Time to Leave Port Douglas!

Another over due blog I’m afraid, but I am sure they will be more consistent once we get on the road tomorrow and start heading south again! It’s hard leaving a place where we both feel so at home, but I am sure we are both going to find ourselves back up here sometime in the not too distant future. It’s been a few weeks since the last blog and we’ve mostly spent the time working to top up our travel funds, but we have also managed to find time to get out and enjoy Port Douglas and Far North Queensland before moving on with our travels.

It was sad to see Shei go back to RSPCA Cairns after her stay with us in Port Douglas and even Ruby, who was more than slightly miffed that Shei had taken alpha dog status from her, seemed a little quiet following the departure of our foster dog. Although at first Shei didn’t seem to understand why Nicola was turning up in the following weeks to walk other dogs as well as her; she’s enjoyed the little bit of extra time Nicola has given her over the last few weeks. I’ve been to visit her a couple of times, she seems happy and is continuing to slowly bulk up like we had hoped. Nicola has been keeping regular tabs on the RSPCA website waiting and hoping for her to find a furrever home so hopefully she will be adopted soon!

We’ve also been spending time with Ryder and Erin running up to their departure from Port Douglas. Obviously we are not going to miss Ryder as much as we do Shei, but it will certainly be sad to see Erin go! They held a few civilised drinks at Rex Smeal Park and a few less civilised drinks at the local bar; where we learned that Nicola is able to beat Ryder at his favourite drinking game! It is always fun to watch a grown man get beaten at a drinking game by a 50kg girl! Their departure was a shame as we’d just started finding excuses to go around and use their pool and now we are having to sneak into the local resorts for our afternoon swim! Interestingly this is apparently turning into a family tradition as her parents did the same whilst staying in Port Douglas in the early 90s!

Jason had spent a few weeks heading up and around the coast from Adelaide to rejoin us for our last few weeks in Port Douglas. It was great catching up on his solo adventures and we had a few household evenings out fishing. Jason, Nicola and I decided to squeeze another trip out on Quicksilver to see the reef again. We went out on one of Quicksilver’s smaller dive boats, Silver Sonic, which, rather than just mooring at one of the pontoons, visited three snorkel sites giving us some variety to explore. Nicola and myself also used the opportunity to do an introductory scuba dive!
Scuba diving is just about as awesome as you would expect with us having the added benefits of the warm, crystal clear waters and Great Barrier Reef setting! We were given instruction on the boat followed by having to demonstrate 3 skills in water: adjusting your buoyancy (backed up with the knowledge not to torpedo yourself to the top from 10 metres under the surface), clearing your mask and swapping to your emergency regulator and back again. We then began our descent and after a couple of minutes you had convinced yourself enough that you weren’t going to drown that the experience became quite enjoyable.

After a little while we were allowed to stopped linking arms and in a tight group spent 35 minutes swimming around the reef. A great moment of the dive for me was rolling over at 10 meters depth and looking upwards at the volume of water separating me from the vast majority of the living human race, a kind of scary and surreal experience that you just have to try. Also I’ve discovered that my Anxiety, which for those that know me will understand can be difficult to deal with at times, disappears whilst in water and whilst scuba diving I seem to have an amazing peace and calm which must come from the complete control over my own fate and focus on breathing. It’s like breathing therapy on steroids!

I’ve also been working on the Bally Hooley, both on Sundays and a bit behind the scenes to help with a bit of design on posters and materials around the station. During the week I’ve been helping with the restoration of the Diesel locomotive, Mowbray, which has spent a few years sat in a siding a little unloved and after some maintenance and repairs we managed to get the loco driving quite happily again. Unfortunately I won’t be around to see the new tyres get put on which are required to get her back into commission; which is a real shame! As a thank you for my help with the Bally Hooley John, the owner, invited Nicola and myself out for a day on board his boat, M.V. Monsoon, where we went for a snorkel out on the reef whilst John and the crew did some work on the boat. It was a nice day out and great to see the reef again before leaving Port Douglas!

 

Once Jason had arrived we finally took a trip up to the Daintree, starting out with breakfast at our favourite spot, Mango Jam. It takes just over an hour to drive up to the small cable ferry which carries you across the Daintree River. Our first stop was a lookout which revealed spectacular views of the Far North’s East Coast. We then continued our drive through the mountains to spend a few hours at the Daintree Discovery Centre. It’s a great self guided discovery tour along a sky walk with some great information and displays along the way. Once we had our fill we headed further into the National Park. Stopping for lunch at a cafe we found a few of the local parrots who came up and gave us a great display. Given the heat and humidity we thought we would have a cool off at a swimming hole, but on our arrival and it’s lack of a big sign saying “it’s safe to swim here”, we decided against it in a region known for it’s friendly crocs! We headed back and stopping at a beach for a couple of photos.

We celebrated Nicola’s Birthday with a trip down to Rex Smeal Park mid-week for some Sausages on the BBQ watching the Sunset followed by a few potent homemade cocktails and a rather competitive game of UNO. On the actual day of her birth Nicola was at work in the morning before coming home and taking Django for a nice walk on the beach. Nicola then skyped her parents whilst Jason cooked the house a curry from their dad’s recipe, followed by the cake I lovingly baked that afternoon. I think the cake made her day!

We’ve also been looking forward to our next plans and have booked tours to the Whitsundays and Fraser Island which we missed on the way up as it was a little cold. For Christmas we will be in Canberra with Nicola’s relatives there and will swing by Brisbane to see Sam on the way down. We’ve booked accommodation and a Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb over New Years for Sydney as well as accommodation and Australian Open Tennis tickets in Melbourne. So at least we have a rough path laid out for us until February.

All that to look forward too hasn’t made the last few days any easier with a BIG Thanks Giving dinner put on by Danielle and a last meal out at Salsa to remind us of what we are going to miss up here. On the up side, we did see Ed Sheeran whilst at Salsa, in between his Australia tour dates! A short distraction from bitter sweet excitement of getting back on the road tomorrow!