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I haven't' got much to report today as we spent a lot of time in an internet cafe getting software updates and uploading pictures etc.
Henry could see Oly and Em weren't joking when they said
Waving goodbye to the wind and rain in Misson Beach, we set off down the coast in search of sunshine.
We booked into the pleasant Rowes Bay Caravan Park where we stayed before. This time we had the luxury of Henry and did not have to suffer a leaking tent.
Today was promising to be a day like all the others. We took the rocking and rolling catamaran over to a very misty and drizzly Dunk Island.
On the island we were herded together with all the other non-resort guests and invited to explore the islands beaches and walking tracks.
If we wished to do any of the other exciting activities, such as kayaking, tennis, swimming in the pool, we would have to pay an additional $40 each for the pleasure. This did include lunch at the resort, though probably not $40 worth. We had already spent $46 each on the boat fare and we had not brought our bathers so we declined the offer.
If we really wanted to swim, the naturist beach on the island didn't cost a cent and lack of bathers wouldn't be a problem...
The forest was very dense at times and we had to fight foliage and horse flies for the first hour. The track was better after we passed coconut beach, I think most people only get that far and then turn back. We didn't get that option seeing we were walking the wrong way around!
Specifically I decided to do some tests on the photos that I have taken, and have found out that they are not as good as they should be.
Seeking an easy life, I naively decided at some point in the past to just use the Google Picasa so that I could do all my photo management in one place.
Well, I am going to give up the easy life and try a two pronged approach: first of all, open the images in Nikon View and export as high quality jpegs; secondly, use Google Picasa as I have done in the past to manage my thousands of images. It makes the process quite a bit longer, but the results will be worth it. In order to retrospectively apply this process to all my photos, well I think it will take a few days. Once that is done I will upload a few of the special ones!
Lisa loved it here so much she stayed two months, Dave and Elaine from Port Douglas have purchased land and plan to move here in the near future. What are we missing that is so great about this place?
It didn't help that we were drenched in the night. It didn't stop raining (even I am getting bored going on about it). Our back door and side door was open for air circulation and the rain just poured all over us.
Dunk Island was on today's agenda. We took one look at the water taxi at South Mission Beach and decided today's churning ocean was not for us. Tomorrow we will get the catamaran, they didn't have any room on today's.
We did pop over to South Mission Beach and it is much nicer than over here. There is nothing there but a camp site and holiday apartments, and it works. The beach was pretty good. It is quiet, calm and the view of the ocean and Dunk Island is a nice touch!We have made a few changes on the design of the site and if you have clicked on the links at the top of the page you will notice they don't work.
There is nowhere for them to go yet, we are working on that...
Sometime soon we will let you know when they are live.
Oly & Em
We set off bright and early from Cairns Coconut Resort. As we pulled out between its neon coconut trees I flicked through the brochure they gave us when we checked in late last night, reading out to Oly the fantastic facilities on offer.
We had to make do with the complimentary bag of jelly beans they gave us when we checked out.
We arrive in Mission Beach a few hours later. Mission Beach is spilt into four areas, Bingil Bay, Mission Beach, Wongaling Beach and South Mission Beach. As we drove through, we started to wonder if we were in the right place, there was nothing here. A few shops, resturants and lots of holiday apartments and camp grounds... this better be some kind of "beach of the gods".
Mission Beach Hideaway Holiday Village is where we decided to stay, we are Big 4 (and Top Tourist Caravan Parks) club members. For a small fee ($40 and $20 for two years) we enjoy the benefit of around 10% discount and the warm contented feeling knowing your part of one big happy camping family, or something like that!We are in Mission Beach until Tuesday and have no Vodafone signal.
If you need, or want, to call us we will be on our Telstra mobiles.
Drop us an email if you don't have the numbers and we will email you back.
Oly & Em
We scooted down to Toby who worked his magic and made us take back all those terrible things we said about retiring Henry and getting a fabulous camper van with a permanent bed above the drivers cab where we could nap when ever we wanted too!
The juddering was a loose wire to the idle throttle and the second gear issue was a corroded bush (I think I got that all correct, can't ask Oly as he is naping in the bed we have to spend five minutes putting together before we can nap). Its all fixed and Henry is a dreambus again.
We jumped on the Reef Rocket (Oly and I had alot of fun with that) and arrived 45 minutes later on the island just in time for our prepaid buffet lunch on the Big Cat (not recommended). Stomachs bursting we then tried to snorkel in 12 inches of reedy water. I lasted all of 10 minutes before I got fed up and sat on the beach. Oly persisted for a while longer.
There are two areas that you can snorkel, one is supervised and one is unsupervised. We went to the later as it was the first one we came across and the chap on the boat said it was a good spot. The second spot was much better, so Oly said, and his fab pictures are proof enough. I didn't go in as I had taken off my stinger suit and couldn't be bothered to put it back on. If I had maybe I wouldn't have a (nearly) all over blush right now.
We had a quick walk along the beach and board walk before we boarded our boat to take us back to Cairns and waiting Henry.
This rain won't let up. The sky is grey, it is cold and wet and we are not having much fun here.
Outrunning the rain we then went to Lake Barrine and had a delicious cooked breakfast at the tea house. We purchased six of their famous scones to take away, we would have bought more but the woman wouldn't let us in case there was a rush (we were the only people around for miles). Apparently yesterday was busy as people on the coast fled up the mountain to get away from the tsunami.
Henry is playing up again, it's really hard to get him into second gear (not something that is fun when you are pulling away at traffic lights) and he has started to judder. Oly is not amused and there has been talk of getting a Winnebago or even one of these snazzy solar powered eco Verdier vans when they come out, I would love it, how fabulous are they!
Its still very very wet.
To make it worth getting out of our dry comfortable Henry we then visited the Curtin Fig Tree. That was impressive. It is a strangler fig which germinates at the top of a host tree and then grows its roots down to the ground. Once this is done the fig tree strangles the host tree and carries on growing. The host tree here fell over into a neighbouring tree and the fig trees roots attached to that one as well creating a curtain effect. The roots drop 15 meters to the ground.
We are just relaxing up in the tablelands working out our next move.
Oly and I were honoured to have been invited to Sue's daughter's wedding today.
The wedding day started at 12:30. We drove up in the morning and started with a informal lunch overlooking the falls.
There were a lot of long, heartfelt hugs being exchanged and you could see that this was a very happy and loving union.
We stayed for the very entertaining wedding dance which was reminiscent of John Travolta and Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction.
Paul and Stella kindly invited us all around for dinner tonight and Henry, or as he is known at the moment 'enry after the H fell off his name, finally got to meet Fritz.
Not for the faint hearted.
Each time the gondola cabin went over the top of the pylons they shuddered.
We would have gone one way on the Kuranda Scenic Railway but there had been a landslide in February that took out part of the track. Repairs were in progress and it wouldn't be ready until May.
Here we are, back again in Cairns.
We were very sad to leave Port Douglas. We liked it a lot, so far it is probably my favourite place. I loved the small town community feel and the added bonus of having fresh faces every day. Port Douglas is predominately a honeymoon and diver destination, they are generally not too much of a rowdy bunch.
We spent a lot of time this morning in Bundarra Gallery choosing some paintings. After much deliberation we finally chose a panel by Peter Overs and two squares, plus six small A5 and a couple of A4 canvases. Quite a productive morning.
The only down sides of Port Douglas we found were:
I am sure you all gather Oly and I are real foodies and are only too happy to spend a lot on a meal, providing it is good. We keep on going back to the Waterbar & Grill in Cairns because the steak is exceptional, when we deviate from that we are sadly disappointed.
Back to reality.
Back in the camp site, Henry was pleased to see Blondie was back and OK (she had gone back to Cairns with an oil leak).
and then blowing a party streamer at it until it hops into your hand at the edge of the table and then you put it in a bucket on the other side of the room.
