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Published: August 10th 2008
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We arrived back into Port Douglas from the Cape trip and our first 2 days were taken up with cleaning the car, washing and re-stocking the cupboards. It took every bit of the two days to get the dust and mud from the outside and the inside of the car - and we are still finding spots we missed. Our third day we went on a Barrier Reef cruise on the Calypso. We had been out snorkelling to the reef on our last visit to Port Douglas 8 years ago, but it’s so beautiful that we went again. We saw whales on the way out to the outer reef and dolphins on the way back. It was a perfect day weather wise - the crew said it was the best day they had had all season for calm, sunny conditions making for great visibility on the reef.
In total we had 10 nights in Port Douglas, 7 before the Cape and 3 afterwards and relunctantly it was time to move on, but we didn’t move far - we went down the coast road 40km to our favourite beach/caravan park in Australia at Ellis Beach. This spot is between Cairns and
Port Douglas and has long stretches of beautiful palm fringed beach coves and the park is literally on the beachfront. Unfortunately I immersed myself so completely here for 3 days that I forgot to take photos.
From here we headed further south to Mission Beach (205km) - actually South Mission Beach. This is a very picturesque area of the coast, but very strangely laid out in that it starts with the township of Mission Beach, then goes to Wongaling Beach, then the township of South Mission Beach with 15km between Mission and Sth Mission. We went on a big hilly bike ride of 38km here and it almost ‘did us in’ - by the time we got back we had very sore bums, but it was well worth it as the views were as good as the Great Ocean Road. We also went on a drive to nearby Tully, Innisfail and Kurramine.
Between Mission Beach and Townsville we stopped a night at a very popular free camp at Saunders Beach, just north of Townsville. In Townsville we caught up with our good friend Nigel and went out for a yummy Mexican meal in the restaurant district and went
for a drive up to the Castle Hill lookout to see the city lights. We also rode our bikes around town and down along the waterfront which is lovely. Townsville is the largest regional Queensland city on the coast and is pleasant enough, but it is also an army town which adds an unlikeable element which the locals call AJ’s (army jerks).
While in Townsville, we left the caravan and took the 4WD and the rooftop tent on the ferry for the 8km trip to Magnetic Island. Magnetic Island is very picturesque but is suffering from a lack of the usual seasonal crowds at the moment and I have to say that the glossy brochures talk up the facilities such as restaurants and accommodation more than we felt they deserved in a lot of cases. We trekked the taxing 30 min walk into beautiful Balding Bay on both days and spent a few hours having lunch, swimming and getting some sun - on the return trip on the first day we saw a koala in a tree quite close to the track and a cranky blue-tongue lizard, who didn’t like being jabbed in the ribs by Wes (I know
Another Port Douglas View
Can you tell that Port Douglas is one of our favourites? how he feels) and turned on him.
Our last stop for this blog was in Bowen, where we stayed one night. It’s quite nice with some pretty beaches, but was also windy and cool when we got here which detracted from it for us. The main attraction here at the moment is the fact that Baz Lurhman’s movie “Australia” was recently filmed here. They transformed the town to look like an early version of Darwin - the photos were amazing of how it was done. They trucked in tonnes of red dirt and spread it on the existing roads and gardens to make it look like the top end and there are no traces left. We picked up some very fresh prawns and fish from the co-op and headed the 108km to Airlie Beach………..
Oh - and thank you very much to all those who have left comments and messages - we look forward to seeing them. It’s good to know that you are enjoying the blog.
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Gerry
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Hi Amanda and Wes, Just a short note to let you know all @ Heatcool have enjoyed your Blog, It certainly got us thru those cold winter days when the phone was going crazy, I am glad you both have had a wonderful time and we hope Wes will be ready for the Summer Rush!!!! Ps: Did you like the BOWENWOOD sign as you entered the town? Graeme has asked if Wes has a return date yet!!!!!!!! Take Care, Regards Gerry