Queensland. Port Douglas.

We flew from Melbourne to Cairnes by Jet Star, which is a budget airline about which we had heard some horror stories, putting it on par with Ryan Air, long queues, strict luggage restrictions etc. as a result we had concerns as to what was waiting for us at the airport, these concerns were unfounded. We arrived at the airport, there was no queue at check in, we cleared security and was flight side within 15 minutes.we boarded the plane and took off just 15 minutes late. It was a lovely flight taking just over 3 hours. On our arrival at Cairnes we were driven to our billet in Port Douglas, about an hours drive away. Whilst within the official time zone of Australian Eastern time, Queensland doesn't have daylight saving so we had to put our watches back an hour. It gets late earlier in Queensland. We arrived at our billet, the Portsea Mantra. Interesting hotel, if that's what you call it . It was a beautiful layout, almost Middle Eastern, lovely pool, a BBQ area, games room but there was no room servicing, a bit like a platinum Youth Hostel. But we were not above making our own bed.

Saturday 21st March. We took a walk up into the town, for a look round, lovely little place but on this particular day extremely busy as a cruise liner had arrived and disgorged its 3,000 passengers. We continued our exploration and found the park overlooking the sea, a beautiful little church with a stand alone bell tower and the town's ANZAC park.

Sunday 22nd March. We were up early to go on our first tour. Today was the original date but then it got postponed because of cyclone Nathan but that passed over so the original date was reinstated. We were collected from our hotel and taken to the Daintree river where we boarded a boat and went looking for crocodiles, didn't find any though. After about an hour we rejoined the bus, driving through the rain forest we stopped at the Alexandra lookout to witness some spectactular views then onto Noah's Creek for a lovely BBQ lunch. after lunch continued through the rainforest to Cape Tribulation where the forest meets the sea. Then onto Mossman Gorge via a chain ferry across the river. On arrival at Mossman Gorge, after a cream tea we were give a brief talk by a local Aboriginal man who explained how his fore bearers lived and hunted the forest. We then took a walk into to forest (Baral Marrjanga) where the flora and forna was further explained. We had to walk over a suspension bridge, Val coped admirably. After this adventure back to the bus and a short dive back to the billet. Being a rain forest there were some heavy showers but fortunately each time they came wee were on the bus.

Monday 23rd March. This was a chill day. We stayed at the complex, sitting by the pool, soaking up the sunshine, taking the occasional swim and enjoying a good book.

Tuesday 24th March. Another Chill day except we had a chore to do. There's a laundry on site so we decided to take advantage. We loaded the dohbi machines and sat relaxed whilst our clothes were refreshed. We then took a walk into town in order to find a phone box in order to post this blog. Sounds strange but true