Day 9 – Port Douglas

 
A fairly miserable start to the day today – it’s been raining since 4pm yesterday afternoon and still raining as I’m trying to pack the last of our gear into the car and trailer. I had to swim to the laundry last night to do the washing – at least there weren’t any cane toads – too bloody wet!!

Also, I’ve come down with a cold – Kylie had one at the start of the trip (and still has a lingering cough) and in her ‘caring and sharing’ way, has passed it onto me……

After a few days in Townsville, we had to get Ryan used to driving again. He kept asking to go back to the water park for the first hour or so of the day!!

The sun came out about 150km north of Townsville (just after Ingham) and the temperature got back up to a familiar 32 degrees.

There was some pretty impressive scenery just after we passed through Cairns – mountains, beaches and the ocean – all in one!! We stopped on the side of the road for a couple of snaps of the scenery (both at the same spot, just a different angle:





About 60km out from Port Douglas, the road became very narrow as it hugged the coast and the side of a mountain at the same time. The speed limit was 80km hour for most of this section, although anything over 60km hour was far too difficult, much to the disgust of the (somewhat loud and abusive) drivers behind me – I didn’t care though, every flash and horn just made me drive a little safer (as in slower).

We arrived in Port Douglas in the early afternoon and checked into our ‘deluxe villa’ – which is practically a 2-bedroom house with a full kitchen, lounge, dining and bathroom. They have fans, TVs and air conditioners in both bedrooms as well as the lounge room (not what we’re used to in the cabins we’ve stayed in so far, although the quality has generally been good).

We drove into town for dinner and took a drive up to the local lookout for these photos:





For those of you with a copy of our day by day itinerary, you can fairly well ignore it now (other than the bold locations which we pre-booked from home) as we’ve deviated significantly from the original plan!

Quiz Question – What is the name of the highway from Cairns to Port Douglas, named after a famous captain?

Rest Stops – Ingham, Cardwell Creek, Cairns, Innisfail, Clifton Beach (only 400km but had to pee lots for some reason today?)

Accommodation – Glengarry Holiday Park (Big 4 Caravan Park)