Northern Queensland – Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation holiday

Sanna and I were long overdue for a break from inner Sydney city life, needing to de-stress from work (mostly for me that bit) and get away from the coldness of Sydney in the winter time (it gets as low as 10 degree’s !).

From all my credit card points that were saved up we booked a 3 day trip to Northern Queensland to the pretty remote area of Port Douglas and the even more remoteness of Cape Tribulation where nowhere has mobile signal, TV reception is not to be found and the luxuries of mains power, mains water and gas does not extend that far North.

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Friday

The plane flight from Sydney is only 3 hours flight North and then there was a 1 hour coach ride further North to our first stop of Port Douglas. We checked into our hotel, which were some lovely apartments called the La Rochelle apartments or something like that, which had a lovely Moroccan feel about the place and two small swimming pools. Here’s Sanna relaxing on the apartments balcony.

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After settling in we spent Friday afternoon exploring the tiny town that is Port Douglas and its main long beach called 4-mile long beach, and it was quite obvious why it was called that. The main street in the town was very quiet and it was apparent that from the 37 degree heat everyone was on the beach.

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Look Sanna did a coconut poo on the beach!

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We walked along 4-mile beach and sneaked into the Sheraton resort to have a look around its grounds and inside the resorts main hotel. I’ve never seen so many swimming pools and tropical gardens at a hotel resort before it was very nice and would be a lovely place to stay.

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Back to the lookout of Port Douglas looking down 4-mile beach to the South.

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That evening we went to a restaurant/bar called ‘rust bar’ the place was all made of rusting corrugated metal sheeting in an outback Aussie style. The food was really great and with all the heat and sun it felt easy to become drunk and sleepy very quickly with bedtime calling early.

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Saturday

Today was Sanna’s pick of activities for the day and she chose to go snorkelling on the great barrier reef. The boat ride out to the reef takes a good hour and a half to get there, even travelling at a high speed. Sun-bathing all the way there made the trip go quickly and it felt so good to just forget about the worries of work and just chill out so much.

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Switching the digital camera to underwater mode and it was good fun experimenting taking photos of the divers and fish of all sizes, big and small that come looking for food from us.

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Here’s me looking like a pillock

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and Sanna thinks she’s a mermaid, a bit more graceful under water than me by the looks.

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Lunchtime was a help yourself buffet on board with different meats, salad e.t.c which all tasted really fresh and after a lot of snorkelling we had a big appetite.

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Sunday

On Sunday it was my pick of things to suggest to do and so we hired a convertible which turned out to be a Saab and headed out early to the North to explore the more remote parts of the area and headed North up towards Cape tribulation.

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After crossing the Daintree river by a short ferry ride we are stopped by this large warning sign that explains that we are deep within croc country and not to get too close to the waters edge, so especially no fishing unless you want to be dragged into the water to join the fish’s – in bits.

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The road ahead narrowed, we saw another car every 10-15 minutes and all the people that live North of the Daintree river have to create their own electricity via solar power and diesel generators.

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WE found some very secluded and remote feeling beaches but I was keeping my eye out all the time as there were freshwater AND seawater crocs that lived in the area.

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This was my protection in case something came running out of the bushes.

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This interesting shape of a tree is formed by some vines growing around an existing tree and suffocating it. Then the original tree in the middle dies and you get this strange hole up the middle formation, really clever but weird.

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The weather was again 37 degree’s with 80% humidity and taking a rest and a stretch in the shade felt good.

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Some of the beaches fringed with tropical tree’s and mangroves were picture perfect.

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Tennis girl model posing with the convertible Saab. After a days driving it became apparent that the Saab handled pretty well on all the twisty roads but looked ugly (to all but Northern Europeans) and had an annoying turbo lag when accelerating. Still, always good to try out another car experience.

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This is pretty much the furthest point North myself and Sanna have ever been to in Australia which was the Cape Tribulation Beach house backpackers resort. We had a good look around and it must be the nicest backpackers I’ve ever seen. Tropical villa’s set in the rainforest, with a big swimming pool, and all right on the beach front, I would love to go back.

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So that was the trip over with, 3 days away from the big smoke of Sydney but as always, it was nice to be back in the city. I never tire of seeing the big city after a trip away which always feels like home.