We had a couple of days in Port Douglas before we were due to hand our beloved camper van back in Cairns as we wanted to spend some time with Nicola’s cousin and aunt before we arrived in Cairns. To that end we left Mission Beach and headed up to Port Douglas with the intention of stopping at Josephine Falls and Babinda Boulders to break up the drive.
Our first point of call was Josephine falls. After a well paced, short walk through the bush we were presented with an idyllic set of falls and pools which lead down to a swimmable pool at the bottom. We took a moment to explore the lookouts and viewing platforms positioned along different points of the falls before heading down for a dip in the bottom pool! It’s amazing on a sunny day, such as it was, with all the beauty of the falls, how bloody cold the water could be. I opted for the “jump right in and hope your body doesn’t cause fatal cramping” approach whilst Nicola stood at the water’s edge much alike a pale flamingo.
After I had completed my arctic swim across to the rocks which make up the falls I beckoned Nicola to join me, in fear she would maintain her static flamingo pose long enough to turn very much the same colour as the stereotypical image of one. After a while she reluctantly took the plunge and swam over to join me on the ultra slippy rocks on the far side, from which you can access the top of the last part of the fall which has gained use as a water slide by those who visit it! Nicola loved her one and only go on the slide:
After our rather refreshing swim we had a short drive up the the Babinda Boulders, a section of fast flowing creek where the water has shaped granite boulders into something rather beautiful. There is also a large open pool where you can take a dip, as cold as our previous one, in order to get out of the heat. That is as long as you don’t mind the aboriginal legend of a lady spirit who beckons young men into the water and to their deaths! Given the spirit, my male disposition and the overwhelming urge not to want to freeze beloved parts of my anatomy off twice in one day, we put a dip in the pool on our “revisit” list and instead took a walk along the lookouts following the creek before motoring the rest of the way, through Cairns, up to Port Douglas!
Once we had arrived at Port Douglas we had a clear idea of the most important thing to see, but given that we had a couple of hours before it started we stopped in at a Chinese restaurant before making our way down to The Iron Bar pub for a spot of cane toad racing! Luckily neither of us were picked to race a toad as that required kissing your poisonous amphibian before encouraging it to hop along with a party blower! It’s as bizarre as it sounds but definitively worth a watch if you are in the neighborhood!
We used the following day as time to explore the little town and rather gorgeous marina as well as to get some ideas together for the next couple of days. A gentle few hour stroll and an ice cream before heading over to see Nicola’s relatives for a great catchup and Indian takeaway.
Saturday heralded the first ever Port Douglas Picnic Beach Races and what better excuse to lie on the beach, in the middle of winter, enjoying the 27 Celsius weather than to watch some beach horse racing followed by a lovely lunch at the surf club. Once we had refueled we then made our way over to Stinger Park where we were able to watch the boat that Nicola’s cousin, Paul, works on come back into the harbour. That evening Paul took us out to watch the Wallaby’s play the All Blacks at a local bar, of course accompanied by a few jugs of XXXX. It was a great to get involve in the ruckus and with a few Kiwis in the bar, it was alive with supporters of both sides!
The next morning we woke up nice and early in order to take the short walk over to the far station of the Bally Hooley, an old narrow gauge railway originally used to transport equipment to the sugar mills that is now used as a tourist railway. The last two steam locomotives produced for the local mill pull passenger services from the outer edges of town, through a couple of the big resorts, right into the marina where we had a very short walk into the Port Douglas Sunday Markets. It was great fun and interesting to watch tourist drivers returning to their resort being suddenly faced with the once a week steam train service suddenly appearing on the crossings at the front of the resorts. After a short while browsing the stalls and window shopping along the high street we jumped back on board to take the train back to spend the afternoon cleaning out our camper in preparation for returning it the following day.
We hung around until Nicola’s relatives came home from work to say goodbye, for now, before heading back down to Cairns to return the camper and to where we are staying with another of Nicola’s relatives.
A Ginger Down Under
12th August 2015
Port Douglas – Favourite place in Australia!
Its awesome! We are planning to spend a fair amount of time there!