Our life in Tropical North Queensland

For the first time in many months, we managed to have a -mostly- relaxing weekend. Of course, we still had emails to reply to; car rental enquiries for me, and Spanish enquiries for Maria. Speaking of which, have you even seen how much of the site Maria has translated into Spanish recently? She has not only translated most of the information about Tropical North Queensland, but has spent months researching other major destinations around Australia, and has included information about them as well… Sydney, Melbourne, Kakadu, Thulimbah…No wonder she hasn’t had time to make me bacon and eggs in the mornings any more! 

We still had camera deliveries over the weekend, but we’re getting used to that now, and it’s just a normal part of our daily routine. In fact, it was because of a camera delivery to Palm Cove on Sunday that we decided to go the extra distance and visit Port Douglas. Well, it was just an excuse, really. Both of us really have a soft spot for Port Douglas, with its laid back holiday atmosphere, and its stylish charm.

It was a typical sleepy Sunday in ‘Port’, but with promoted festivities planned for the evening as part of a week-long local festival. Maria and I both love exploring a good market, so we headed down to the waterfront where every Sunday the Port Douglas Markets take over the parkland around the famous ‘Saint Mary By The Sea’ chapel. Which reminds me, have you seen the most recent addition to Cairns Unlimited?

Port Douglas markets didn’t disappoint, with a great mix of fresh produce, clothes, jewellery, arts and crafts. As a dedicated snacker, I did find it a bit light on the munchies department, though, and was relieved when I eventually found a nut stall, where I treated myself to a bag of honey pistachios and a bag of chili garlic peanuts. I shared them with Maria of course.

Hi, I’m sure by now you all now that one of businesses that is part of Cairns Unlimited is renting digital underwater cameras to take fabulous picture of our even more fabulous Great Barrier Reef. Here you have just a sample of the photos you could be taking if you rented one of Cairns Unlimited digital underwater cameras.

We’re really sorry we don’t update our blog as often as we thought we would, but between working long hours every day and enjoying life to the limit it is really difficult to find time to keep you all updated. We try, though.

Yesterday we managed to get away from the office again and took a reef trip to Frankland Islands, off the coast of Cairns. Our friends were celebrating their little boy’s 2nd birthday and they organised a get together in the island with some more friends.

So our morning started with a beautiful river cruise, we were all hoping to see crocs in the area but unfortunately they were nowhere in sight. However, we saw lots of different birds and we enjoyed the ride lots. As soon as we got to the open water of the sea, the fun increased even more. The wind was strong and the sea very rough so we were up and down as if we were on a rollercoaster.

Frankland Islands are completely deserted and there is no human construction at all, apart from a few wooden tables and benches under a gazebo where lunch is served. But nothing else, which is pretty unusual these days. And unlike many other islands, there is only one company allowed to visit the islands and they only take a maximun of 100 guests (I reckon there were less that 70 people onboard yesterday), so the point I’m trying to make is that you won’t find huge crowds there.

As soon as we arrived at Frankland Islands we got our gear together and went snorkelling. The weather wasn’t very good and because the sea was so rough we couldn’t visit the sites where the coral is at its best. However, we got to see pretty decent ones although none of the photos we took with our Cairns digital underwater cameras turned out any good, the water was a bit too cloudy for it. Some people saw a sea turtle as well but we were a bit slow and by the time we made it to where it was, it was already gone.

The afternoon included a semi submersible boat and a guided tour of the island, my favourite without any doubt. Dave, our guide, explained to the group many of dry corals that lay on the beaches of the island, how they are formed and how they stick to each other to form what we see underwater. Sometimes it is difficult to imagine that they are living creatures, isn’t it? But besides corals, we saw lots of different animals, such as sea cucumbers, some little fish and other creatures that I cannot name, but I have included a photo of two of them.

The weather was fairly nice during most of the day, but just as we were getting ready to go back to the boat and head back to Cairns, it started raining heavily. One thing that really surprised me yesterday was seeing how one of our friends washed her hair with rain water. You could never do that in Europe, pollution is too high. But I followed her example and I can certify that my hair, when it dried, was completely free of salt and sand. Amazing!!!

After the trip we went back to Lachy and Nadege’s for a barbie. Thanks guys for a really good day, we really needed to break away from work from a few hours. And when we went home, this is what we found stuck to our front window. Cute, isn’t it? It’s still having a siesta on our garden table.