, that being the nature of the Selsey coastline. So all good in terms ... read more