port douglas and cape tribulation (cairns)

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From woodford we made the hour trek to brissy and caught a morning flight to cairns. We turned in pts to stay at the sheraton mirage an hour up capt cook highway in port douglas. We got lost trying to find the place since the sign is only apparent when you leave town - not when you arrive. The decor was 70's chic and the highlights were the manmade salt water lagoons that served as the resort pools. We took a walk on the beach at sunset and stayed clear of the stinger infested waters.there were further shenanigans that you shan't be privy too 😉 we also turned in pts for the $87! Per person! buffet. I certainly would not waste my money for it or pay the nightly rate to stay here, but it was cool cause they were both free! Notably, we also tested the water drainage correalis effect (thanks tricia & sanju!) here and made some ridiculous videos as proof that the water does in fact go the other way in the southern hemisphere.

The next day we had a rainforest walkabout and cape tribulation on the schedule. There was some miscommunication over the schedule/my lack of spontaniety that led to a pissy day that was certainly not worth writing about and none of which was actually all that exciting by my estimation of the expectation set by guidebooks and such.

From Susan: the next day was supposed to be an exciting and spontaneous adventure through the daintree rainforest. unfortunately, i hadn't prepared toisha for it and there was no sign saying that we were in the daintree but there were lots of signs warning you that you might get eaten by a crocodile if you left your car. So needless to say, we went to mossman gorge which isn't so much a gorge as it is a nice stream with swimming pools (but we had forgotten our swimming suits so we didn't go in). we had a nice walk initially through the rainforest, but it all went downhill from there. we drove to cape tribulation, which I (susan) enjoyed since the rainforest is visibly difference after the daintree river. And toisha, unbeknownst to her, encouraged us to drive on a dirt road that our car was not supposed to be on in search of the picture point for cape tribulation (which we never found). I loved it - the drive ended at a crocodile-infested creek that our car would not be able to cross, so we had to turn around. But I was pretty unhappy about not being able to walk around and missing the river cruise on the daintree, and so the day pretty much sucked. Plus, we weren't able to get on any snorkeling adventures out of Port Douglas or Cairns since we were leaving mid-day the next day and they all come back at 1 pm or later, and that was super disappointing!

However, the flight from Cairns to McKay was awesome. We flew right over the great barrier reef and we got free chocolate ice cream bars that were delicious!

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