Port Douglas

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We’ve just spent the last two days in Port Douglas, a delightful tourist town on the North Coast, an hour north of Cairns. It is near Port Douglas where two of the great wonders of the natural world meet, the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest. To visit these natural wonders is why we’re here, but we all kind of fell in love with Port Douglas itself. It would be the perfect spot to spend a week lounging at the beach. Our hotel was right across the street from Four Mile Beach. It’s stinger season, so you couldn’t really swim in the ocean unless you were in an area partitioned by stinger nets. Such an area did exist in our portion of beach, so we were able to enjoy the 80+ degree ocean water. It was the first time that I was able to walk into the ocean without cringing at the feel of the cool water on my feet. The town also has a nice main street with many little shops and good places to grab a bite. It is a nice little tourist town.

For our first day we had booked an excursion out to the Great Barrier Reef. We awoke that morning to the sound of pelting rain. It continued until about 10 am, which luckily was when our catamaran left the wharf. By 11:30 we were anchored near the Low Isles, where we would be snorkeling and exploring for the day. By this time, the hot Australian sun was shining down on us. We were shuttled over to the beach, put on our lycra smurf suits, to protect us from the stingers, and were soon enjoying the warm waters and vibrant sea life of the Great Barrier Reef. We have snorkeled Hanauma Bay in Hawaii and Trunk Bay in the Virgin Islands, but as you'd probably expect, these couldn't come close to preparing us for the mother of them all. The many different types of coral, bright colours, schools of fish, giant clams and sea turtles all combined to present an underwater scene that was truly spectacular. Mom was particularly impressed and this was one of her big highlights of the trip. Unfortunately we didn't buy a waterproof case or underwater camera, so I can't prove it to you with any photos, but it was amazing. It is a real shame that the reef is dying. We snorkeled through the afternoon, then returned to the mainland on a leisurely sea cruise in the sunshine. It was a great day.

The next day we planned to explore the area's other natural wonder, the Daintree Rainforest. This ancient rainforest is 110 million years old and is one of the few places on the planet that was left untouched in the last ice age. It is hard to believe that this arid continent was once covered in this same type of lush rainforest. Today it covers only 0.1% of the Australian landmass, but over 50% of the continent's plant and animal species can be found here. Some of the vegetation directly descends from that which existed at the time of the dinosaurs. On this day we hiked some trails near the Mossman Gorge, and crossed north over the Daintree River into the Cape Kimberley area where we did the Discovery Canopy Tour. This self-guided walk on trails and platforms that gradually brought us up into the trees was a nice way to see the rainforest. We were provided with an informative booklet and audio tour guide. We were a little disappointed not to have seen a Cassowary though. To anyone who's interested, have a look at them on Wikipedia. They are a funny-looking flightless bird. There are only about 1000 adults left in this part of Australia. All in all we really enjoyed this stop. We had two very different ecotouring excursions during the days, and the pleasure of enjoying Port Douglas' tourist oriented, but not in your face, atmosphere in the evenings. To comment on the weather, there were fierce rain showers on all three of our mornings here, and the temperatures were quite high, which should probably be expected here this time of year anyways.

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Photos

Great Barrier Reef
Mom and Adam are ready to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. I don't know who the third person is, but they made it into the family album.

Great Barrier Reef
Adam and I are prepared for the smurf convention. Actually these lycra suits are supposed to protect us from marine stingers. Whatever. I think someone is just having fun with us.

Great Barrier Reef
The view of the mainland from Low Isles.

Great Barrier Reef
The view of Low Isles as we’re leaving aboard our catamaran. Sorry we can’t show you any colourful underwater photos, but trust me, it was pretty amazing.

Four Mile Beach
The view south down Four Mile Beach, which was right across the street from where we were staying. Note the net that’s there to protect us from the stingers. This was the only place that you were allowed to swim on the entire beach. Many of the Northern Beaches were closed.

Daintree Rainforest
A view of the Mossman River from one of the trails in Daintree National Park, part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.

Daintree Rainforest
Walking over the Rex Creek Suspension Bridge in the Mossman Gorge Section of Daintree National Park.

Daintree Rainforest
Trying to keep this big guy from rolling down the hill.

Daintree Rainforest
Standing at the base of a huge Strangler Fig tree.

Daintree Rainforest
Some large buttress roots crossing our path.

Daintree Rainforest
I don’t think that I’ll be swimming in this part of the Daintree River.

Daintree Rainforest
Spreading my love to this pair of Alexandra Palms.

Daintree Rainforest
A view of the rainforest from above the canopy.