Blogs from Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 22

October 14, Tuesday On our way to Port Douglas we passed by so many places with tantalizing names: Dingo Beach, Hideaway Bay, Pink Lily Lagoon, Flying Fish Point, Cape Sandwich etc. We should have allowed a month for the drive up the East Coast. We feel we are missing a lot. We got off the Pacific Coast Highway and traveled inland for the afternoon going through what is called the Atherton Tablelands. This area contains fertile farmlands, mountains, small proud towns with meticulous landscaping, and lots of waterfalls. We stopped at a couple. For most of the afternoon we drove through rain varying from a light mist to heavy downpours. We stopped at a pretty coastal town called Mission Beach (a familiar ring) to see if we could find some cassowaries, but no luck. We saw ... read more

Hi all, To start with: Yes, I am still alive. It’s been a while since my last update of this blog but when you’re living and working in the beautiful Far North Queensland town of Port Douglas, time seems to lose some of its touch on reality. Once again I am writing you from an exotic place, although this time not quite as remote as last time. I’ve been living at Dougie’s Backpackers for about three months now. It’s a hostel with a big campground out the back, set in the rainforest which is so prolific in this area in general and in and around town in specific. It’s become a second home of sorts, a community of working backpackers from around the globe, although altogether too many of them come from Germany. In the last ... read more

After a quick snooze to gain my energy for the rest of the day (by the poolside naturally) it was time to see the sight that is Port Douglas Sunday Market. Well my avid readers, imagine (for those of you that have been) Camden Lock Market on a Saturday being picked up, scaled down and transported to sunnier climbs et voila! you have the Port Douglas Sunday Market with a tropical twist. No there's no Lilt man, but you can get authentic Aboriginal Art Works, to trinket jewellery, sugar cane sodas (absolutely sickly sweet and vile) to absolutely delicious Mossman Pineapple and Mango - which yes I did succumb to purchasing and devouring (and very good it is too). People travel miles to this market, and I'm not really sure why - maybe I missed something ... read more

Hey hey! Oooh we are having such a good time :) I'm sure you guys will get bored of reading this soon and be like yeah, yeah whatever guys I'm sick of hearing about it! Today we arrived in Magnetic Island after a 3 day stay at Dougies in Port Douglas - it was too good to stay for just one night so we stayed one extra, it was what we had planned before the whole falling off the table malarky after all. We took the free Dougies bus to Port Douglas from Cairns which was wicked - lovely driver called Rowan who gave us free chupa chups (the quickest way to my heart as some of you will know already!) and drove us round Port D so we could get our bearings. Dougies came *highly* ... read more

Port Douglas turned out to be a bit disappointing after Cape Trib and after all the build-up - people love it for some reason. It's just Cape Trib with a not-so-nice beach, more people, more buildings, more roads, less rainforest, and nothing to do that Cape Trib can't do better unless you're old and enjoy playing golf and doing strange exercises on the beach. I resented being back in "civilisation" anyway! So I only stayed one night and went to a little zoo where a saw a huge crocodile, which I took a photo of but you can't see it because I'm on a computer that takes 10 minutes to upload one photo. Basically Port Douglas was as much of a let down as this blog entry is as my first in over a month.... read more