Day 57 - Toad Racing

After a night of even worse rain than our first night (that or there was a steel drum band practising on our roof) we drove to Port Douglas. Port Douglas wasn't actually on our original schedule due to time constraints but after Cyclone Debbie scuppered our visit to Airlie Beach we needed a new spot to go to the Great Barrier Reef from. The drive only took about an hour and most of the route is right along the coast so a beautiful journey. We stopped at a viewpoint to take a photo of the beach and might have stopped more if we hadn't have started binging on the new S-Town podcast.

We arrived at our camp site here. The people who run it are beyond friendly and sorted us out with a fan to borrow and a great annotated map of both natural points of interest and the pubs of interest. We headed straight out to the beach. They have a stinger net here which is supposed to keep an area of the beach jellyfish free however due to the inclement weather all the waves were coming over the top anyway. So it was a no on swimming for now. We wandered into town instead for lunch and general moseying before coming back to use the coin laundrette (whoop whoop). Port Douglas is a pretty town with lots of gift and clothes shop and little cafés. There's a marina on one side and four mile beach on the other so lots to see.

The late afternoon/evening was a little more exciting (how can we top laundry I hear you ask). First we headed to a bar called On The Inlet where everyday at 5 they put food out for a huge Grouper called George who turns up most days. Unfortunately he didn't make an appearance for us but we did have some good drinks and a bargain bucket of prawns. Matt hates prawns so it was all on me, my own Woman Vs. Food.

Dinner was at a Mexican place cleverly called The Mexican. After all my prawns I could only manage a couple of tacos but Matt's fajitas were huge. More wraps required! Then it was on to the main event of the evening, Cane Toad racing. It was bizarre. A man rocks up with a bucket of toads to the back room of a pub. They all have names and colours signified by a coloured band around their middle. You pay to get in and if your ticket gets drawn you get to have a toad in the race but sadly we weren't drawn. The lucky participants have to kiss their toad then put them in the middle of a round table. On the starting signal they blow party blowouts at the toads and when yours gets to the edge of the table you scoop it up and put it back in the bucket. I'm not sure how ethical it is, though the event was called something like the 'Probably Not Politically Correct or Ethical Cane Toad Racing Extravaganza'. For race two you could bid to be a jockey but I'm not parting with money to kiss a toad (no jokes necessary). The guy running it must make a fortune. He does it every night and we reckon took about $650. Even with a cut to the bar that's a fair profit. He had a great standard patter and it was a hilarious event.

We called it a night after all that excitement. And it's stopped raining so we might get a decent night's sleep!Read more