Its two years to the month since we were last at Port Douglas and due to its attraction we decided to revisit this wonderful place.

Thank God we left home two hours before our flight was to leave Melbourne due to the difficulty experienced in finding a car park in the new and extended Melbourne Airport car park facility.

It was cool when we left home and wonderfully warm on arriving at Cairns airport where we had some lunch then collected our hire car. We had an enjoyable trip to our destination with beautiful scenery and minimal traffic compared to our Melbourne highways.

We headed straight to the shopping mall in Port Douglas for supplies then onto our accommodation at “A Tropical Nights” resort that was a fully fitted out two-story town house complete with a swimming pool and only a five-minute walk to the stunning four mile beach.

Always wanting to explore/experience new and different places our first outing was to the” Agincourt Reef” situated on the Outer Barrier Reef some 75 km from the Marina at Port Douglas.

The journey on the massive Quicksilver Catamaran to the pontoon travelling at a constant 35 knots was incredibly smooth and we were well catered for with a lovely morning tea that further enhanced the experience.

After approximately 1-1/2  hour  we reached the permanently(fixed to the sea floor) pontoon where we alighted and had a marvelous lunch and from there we took to the semi submersible craft and viewed the reef from below sea level.Bron being a tad more adventurous than me donned the snorkelling gear and took to the water for a more personalised underwater experience.

Next on our to-do list was a day trip down to Babinda about  180 km from Port Douglas to see “The Boulders“that were situated in possibly the most beautiful flora and fauna reserve I have ever seen.

The boulders are the result of Volcanic action most probably millions of years ago and now having a fast flowing clear freshwater stream meandering through them, but before the water meets the rocks a beautiful large lake only a metre or so deep was a sight to behold.

Later that day we continued further along our journey towards Innisfall where our next point of call was the incredible and an absolute must see  enchanting “Paronella Park” located in the rainforest.

This place came about as a result of a young Spanish man’s dream that led him to Australia early last century and he had a desire to have his own castle,so after working as a sugar cane cutter ,property developer and numerous other jobs for many years saved enough to buy land and started building his castle/s as a labour of love!

Fire ravaged his dream and the present owners are hopeful of restoring it to its original glory.

Apart from walking the beach each day and going out for lunch and dinner most days our final outing was the “Flames of the Forest” dinner.We were collected from our Town House about 6:00 pm  by bus and taken into the depths of the Rain Forest to a point where a wall of flames heralded we had reached our destination.

Ourselves along with approximately 30 other couples then walked through the night-time forest only lit by lanterns along the edge of the pathway until we came to a point where the trees and surrounding bush were covered in coloured lighting that gave a spectacular view to where we were going to be dining for the night under a Marque size covering without walls.

We dined on Kangaroo (YUK), Crocodile(not as bad),lamb and a number of other delightful delicacies and being accompanied by an accomplished singer with an acoustic guitar.

All in all our trip was great and can’t be fully captured,however if you have yet to visit Port Douglas be sure it’s on your Bucket List.

Cheers

Ron