Daintree River and Port Douglas

Hello again from our tropical paradise

Summary: Photos & Videos – the why & the when, room with a view II, cruising on the Daintree River, Port Douglas is pretty cool, shopping is done, let’s check out their healthcare system.

The videos take forever to upload onto the blog. There will come a day when that is time well spent (rainy day, start the upload, walk away), but that day is not today. Meanwhile, I can write my blog entries while Alex sleeps and upload them along with photos without any hassle. They may not be Pulitzer winners, but you'll see how great this place looks (even if you can't hear their accents!) Thus, you can expect a few more photos to help tell the stories (starting now). What does the view from that hotel room look like?

The objective today was to visit the tropical areas north of Cairns and do some needed shopping. Both goals were achieved and we had a good time doing it.

We woke up at 4:30 this morning. OK, Alex woke up at 4:30 and proceeded to encourage me to wake up, but I held my ground until 6am. We had breakfast, booked our plans for tomorrow (Kuranda), packed some things to go back in the car, and hit the road at about 8. Having already had a full morning, one of us fell asleep as we passed Port Douglas. We kept going further north and it was just amazing: cane fields, mountains, beautiful empty beaches, palm trees aplenty,… and we got to the Daintree River and the Ferry Crossing. The mountains were simply spectacular. My expectation was that there would be mountains, but nothing as beautiful as these. This was full-on Kauai or Maui beautiful. Given my cautious nature, I was really not planning to do any croc-spotting river tours, but I admire smart marketing. There was a Daintree scenic drive that went past these croc-tours and Alex was asleep, so I was making due with one of the prettiest stretches of road you can imagine. Passing these tours was something of an eye-rolling comedy show. I don’t recall exactly, but one sounded like Crazy Chris-o’s Croc Cruise (the word “Crikey” was in there somewhere). Then I pass Earth Friend’s Respectful of Nature Ecological Experience – OK, I am making up that name because I was trying to keep from swerving into sugar cane due to eye roll, but I stand by the theme of the name and would venture to guess that no less than three of those words are in the actual name (and I offer bonus points if you can guess the dominant color in the signage). Quick aside: I do not intend to make fun of what he is doing or those thinking about the environment. The funny part to me is that these are all people doing (essentially) the exact same thing - driving a boat up and down a river while yapping away about a thing they love. What I love is the self-segmentation. (OK, maybe I am not in his target audience)

So as I am grinning ear-to-ear, I see one where the only message on the sign is “next cruise at 9:30”. It was 9:20 and reasonably temperate outside (maybe 75-80 degrees). Why not? What, have I been on too many tropical river cruises? So thanks to that action-oriented message, I turned around and we got on (there is a little jungle walk to the boat). The guy running the tour is this salt-of-the-earth good guy, telling great stories and jokes at everyone’s expense (in a way that everyone appreciates). We saw these huge fruit bats and he said there are a couple crocs who sit underneath opportunistically for when a branch breaks and they fall. Naturally, we saw a few 2.5m and 3m saltwater crocodiles, but we did not get right up on them where they could jump in the boat. Plus, these were rather relaxed-looking crocs that seemed comfortable with us pulling up. I’ve seen that in some places (places named Darwin) they practically train the crocs to jump out of the water, but there was none of that. Our guide says they feel more comfortable with the motors on because turning the engine off (going silent) was predatory behavior. There’s a logic there, but I simply have no idea if the crocs would agree. All I know is that not a single croc (out of four) tried to evade us as we got closer. One boat was behind us for about 15 minutes, doing the same sight seeing we were – apparently it was the aforementioned Earth Friend and the tour owner/ tour guide (no conglomerates here – you own the boat, you give the tour) was a Green Party member of the city council. Either he commutes a long way or their definition of city does not jive with mine. I have lived in dorms with more people than any of those cities. Anyhow, it is clearly a friendly community among these guides. As you know, I mentioned that the Daintree Forest has some spiders as big as your hand. Well, they may have seen me, but I never saw any of them. I just saw this idyllic brackish river with mangroves, eagles, inedible fruits, bats, frogs, cows, and crocs through the eyes of a tour guide who is at ease with the scene. So their self-segmentation got me as well – poetic justice, no doubt. Alex just wanted crackers, which I did not have. So he asked again. A few times.

After the cruise, we got a snack on the way out and headed south to Port Douglas. Port Douglas is supposed to be a fun place to party, so I showed up at lunchtime on a Sunday. Actually, Port Douglas is the upscale town next to a stretch of beautiful resorts, beaches, and spas. Palm Cove, which somehow made its way onto my map (above) touts itself as the Spa Capital of something (Queensland? Australia? – I missed it). It is probably the foremost of several beautiful resort towns between Cairns and Port Douglas, but Port Douglas was more my speed. It was kind of like Carmel, California, but I would venture to say it has a bit more of the cool factor. Maybe more like Santa Barbara. I’ve mentioned (to the point of excess) that there are box jellyfish and saltwater crocs up here, but the box jellyfish are a seasonal thing (that can be prevented in small areas with netting) and saltwater crocs do not show up on populous beaches very often. My point is that Port Douglas sees themselves as the cultured folks (compared to Cairns), but it is also a tad small. True to reputation, I’ll bet that place is good at night as well. If you’re in the neighborhood I recommend you stop by. The only reason I can't say more is that I don’t have enough info to say much more. Good initial impression.

Last thing was doing shopping, but you don’t need my rundown on that. The weather was perfectly clear all day, but it did start getting warmer. This last Beach view gives you a sense of how those deserted beaches look around here.

Shopping: so some brands are familiar to this American (K Mart, Target), some are sort of familiar (Woolworths, went under in US about a decade or so ago), but at the end of the day, we got the stuff we needed. We even got a custom first aid kit, based on saying to the “chemist” (pharmacist to those of you wondering if I pulled up to a meth lab) that I am traveling from here to Perth and back with this toddler.

Said toddler has had a nagging cough, but nothing serious I hope. Today was rather hot, but I took his temperature and he has one. This evening after his nap, we will go to the Medical Centre. Tomorrow is a relaxing day, taking the sky lift to Kuranda and the train back.