BEACH, BEERS AND BAKED GOODS

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It was time to time for us all to get on the road. Boys in the front and girls in the back. We had glorious weather for our first day. We wanted to get out in the sun as much as possible so made our first stop at Palm Cove. We wandered down the pretty seafront with its cafes and shops before taking a dip in the sea - in the safety of the stinger nets of course. The temperature of the sea was a shock to us all. My memories of the sea are mostly from paddling and jumping the waves at Redcar or Hunstanton. The water here was as hot as some peoples baths. Checking out the sign on the beach we found that the water was 29°, not refreshing in any way! Walking back to Hilda the boys saw an ice-cream van. They bought lollies but it was so hot that they had to almost swallow them whole before they melted.

Further north we arrived at Port Douglas. This was on Gem and Kieran’s to-do list. The harbour was full of some very expensive and impressive looking boats - what a life it must be to spend your days sailing the world in your own yacht . We managed to find a campsite within easy walking distance of both the town and the beach and although it took us longer to get sorted than usual, by the time we finished, we had a very impressive looking set up. We had bought a tarp to cover the tent to provide shade. Setting it up so it looked like a tunnel meant that the doors could be left open during the night without the rain getting in so it was much cooler. The campsite owners had kindly lent Gem and Kieran a huge fan to put in their tent turning it into a wind tunnel. We wondered if they would be blown away during the night.

After dinner and a few drinks we had a walk into town. Tomorrow was new years eve so we wanted to check out where we could go to celebrate. We went for the busiest bar first. As we stood at the bar I turned round to look for Kieran who still standing by the bouncer. He looked at me and shook his head. It turned out that they wouldn’t let him in as he was wearing a singlet (vest) and thongs (the footwear not the underwear!) The bouncer was also being quite cocky towards him for no reason which we found strange. Most places seemed to be closing even though it was only 10:30, but as we walked back towards the campsite we spotted one bar still serving. We had looked at the posters on the bars as we walked past so we bought a round of drinks and sat down to discuss our new years eve options. Asking the barmaid what time they were open till tomorrow we were stunned when her reply was midnight. We imagined people doing the count down to midnight and just as they were about to shout “Happy New Year” being pushed out the door and finding themselves out on the street wondering what had happened! This place was definitely not an option for us. Maybe the barmaid could give us some ideas? “ Well there’s the Iron Bar, they have a DJ and are open till 3” she said. This was the bar we had been turned away from. We had already decided that we would not be going back there, and we certainly didn’t want to pay $25 for the privilege. “Or there is The Waterfront, they have a few Djs playing old school” - this was a bit more interesting “mixed with an upbeat Techno edge” she added - well that’s gone and spoilt that idea! “Anywhere else?” we asked with a slightly desperate look in our eyes. At this point she began looking off into the distance as if she was remembering happy times. “ There used to be a nightclub once, that was open late, but it went bankrupt and closed” she sighed. We thanked her for he information (useless as it was) and she disappeared back behind the bar. It was shortly after this that Kieran said something so unbelievable that for a moment we all thought we must be hearing things. “Well it looks like our best option is the 70’s party at the Irish bar” How he could say this with a straight face I will never know. The idea that things were so bad that we considered this to be our best option made us all cry with laughter (and maybe a touch of sadness) .We decided not to rush into anything, fearing that we may make decisions that we would later regret. Being swept away in the moment we even considered buying fancy dress!

Before the sun got too hot in the morning we went to the beach for some exercise. It was a lovely place to work out, with a good sea breeze to keep us cool. The new day brought with it some sensible ideas, such as not buying fancy dress outfits that we would never wear again. Anyway we had no way of knowing if anyone else would even dress up. Our plan was to eat dinner early, crack open a slab (or case) of cider, then walk into town. But after spending too long in the pool it was 7:30 by the time we were walking into town - well it wasn’t as if we were missing out on much! As we walked past the waterside we thought we should pop in for a drink to check it out. A lady stopped us on the way in and informed us that there was currently only seating for those who had reserved a table for dinner. It all looked very civilised. How odd we thought it would be to be Mr and Mrs Yacht out for dinner, only to find themselves rushed along so that the staff can whip of the tablecloths, clear the dance floor and send everyone into a techno frenzy!

We decided on a fairly quiet bar to start with . It had a strange Butlins feel to it, as if some Bucks Fizz tribute would dash onto stage at any moment and star whipping their skirts off. The drinks were about $10 over priced so after watching a rather impressive fireworks display -all be it a little premature at 8pm - we dashed across the road in the rain to the Irish bar. We soon realised that we had had a lucky escape… the only people in fancy dress were the bar staff, and most of them hadn’t made that much effort. The drinks were cheap so we stayed for a few rounds but when we simply could take no more 70’s vibe we went in search of somewhere else. We found The Courthouse Hotel. The barmaid had not mentioned this place, but it had a massive indoor and outdoor seating area and looked to be the best place in town. It was busy and seats were hard to find, but Gemma noticed some of our neighbours from the campsite sitting on a long table outside so we squeezed on the end. Our new friends were 2 older couples who were hippy free spirit types. We spent the rest of the evening hearing some of their amazing travel tales and Gemma asked them all about Crocodiles. We learnt that there were crocs that lived close to where we were staying, and were advised not to take our planned walk to the beach that evening. Apparently if we made it through the snakes, the crocs on the beach would gladly finish us off! Also in their opinion stinger nets were not safe because the smaller stingers could still get through the holes and crocs could get swept over in the waves - well that’s the last time I will be swimming in the sea until we are in New South Wales!

At midnight there was another amazing fireworks display right next to where we were sitting. As we all wished each other Happy New Year we realised that what we had expected to be a disaster night had turned out to be a great one. But the best was yet to come……

We were all feeling pretty hungry so decided to grab something on the way home. We found a kebab shop with a small queue and joined the line. Shortly after quite a few people joined the queue behind us. All of a sudden the man came from behind the counter looking flustered. He looked at us, then at the four people in front of us and said “ I will serve you and you” pointing at the two couples in front of us “but that’s it, everyone else out” It struck us as a little odd that he would turn away business so we asked him why. “I only have enough for these four, otherwise I would have to do some more prep” Well we wouldn’t want to put you out by forcing you to chop up a bit of onion and lettuce we thought, but instead we asked where we might find somewhere that was open. “Try the bakery next door” he said. But when we walked outside it was closed, which is what you would expect from a bakery at 1 in the morning. We were looking around when we saw a queue of people forming in the alleyway next to the bakery. We went to investigate and what we found will be a memory that will laugh at for many years to come. Next to the door of the delivery entrance there was a home made menu stuck to the wall. Just inside the door there were two small lads of about 8 and 10 serving baked goods such as pasties and pies to drunk people on their way home from the pub! They had obviously done this before as they knew exactly what they were doing. As we walked back to the road laughing with baked items in hand, a local lady said that this kind of thing was normal practice back in the pre- kebab shop days. Well it made our evening that’s for sure!

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