Although the plane was a little late, our luggage all arrived, including the wedding cake (carried on!) which arrived in one piece. The bus driver found us, and after some stuffing around, we were on our way to Port Douglas.
There's a DC-3 mounted at the airport. I expect these planes were used
very heavily in this area, as their robustness and low tech
features make them very reliable where services might be few and
far between. And I expect they handle rough airstrips with aplomb.
Ah, if there was ever any doubt that I was back in Australia, this location
dispelled it -
Fair Dinkum
and
Potsies @ Cairns
certainly confirmed my location.
Captain Cook Highway (well, after all, Cooktown - where
The Endeavour
was beached for repairs after hitting the reef - is further
north from here) is a divided highway for some distance, before
dropping down to a 2 lane road. At this location, sugar cane
harvesting is still taking place. The smaller cane near the
road is a second crop, while the harvesting is taking place on
the older crop at the back. We had conflicting advice on
when the new crop would be harvested - this year or next. So I
don't know.
And this photo shows
the cane train carriages
on the left hand side in
greater detail.
There are quite a few very narrow gauge train tracks running
around this area, leading to sugar mills. And one day the tour
I was on had to stop to let a cane train cross the road in front of
us. It was quite long, considering the carriages are very short,
heavily loaded and much wider than the tracks. But some of
the roadside tracks appear to be disused.
The Harris and Crofts family on the bus. Flynn is asleep on the left,
Michelle and Yvonne in the back seats, then Peter and Jake, "playing
bolcanoes (volcanoes)". Jake found a number of mountains here
looked like volcanoes - which they probably were millions of years
ago. Fortunately they are dormant now.
Cameron holding a sleeping Flynn, with Michelle in the back. A nice
family photo.
The bus driver needed to buy something for his throat, so we stopped
at this beach side resort, which I believe is Ellis Beach. We're
definitely in the tropics now, looking out over the Coral Sea with
lovely sandy beaches.
Moving right along, the road follows the coast line pretty closely,
but there are few instances allowing a view of the beach. This is
the only good one I captured, so you'll just have to put up with
the sign! Note the absence of people in the water. Well, nobody
lives around here anyway, but the other reason for not swimming
is the box jelly fish, also known as stingers. These are nasty
critters that grow in the rivers and then move into the ocean.
Rarely do they travel far from shore, so diving on the reef is
OK. They are extremely poisonous, being able to kill an adult
within minutes.
So, a beautiful beach which is not usable at the hottest time of the year.
Looking back towards Cairns. The island on the left is "Double Island" -
a very imaginative name - and is located just off Palm Cove, where
Glenn and Kelly spent their honeymoon, while we soldiered on in
Port Douglas :-)
Ah, Port Douglas in sight! It's the little bump in the middle
of the picture; there's a lighter set of hills behind it - the
Daintree Forest, and Cape Tribulation.
After arriving at our place of residence in Port Douglas, it was time to unpack, then go scouting the main street (one block away). And buy some important supplies, such as beer. Although as it turned out, the apartments sold it more cheaply than the bottle shops in town!
Cairns to Port Douglas
Port Douglas
