Woke reasonably early this morning, sat out on the private deck with a cup of coffee before heading having a final swim before we packed up to leave Port Douglas, the town was very busy as there was a Sunday market at the harbour, we would have stopped for a look around put had around 450km to cover today so gave it a miss. We did a quick stop along the Captain Cook Highway heading back down to Cairns when we spotted an area where people had built numerous rock piles, again we marveled at how lovely this coast line is. Once we cleared Cairns the land opened out and all you could see for miles around were fields of Sugar Cane, the whole area has a network of narrow gauge railways that they use for ... read more

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

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

What a difference a day makes! After the really hot day yesterday we were a little surprised to wake up to a cloudy sky and a mere 20 degrees outside. In some ways it was a bit of a relief as it was a little too hot to do much yesterday. We didn’t have any set plans today, but thought we’d head over towards Murray Bridge. We ended up at Old Tailem Town, which had lots and lots of replica houses, garages, stores and churches e.t.c. which represent how people lived and worked over the past 100+ years. As we walked in the lady warned us that there were ‘loads of mozzies out there today’ – marvellous! Good job we are now used to the morning routine of sun screen and bug repellent! We wandered around ... read more

We woke up to glorious sunshine here in Victor Harbour this morning so could get dressed for summer for our full day here. We tried to get on a morning boat tour but missed out so booked a shorter trip for the afternoon, we were halfway across the causeway so carried on to Granite Island to see the penguin centre. Unfortunately, even though the room map mentions it, it no longer exists so after a drink in the café we headed back towards town. We were going to use the horsedrawn tram but decided to walk instead, I think it was quicker anyway and saved us $30! We sat and had a quick beer in the Hotel Victor and then headed back to the room, for a bit of lunch and a top up on the ... read more