Cairns to Port Douglas

Today our tour started. After a breakfast on the esplanade we were picked up from a hotel just down the road. There are 13 on the tour, 2 have come all the way from Sydney (a two week trip), another 3 joined in Brisbane, and us 8 joined in Cairns.

We aren’t the youngest but certainly not the oldest either, we are about in the middle. We are the only Aussies though the rest are a mix of Americans, English, Irish, and a Scot. I am one of 4 males and most of the females are solo travellers.

We headed out of Cairns and up into the hills behind to a place called Kurunda, suffice to say there were a lot of ‘different’ people up there. Anyway we went to Din Din Falls which were very impressive. There has been a lot of rain recently so the river has a lot of water in it so the falls were really pumping.

After a quick lunch (I actually ate vegan!!) we headed north to Port Douglas. Very tropical. Cane fields everywhere, very green, and rather humid. We stopped at a few places on the way before rolling into town at about 4pm.

We went for a river cruise from the wharf where some very big and expensive boats were parked. There are some crocs around but nothing as big as what they get around Darwin - though I am told there are big ones around. We spotted a couple of crocs and took some sunset photos.

Interestingly Port Douglas was a ghost town until Christopher Skase set up the Mirage resort and a couple of guys set up the Quicksilver reef tours. Since then tourism has taken off and it is now very flash indeed.

Being St Patricks Day the local Irish pub was packed!

Tomorrow we head up into the Daintree Rainforest.Read more