Queensland: Day 1 - 12th August 2009

I shall have to blog events in sections as otherwise the overload of information and photos is likely to make you/me/the blog explode. Here is part 1. I'll also add the photos (and as usual some ADDITIONAL BONUS PHOTOS!) to FLICKR as I go along, so you can view them there also in improved size and quality (how photobucket and blogspot manage make photos look so awful and washed out I shall never understand).

Day 1: Cairns - Ellis Beach - Port Douglas

We flew to Cairns in the afternoon of Tuesday 11th August, arrived at the airport, picked up our hired car for the week and drove off to our hotel (fairly basic but clean and comfortable enough for one night), before immediately walking into the city centre for a pizza and wine and cocktails (for Mark, anyway) at Rattle and Hum bar. It was SO warm! Even late in the evening, we sat out on the restaurant terrace in our summer clothes, delightful. After enjoying the balmy evening air, we headed back to bed.

On Wednesday 12th we got to look at the city properly. It's an odd place, Cairns. It has no beach but its shoreline is all mudflats. The road along the front is called the Esplanade, so we wandered along there to see what was afoot. Saw some big pelicans, which was quite good.



Looks like sand but it's just sandy mud.



Saltwater crocodiles are a big danger of the tropical north Queensland area. Signs regularly warn you of their presence in watery areas.

We went and had a lovely breakfast in a lovely cafe, then had a look at the city. To be honest, there is not a lot to see. Cairns is tiny and unimpressive, and all the buildings look like prefabs to me. It certainly doesn't have the looks of Sydney and Melbourne, anyway. But nevermind, we were not to be there long. After a couple of hours, we hopped in the car and whizzed off up the coast towards Port Douglas, our home for the week.

The coastal road suddenly opened out with views over this amazing beach. Ellis Beach is the northernmost of Cairn's Northern Beaches, and since it has no resort and no public transport access, it is nearly deserted. So we stopped off for a bit.









The sea was amazingly warm - like a bath that's semi-cooled but still just warm enough.





Everyone was quite excited!!







Double Island, as seen from the beach.







Our transport for the week. It was well comfy! And huge. Pere had fun learning to drive an automatic too, haha.

We then continued the remainder of the journey to Port Douglas, upon which I shall write in the very near future.....