Blogs from Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 5

We arrived in Port Douglas a couple days ago, then the day before yesterday there were torrential rains in the area. As of right now the roads between here and Cairns airport are all closed. Our flight is scheduled for tomorrow morning and we don't know yet what will happen. More later. Pat & Connie... read more

We had a pretty early flight from Adelaide to Cairns, so we were up and on the road before the sun. No real problems, but the Adelaide Airport was a maze of roundabouts getting to the car rental return due to the construction of a huge parking garage, which should be done in another year or so. We got checked in, boarded the flight, and arrived in Cairns mid afternoon. As soon as we got off the plane we realized we weren’t in the Outback anymore. Humidity! As a prelude of things to come, it was also very cloudy and the flight up had been pretty bumpy. We’re staying in Port Douglas, a small town about 50km north of Cairns and we had a shuttle to take us there. We were off for about an hour’s ... read more

Last night, we thought we would pop into Port Douglas for a couple of tinnies and maybe some Cane Toad Racing. We strolled down to the beach and took a couple of pictures of the mangroves and metallic starlings, then popped into Ironbar for a drink and something to eat. The place was in an uproar. I thought it was a football match or something, but no, fortunately for us, it was Cane Toad Racing night. Running that night were Jerry Springer, Fat Bastard, Gay Freddie, Pigeon Toad, Shagging Camel Toad and Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. The favourite was Fat Bastard. Not entirely sure of the rules, but you had to bid to be toad-jockey first. Then, once you had your mount, you had to kiss it (I understand Cane Toads are toxic) and then, on starters ... read more

Strewth mate ! (Hang on, hang on. How long is this going to go on for? You’re going to be in Australia for another two and a half weeks and it’s already getting tedious). Silence. (Well?) Silence. (Look at me when I’m talking to you!). OK. OK. Well, we were supposed to go ballooning over the rainforest today but it got cancelled due to the unsettled weather. So, for a consolation prize, we booked a helicopter flight over the rainforest and reef (tee hee). And what an amazing experience that was. Our own private helicopter, just me, Moi and Nick (the pilot). The helicopter took off from the hotel, flew along the coast, then along into the rainforest. We followed the contours of a few mountains covered in dense tropical rainforest, then out to the sea ... read more

Strewth cobber – we’ve only gone and landed in bladdy Austrarlia !! And I'll tell you something else mate, it’s as warm and as humid as a lizard’s backside, no worries. Today we are half way through the trip and we’ve left Asia - Oz is a whole brand new continent. What’s more, I can understand the bladdy natives. Weird. Anyway, we crossed the bladdy equator yesterday. No fuss, no certificate, no champagne corks popping, no letter from the Queen, nothing. The equator itself was a like a big bladdy black line, say five or ten miles wide, stretching as far as the eye could see from horizon to horizon. Like a big bladdy 28,000 mile long zipper. I imagine that somewhere on the planet, there’s a huge zip fastener they can pull whenever they need ... read more

How ya goin' mates? Well, I think it's pretty common knowledge that the Great Barrier Reef is a wondrous place that needs no verbal description. It's been documented countless time for several decades, and I just consider myself lucky to have been able to hang out here for a while. I don't have my SCUBA divers' certification, which is a shame, considering the opportunities it would afford in this neck of the woods, so I did the next best thing, and went snorkeling in the reef. Fortunately, the sun was shining, which made it possible to see the fish and coral fairly clearly from a relatively shallow depth. I bought a small inexpensive waterproof camera in Melbourne just for this purpose (by the way, if ever in Melbourne, visit Michael's Cameras in the Central Business District ... read more