First day in Port Douglas

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A good flight to Cairns with a magnificent sunset at 33000 feet. We were met at the airport and taken to the hotel in Port Douglas, about an hour away. The road followed the coast and was quite windy, however we did not see much as it was pitch black so we will have to wait for the return trip for the scenery. As we were arriving late we had been given a code to enter in the key safe to get access to our room. On the way to the room we met a couple who came from Titchfield, just a couple of miles from home, how odd is that.

The room turned out to be a fully equipped apartment and we subsequently learnt that we had been given an upgrade again, what luck. After a good night's sleep we set about doing the laundry before announcing ourselves at the hotel reception. The receptionist is a lovely women called Vikki, and she made us aware that a cyclone could hit land in the near vicinity on Friday. She advised us to get some cold food in store in case we get power cuts, and we will be advised later if we need to fill the bath with water to be used to flush the toilet because if the power goes off the water stops as well. Welcome to the tropics, and Friday is Dave's birthday. Good start. We took her advice on which company to use to visit the Barrier Reef. We are advised not to go until Monday next week once the storm is over. Tomorrow we are visting the rain forests before all the leaves are blown off and trees blown over.

So today we went to the Supermarket and bottleshop, before the locals adopt their normal seige mentality and wipe the shelves clean. We completed our laundry so we will have clean clothes to wear in the storm and booked our trips. Now off to the beach. The first notice we saw said Beware crocodiles may be on the beach. Then the next one apologised that the stinger net had been brought ashore due to high winds and therefore swimming was not allowed. It also said that the sea temperature was 29°C. Dave went up to the lifeguard station to ask if it was okay to paddle ankle deep just so that we could say that we had been in the water. The lifeguard said okay so we did and was it warm. Here we are in a land where the cold water in the bathroom is nearly as hot as the hot water and the sea is warm enough that even Lyn wan

ted to go for a swim.

Dave asked the lifeguard about the box jelly fish. The lifeguard said that in the 24 years he had been on this beach nobody had been stung by one, however a sting could lead to death within two minutes. Wow what a lovely place this country is.

We sat and sunbathed for a couple of hours watching the small sand crabs push small balls of sand out of their burrows. What hard work, but it made the beach look like it was covered in ball bearings.

On the wayback to the apartment we walked around the town. It really is a lovely place, clean and well kept.

Back at the apartment Dave went for a swim in the pool to cool down and rehydrate before dinner. All in all a great start to our visit to Port Douglas, with more adventurers to follow.

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