Hong Kong & Australia 2006 (4/6)
2006 found us on a big trip to Hong Kong and Australia. I say "big" because we took 3 weeks instead of our normal 2 and we had a lot of flights getting from A to B to C etc. We had help with the booking this year in the form of Karen and team at Bon Voyage. Our itinerary was:
Red Centre
Port Douglas & Barrier Reef
QLD - North of Port Douglas
QLD - South of Port Douglas
An easy flight from Alice Spring to Cairns and we found ourselves in Queensland. We collected our "car" - looked and felt like a huge tank. It wasn't a Chelsea tractor as we needed it when we travelled north later in the week.
We called him TumTum which was totally unoriginal but that was his registration plate so that's who he was for the next 10 days or so.
Home for the next few days was the Lazy Lizard Inn at Port Douglas. It's a very friendly place and the view while we ate breakfast on our terrace included the beautiful leaves below.
Other than the fact that Port Douglas is a lovely place in itself to visit, one of the main reasons for going there is that it's easy to go out to the reef for snorkelling, diving etc.
This time we went out with Calypso. It was great. The boat wasn't too full, the food and service on board was excellent and they took good care of us whether snorkelling or diving.
The sea was beautiful (as always) but there was a strange fish swimming about - is it a whale?, is it a shark? - No! It's a Jonathon fish!
I treated myself to a "use once and throw away" underwater camera to play with for the first time ever. These are a few of the results - not too bad for a first effort but I've not quite captured the colours (or many fish come to that)!
Finally, a few pictures of the coral sea - the colours have not been "fixed" in Photoshop - they really were like this.
We spent day 2 of this part of the holiday in Port Douglas itself. A mooch round the town in the morning ...
... followed by a drive up to the Lookout over 4 mile beach ....
... followed by an afternoon spent playing on the beach and in the lovely warm sea.
In the evening, we wandered down to the harbour ...
... and dinner at Gone Bananas finished off the day nicely.
Although day 3 was the day to leave Port Douglas, we couldn't go without a visit to The Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary so we had Breakfast with the Birds and then a good wander round to see the birds and animals. The Sanctuary is split into 3 sections - Grassland, Rain Forest and Wetland with the Koalas in their own enclosures (one per area as they prefer). It's well worth a visit but allow yourselves plenty of time as there's loads to see.
Clockwise from the top left we have a Bush Stone Curlew, a Cassowary, a Black Necked Stork, a Cattle Egret, a male and female Eclectus Parrot, a Wandering Whistling Duck and another Cattle Egret.
The big picture above is a Laughing Kookaburra, then from top left we have another female Eclectus Parrot, an Emu, a Blue Winged Kookaburra, a Magpie Goose, a Dusky Moorhen, a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, a Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo, and a Pelican.
There were plenty of native animals to look at as well as the birds from reptiles (both freshwater and saltwater crocs and lizards) to Koalas (asleep as normal) and a whole load of kangaroos and wallabies. including tree kangaroos.
I'm always sad to leave Port Douglas and this time was no exception. However, the hotels up North were booked so we said goodbye to the animals, the beach etc and off we went on our self drive tour for 3 days/2 nights.