Advertisement
Hi All,
It has been almost 2 weeks since we last checked in and we have been busy. We spent a wonderful 2 nights with Sandra and Warren in Sydney. They were a couple that Ross and Bonnie met last year in Utah, USA in a campground. They welcomed us with open arms and we enjoyed every minute. Did some sightseeing with them and ate and drank lots. Larry and I left Friday morning for the Sydney airport to drop our rental car and hop on a plane for Cairns. We thought we had this kind of stuff down to a science. This was our 4th time to do this but not the easiest. We had filled the car up the night before then of course drove 27 kms to the airport and got charged $24 for not having a full tank, then we checked in the same number of bags we have checked in on the last 3 flights with VirginBlue and this time got charged $30 for having more then 2 checked bags. They said we just got luckey the last 3 times if we didn't have to pay!! and we got charged $1,000 for a tiny, tiny
dent in our front bumper of our car. Yuck!! We used our Visa card for the rental insurance so this will be the test. Will they pay up. We have faxed lots of documents and had lots of emails back and forth. We will see!! I will keep you posted.
Arrived in Cairns and drove straight up to Port Douglas, 60 kms north of Cairns. Had a wonderful hotel recommended to us by Dave and Gail in Melbourne and it was delightful. Right on the main street and close to everything. Made some lovely friends around the pool and spent a couple of days and evenings with them. We were there for 5 nights and then supposedly up to the Daintree Rain forest and Cape Tribulation for 2 nights but wow, it sure is desolute. Basically saw everything we wanted to see in 1 day and then came back to Port Douglas for a couple of more nights at the most lovely little village in Queensland. Port Douglas is a small resort town. Tons of bars, restaurants and shops. We did lots of fun stuff but still cooked in most every night. Had a couple of dinners out with
our new friends. We went snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef on Friday and it was super. We had been waiting all week for the seas to go from Rough to Moderate. They never did but the wind went down to 15 - 20 knots from the 20 - 25 they had been. The 1 1/2 hour ride out to the reef and back were wild. A very bumpy ride out to the reef but once we got out there and anchored it was OK. Saw lots of great coloured fish and coral. Amazing. The boat had a Marine Biologist on board to explain to us what we had seen and then in the water as well. He took us on a snorkelling tour pointing and talking the whole time. It was fun and I am so happy we did it. I could have whimped out but I really wanted to see it. Had our farewell dinner out with Brooke and Charisa and then on Saturday left for Cairns. It has been very warm and sunny the whole time we were in Port Douglas and then today we just got down to the pool in Cairns and the skies opened
up. We went back to our room and watched Fools Gold with Matthew McCau. . . and Kate Hudson. It was interesting to see because it was filmed in the village of Port Douglas and we recognized so much stuff.
We leave here tomorrow for Townsville after going to the Royal Flying doctors Museum. We will meet Paul and Claire there for dinner. Paul and Claire are our friends that we made in Mexico and then they were in Auckland and had birthday dinner with us and now they are travelling up the east coast of Australia while we are travelling down.
Less then a month until we come home and we are both looking forward to it. Had thought we might change our flight to a little earlier but when we look at the map and all the good stuff to see, why rush it!! That what I am saying right now. Tomorrow is another day.
I would like to say that the car you see Larry in is our rental but it is NOT!! He had looked into renting a little machine like this one but it was going to be $5200 for the month.
One of our new friends works for Audi Australia so this was a loaner she got from Audi in Cairns. Had a couple of very short rides in it and it would have been great but . . . . .
Advertisement
Tot: 0.048s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.025s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb