Day 1 – Start of our Road Trip
Hi folks, welcome to our 100th blog on the trip, which
on average of 2,000 words a blog means we have written around 200,000 words so
far!!
Today we left our Air BnB apartment (in the rain) and set
off on the road with our next destination being Port Douglas, which is a bit
further north from Cairns. The roads were good and it wasn’t long until we
started seeing warning signs to look out for Kangaroo’s, now we really know we
are in Oz!
Setting off again, another 10K down the road we saw signs
for Palm Cove which had previously been recommended to us so we took the detour
to check it out. Once again it was a
very touristy resort with a nice sandy beach.
We parked up and took a stroll up the pier to check out the fishermen and
were impressed that the pier had info about fishes and minimum catch sizes all
along it, together with spots to anchor their rods in. It also gave us a better view of the bay, although
it wasn’t as stunning as we were made to believe.
After Palm Cove we motored the rest of the way to Port
Douglas and found the beach area where we pulled up, brewed a tea inside Muriel
(stove works well) and sat down to check out campsites on the internet which
were nearby.
We found one backpacker type site which seemed to fit the
bill but once we got there we found that it was fully booked, but the lady
there said for us to try next door.
Checking next door they had room at the inn, so we paid our plot fee and
headed round to our site.
This was the first time we had set up so we took our time
getting the awning out, putting up the Tables and Chairs, connecting the
electricity and turning the gas on, it looked pretty good and we had a cold
cider to celebrate.
We then had a look around the camp and were very impressed
with the facilities, very clean shower blocks, large communal kitchen area,
plenty of space and even a swimming pool.
We also got a bit of camper envy (sorry Muriel) as there were some
stunning caravans and Winnebago’s all around us with everything you could
imagine, including outside living area’s with 40” plasma TV’s!! (We hope John Hunt does not take up caravanning
with his gadget addiction!!).
After our brief tour of the park and as we were excited
about our first nights camping I’m afraid we just drank cold ciders and Red
Wine for the rest of the afternoon and evening, watching with interest as all
manner of campers turned up around us and set up. The only downside of this being we didn’t get
round to cooking dinner and there are plenty of sand flies here to munch on
Shell!
A bit later in the evening we set up our bed for the first
time and crawled into what was going to be our home for the foreseeable future.
Day 2 – Port Douglas Town
Waking quite early in the morning after being woken by the fantastic
laughing call of the Kookaburra’s in a nearby tree we deduced the following
things from our first night in our campervan:
. It’s quite comfy but very hot sleeping inside Muriel
without AirCon
. Being old and needing a pee in the middle of the night
means waking up your partner as it’s impossible to open and shut a van sliding
door quietly (Glenn not Shell)
As we did not feel like rushing and had seen nothing of Port
Douglas we went to reception and booked another night there and were lucky as
we were able to keep the same spot.
So we returned to the van and we knocked up our first full English
breakfast outside our van, using the electric fryer thing Shell had purchased
from our last apartment. I now stand
corrected because it is a brilliant bit of kit that can handle, bacon,
sausages, mushroom’s and eggs all in the one pan (less washing up) whilst the
tinned tom’s simmer on our gas stove, a bargain at £ 7.50!!
After a very successful camp breakfast we took a stroll into
town and our first impressions was that it was very polished and again very
touristy.
Walking along we dropped into a few shops to look for my
elusive cargo shorts but found nothing and somehow came out with a new pair of
expensive Havana flip-flops for Shell and some mossie spray and bite cream.
We walked up and down for a bit, noting that they had a bar
there that did nightly Cane Toad racing (have to try and check that out),
before ending up in a bar for a couple of cold schooners of beer.
In the afternoon we walked to the marina area, noting again
that they had plenty of croc warnings along the way (I’m definitely not getting
in the water, nets or not!!). Walking
around the marina we saw that they had pontoon boats for hire which you could
drive yourself up the creek and do a bit of Croc spotting. As we thought ‘when
are we going to do this again’ we booked one for a couple of hours for the next
afternoon.
Having a plan for the next day we headed back to the campsite,
quickly popping into reception to book another night (again we were allowed to
keep the same plot), where we relaxed and had a couple of cold ciders.
Later in the evening we pulled our pre-prepared Chili from
our fridge and Shell heated it on the stove whilst I boiled some rice up in the
camp kitchen, which we had for our evening meal, together with some of our red
wine. I also found out that Shell’s decision
to buy a lace food protector (why do we want one of those??) was a good one,
due to the fact of the amount of flies that wanted to join us for dinner!
When it was time for bed (it gets very dark early and
quickly around 6 – 6.30 this side of the world) we decided to set up the
upstairs bed to see if it was cooler, before acrobatically going to bed.
Day 3 – I ain’t no skipper!!
Once again we were woken early by the cheerful Kookaburra’s
and various other foreign bird calls (One of the big differences we have noticed
in Oz) and we discussed the lessons of last nights sleeping arrangements:
. The upstairs bed is a bid smaller and despite being close
to two top sliding windows, was equally as hot.
. Being upstairs makes it even more tricky to go for my
night time pee, having to shimmy down the bed before dropping onto the floor
without knocking anything over and then the same situation with the van door.
. The sand flies really like Shell
We had already got our plan for the afternoon sorted so we
thought we would relax during the morning with me doing a spot of blogging
whilst Shell went to the camp kitchen and knocked up her Chorizo stew special
to be put in our fridge for a later date (i..e. when we could not be bothered
cooking).
In the afternoon we headed back to the marina to get our
boat and were given various instructions by the guy running the hire shop.
. keep to the middle of the creek as sides are shallow as
its low tide and you could get stuck
. directions of which creeks to go up, definitely not this
one because you will get stuck
. when you see the golf course on your left of the bridges
just after it, turn around or you will get stuck
. In no instance get out of the boat as there are plenty of
crocs about
. where the best places were to spot crocs
. use plenty of mossie spray as the creeks have plenty of
sand flies (Nice one for Shell!!).
. If you get stuck here’s my mobile!
So we set off pleased to be doing something authentically
Australian and left the marina and joined the main creek and started to motor
along, admiring the mangrove forest scenery and trying to spot crocs on the mud
banks as we pottered along.
We motored along for around ½ hour trying to make sense of
the creek map we had, but without so far spotting any of our reptilian friends,
but enjoying the trip anyway.
A bit further on and the creek started to narrow and we soon
came up alongside the golf course, so I figured there would be somewhere where
it would be easy to turn around, then we spotted the bridges.
By this time the waterway had got narrower and shallower so
I decided to try and spin the boat around, however my nice turn ended up in a
30 point turn backwards and forwards until…..I managed to ground the boat on
the bank.
The engine cut out and we were stuck and starting to panic,
both a bit concerned we were stuck on a bank with the most dangerous crocs in
the world in the vicinity. I started and restarted the engine a few times
whilst Shell stood at the front of the boat rocking her a bit and eventually it
came free, although I’m not sure how good the propeller looks now!
Wiping the sweat from our brows I did finally manage to turn
the boat around and head back into deeper water, relieved that I did not have
to phone the guy and that we were away from the bank. What made me think I could drive a boat!!
Heading back downstream for around 15 minutes we then came
to a side creek that we were told was a croc hotspot. After a quick conversation about whether we wanted
to head down this smaller creek we decided we would but turn round before it
got narrow.
Slowly we headed down the creek trying to spot crocs but to
no avail, continuing very slowly in the middle of the creek until we passed
what was the dead tree, where we had been told there was a turning area shortly
after it. We could not work out where
the turning point was so we decided to just turn around before we got in
trouble again. After a shorter 10 point
turn, grinding from forward to reverse we were pointed in the right direction
and heading back again.
We still had a bit of time to kill so we took in very slowly
back up this side creek, ensuring I got nowhere near the bank, still no crocs
spotted but we did see a nice eagle in the trees.
From there we joined back with the main creek and motored
slowly back to the marina (without spotting any crocs!) and were glad when we
had moored up and handing the keys back. I must admit this wasn’t my best idea
and neither of us particularly enjoyed it after the first half hour!!
Making our way back through town we picked up a couple of steaks
at the supermarket and headed back to camp for the evening.
By the time we started cooking (steak, Peppers and salad) it
had started to get dark and by the time Shell had put the steaks on the fryer
it was pretty black (our lanterns were not cutting it!), so it was just a bit
of guess work when they were ready. Plating
up we tried to enjoy the food, but the absence of light and with the aid of
blunt knives it did not help.
After dinner I went to the kitchen to do the washing up
whilst Shell tidyed up the van. We could
then relax outside the van with a glass of vino, whilst the sand flies had
their dinner off of Shell (The mossie spray is useless!).
At some point during the evening and a lot earlier than you
would expect (It’s tiring this camping lark!) we headed off to bed, this time
we decided on a me upstairs, Shell downstairs configuration to see if lack of
body heat would make the sleeping arrangements any cooler!
No comments:
Post a Comment