A Great Trip to Australia
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The Hendersons Port Douglas |
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A Great Trip to Australia |
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3 May 2019 Friday Our flight to Cairns was scheduled to depart at 3:30 pm, so we had ample time to take advantage of the hotel laundry after breakfast, which was surprisingly good given our other eating experiences in Ayers Rock. The bus to the airport left at 1:30, there was a longish delay getting checked in, then we learned that even though the airport signs said our flight was on time our flight was delayed four hours. What a bore! The airport is very small, so we only had a sandwich for dinner. We emailed our travel agency and they were able to contact our hotel in Port Douglas (the Peninsula Boutique Hotel) and the tour company that was to pick us up at 8:00 the next morning. The hotel staff sent us an email with instructions on late access to our room, and the tour company pushed back our pickup time to 9:30. The flight left Ayers Rock at 19:30 and arrived in Cairns about 23:00. We were met by our driver, who took us to Port Douglas, about an hour's drive. It had been a long and boring day, so we were grateful for a nice, clean bed. 4 May 2019 Saturday Our guide, Aaron, picked us up at 9:30 and we had a very full day adventure. Aaron is aboriginal, about 50 years old. His knowledge of the aboriginal customs is almost encyclopedic. He learned the traditional way from his maternal grandfather. As he is native of the area he knows almost all of the residents. In fact, some years as a laison with the police have given him a lot of exposure to the community. We stopped for coffee in Mossman and then drove to Daintree, a small community in the midst of the sugar cane growing area. Aaron pointed out many local plants. The butterflies are so beautiful here. The sugar processing plant is well over 100 years old. During the harvest season it is buzzing with activity, but that is in the November timeframe. It is as quiet as a ghost town now. Harvesting is mechanical, it must have been brutal when it was manual. The cane is loaded onto rail cars on a narrow gauge line and taken to the factory for processing.
We stopped at a fruit stand next to the road. The owner raises a variety of fruits. She is a very opinionated woman. She loves Donald Trump. There is an election coming up here. One of the parties has political signs "Make Australia Great". No 'again' on those signs.
This area is a rain forest. Since December they've had over a meter of rain. The birds are varied and abundant. We loved seeing the Ibis hitching rides on the Brahma cows. The cockatoos are apparently pests, they are seen in the various open spaces, quite lovely but messy. We had a picnic lunch in Daintree, then drove to the rainforest. Unlike the rain forest on the Olympic peninsula, the vegetation is mostly leafy. Aaron showed us several plants that were used for treating ailments like head and muscle aches.
After our tour, we walked to the shopping area of the town of Port Douglas, picked up some mineral water and wine, stopped for a well-earned gelato, came back to our hotel, the Port Douglas Peninsula Boutique Hotel and had a lovely meal. We don't eat large meals any more, so we shared coconut prawn starter and a lamb meal with potatoes, green beans and parsnips. 5 May 2019 Sunday Today was a day of leisure. We had breakfast in the hotel. The breakfasts here are more than the typical continental breakfast, you can order a cooked breakfast and there is beautiful cut fruit. Sunday there is an outdoor market in town. In theory it is handcrafted items only as well as fresh food. We didn't buy anything, just strolled around. Later we walked down the main street and found an art gallery that deals in indigenous art and I bought a small painting on leather. The woman who manages, maybe opened, the shop is married to an American. She's originally from Melbourne. She had a video on her cell phone of someone trying to walk down the main street in the town after the rain storm last March. Water past her knees. We had a light lunch in the hotel then took a short nap as we had reservations on a sunset cruise departing from the Port Douglas wharf on a catamaran at 5:00. We made our way to the wharf, which was just a short walk from the hotel. There wasn't much sunset and the waves were really rough. I don't think the sails were unfurled for more than 15 minutes in the 90 minutes we were out.
After the sail we went to an Italian restaurant that the concierge had recommended. Most of the staff were Italian, so we had yet another chance to speak Italian. 6 May 2019 Monday Today we had an all-day excursion on another catamaran to the Great Barrier Reef. Like the sunset cruise yesterday, the going was rough, but we don't seem to be prone to seasickness. We were obviously the oldest people on the boat and that caused some consternation for the crew. A nice young woman asked us some medical history questions and told us she would be our snorkel instructor. Another crew member put everyone through the instructions about the gear, which included a Lycra body suit because people needed protection from the jelly fish. I was getting a little apprehensive, but Tom talked me into going through with the swim. Eventually we got out to the first dive spot. There were a number of people who were SCUBA diving, so they went first. Tom and I were assigned a guide, who helped us by providing a flotation device, but even so, the going was just too rough for us. We did see some of the coral formations, but we didn't have the stamina to stay out for the entire duration. A pity as we'll probably never get this way again. In retrospect, we should have been booked on a submarine or glass bottom boat. We spent the rest of the cruise talking to people and having lunch. Back at the hotel we took advantage of the free laundry then walked to town for a Thai dinner.
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