As indicated in one of Lydia's earlier posts, we made our first interstate trek up to Port Douglas, Queensland for a long weekend on the beach and in the warm Queensland sun. While there is no question that Victoria is just as Australian as Queensland (and in some ways, more), we felt like we needed to head North to experience a different Australia- one where Crocs and sharks abound, where rainforests meet temperate clear blue water, and where they drink XXXX over VB.
Our chosen location of Port Douglas was not random- Lydia and I had accumulated a few free resort nights at Starwood hotels while we were road warriors in the States, and we were determined to use them before they expire at the end of the year. Unfortunately, Australia's Starwood Restort property selection is pretty small- on the magnitude of two.
We opted for the northern most resort located in Port Douglas, north of Cairns, to experience the Australian rainforests and the Great Barrier Reef:
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The trip began rather dismally- in the interest of maximizing our days of vacation, (and in saving a bit of cash on the flights) we opted for a 6am flight from Melbourne to Cairns. Never again. The 6am flight meant a 4am alarm to make it to the airport with enough time to check in and get to the gate. Coupled with the fact that I was basically at the worst point of a head cold, I was not a happy camper that morning (a point to which Lydia can well attest). It's amazing the contrast of the notion of a 6am flight when booking a flight online, versus the day of... Despite the unholy early awakening, we made it to the airport and onto our flight with no issues, and arrived in Cairns around 9am (fun fact: although not any farther West than New South Wales or Victoria, Queensland does not participate in daylight savings time) where we picked up our rental and partook on our highly anticipated first adventure; driving in Australia:
Since arriving in Australia, I'd been highly anticipating driving on the left side of the road. It just seemed like it was a requirement to officially lay claim to living in Australia. The novelty of it was exciting, the unfamiliarity of it a challenge. It was surprisingly natural being on the left side of the road and the right side of the car. Within five minutes I'd pretty much gotten the hang of it, except for the swapped "windscreen" wipers and turn signal levers (I never quite got used to that), and we only had one "uh oh" moment in a roundabout. The trip from Cairns up to Port Douglas is a quick hour drive along the scenic John Cook highway. The highway runs along the Queensland coast, weaving among the coastal cliffs, with some thrilling hairpin turns every few kilometers. I had committed myself to watch the road intently, although more than a couple of times I found myself trying to steal a glance out to the right over the crystal blue water. We found a lookout point where we pulled over to take in the views and grab some pictures:
After another twenty minutes of coastline views, we found ourselves further inland, among the sugar cane fields, zipping through tropical and pastoral scenery. More than once we encountered some derelict construction sites complete with automated stop-light lane provisioning. Although I've never seen these lights in the States, they are quite popular in Australia, particularly in rural or remote areas. Essentially they replace the guys that stand at construction sites with the "Slow" and "Stop" signs when one lane is closed due to construction. The light turns green for one direction of traffic, and red for the other, with amber (yellow) for the interim time before the lights change to allow the other direction of traffic to flow. The system works pretty well for the most part, except it is critical for long single-lane stretches that the amber light is set to the correct amount of time to allow the traffic to clear the single lane before allowing the other direction of traffic to go. In the event that the amber light is not timed correctly, you can essentially have two directions of traffic heading straight toward each other on one lane; not something you want when roadtrains are hauling through at 120km/hour (75m/hour). While studying abroad in Queensland four years ago, exactly that happened to our bus on our way to Carnarvon Gorge. Our bus driver had no choice but to quickly divert the bus onto the graded shoulder to let the road train pass, followed by an immense dust cloud. Fortunately enough, the road workers who set the timers on the lights along our route were devoted to safety and we didn't find ourselves playing chicken with a 3-trailer tractor-trailer.
After a bit of "sightseeing" around Port Douglas (Google Maps misplaced the marker for our hotel), we found the resort and checked in. After checking in, we made our way to the room where we collapsed onto the bed for a quick nap before heading out and exploring the resort.
We were quite impressed with the Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas resort- all of the buildings were surrounded by artificial lagoons, where we could literally step off our balcony into the water. We stopped near the outdoor bar and ate lunch by the pools planning the rest of our day:
We knew that the resort lay on the beach, but we couldn't figure out how to get down to the water, so we headed up to the main lobby to ask. We found the gentleman that checked us in and kindly asked him how to access the beach. He gave us detailed instructions and almost as an afterthought before heading out, I asked him, "oh yeah, is it safe to swim?" Without hesitation, his eyes grew wide and he responded firmly and succinctly, "No." An awkward pause ensued where we just stared at each other- I waiting for further explanation, and he staring alertedly back at me, perhaps to add effect. After a minute of this, my curiosity got the best of me, and I had to ask, "Why not?" His response, which seemed well rehearsed and as if on queue, was less alarming than I was anticipating. "It's stinger season. We strongly urge our guests to not enter the water, as a sting can cause severe injury..." death was not mentioned as a possible outcome, but it was almost implied. Needless to say, our concierge's theatrics paid off, and we elected to admire the beach from a safe distance, after getting in up to our ankles to test the water (hey, we've gotta live on the edge a little):
The next day, we had to wake up early to catch our ride to the pier for our private dives with Mark from Blue Dive. We had chartered the private dive as Lydia is not yet certified and we wanted to be able to go on multiple dives together with Lydia receiving some more personalized attention. Mark was great, he showed up right on time in the dive van with his fellow instructor Kay. Once on the catamaran, he walked through all of the Discover Diving principles with Lydia and got us all set with gear (including stinger suits) for our first dive. The diving was incredible! Having dived the GBR before, I thought I could anticipate what to expect, but the reef was even more incredible than I recalled:
We had three separate dives, seeing incredible sea life on each (although my first dive was pretty limited due to my new mask fogging). We saw countless varieties of fish, coral, and other sea life. The highlights include four different sharks (5 foot Wobbegong, two 4+ ft Grey Reef Sharks, and a blacktip), a 4ft long sea turtle, schools of barracuda, clown fish (Nemo), surgeon fish (Dori), parrot fish, sea anemones, and fire coral.
The dives were incredible and well worth the trip up! That evening we again met up with Ian, my cousin, to grab dinner and drinks in town. We stumbled upon a Cane Toad race in one of the bars, which was amusing, albeit not as exciting as we had hoped. We did get a free bottle of less-than-spectacular champagne for Lydia's efforts as the score keeper (I volunteered her :-), and we enjoyed an awesome Thai dinner.
The next day we spent lazing around the resort while Ian dove the reef. I had my first (and probably last) professional massage- I found the whole experience awkward, and I was afraid that if I relaxed too much, I might fill the room with scents other than burning incense. Our last day, Sunday, we picked up Ian and took a trip up to Mossman Gorge to see the Queensland rainforests:
All told, our first Australian vacation was amazing! We had a great time driving on the left side of the road, relaxing in the resort, diving the reef, avoiding stingers, and getting up close and personal with brush turkeys. We dropped Ian off in downtown Cairns then caught our flight back to Melbourne to head back to work the next day.
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