Australian Adventure: Week 27, January 22-28, 2023

This week we finished exploring Port Douglas before heading South towards Bundaberg!

On Sunday, we were back out on the Great Barrier Reef on Quicksilver. The Quicksilver boat leaves from Port Douglas and pulls up to a permanent pontoon on the Agincourt Reef 2 hours from shore. On the pontoon they have facilities for lunch, snorkelling, scuba diving, a semi-submarine and an underwater observatory. Our first activity of the day was on the semi-submarine to see the reef from the comfort of a dry boat. Then, we snorkelled for a few hours before jumping in for a scuba dive. The visibility was not the best, but we had a great dive in the beautiful warm water.

On Monday, Webster went white water rafting on the Tully River! Tully River Rafting is regarded as the best rafting in Australia. He experienced grade 3-4 rapids in the world heritage-listed rainforests of the Tully Gorge National Park.

That night, we went to Thai Douglas, a local Thai restaurant with great flavours!

On Tuesday, we had a long work day getting some things checked off our list before our big Asian adventure in February. That night, we went to a remote beach to lounge on the sand and jump in the ocean!

On Wednesday, we made our way into Cairns to follow the path taken by the Kuranda Scenic Railway train. We drove up to Barron Falls, a 250m waterfall producing hydro for the surrounding communities.

Then, we made our way to Wright’s Lookout for a view over the city of Cairns!

On our drive back into the city, we stopped at Henry Ross lookout for a view over the city, and onto the ocean - it was a beautiful spot!

In the evening, we went to the Cairns Night Market to browse the stalls and enjoy some dinner in the city!

On Thursday we drove the opposite way, North, up to Cape Tribulation. Our first stop was the Daintree Rainforest Ferry, to cross the river separating Port Douglas from the Cape Tribulation rainforest area. We boarded the ferry (which should have been a bridge) up to the middle of no where.

Our second stop was the Mount Alexandra Lookout, where we could see the ocean overlooking the Port Douglas area.

Then, we headed to the Jindalba Boardwalk for a walk through the rainforest. Although the temperature was lower in the trees, we could feel the the humidity in the trees.

The highlight of our day was seeing a cassowary in the wild! Cassowaries are large, flightless birds, similar in size to the emu. Cassowaries are known for their beautiful colours and hard horn/helmet on their head. They are modern day dinosaurs and only exist in Northern Australia and PNG. There are only 4000 wild cassowaries left - they are extremely endangered. Their only predator is humans, and lack of habitat and car accidents are killing the species. We were lucky to spot one crossing the road on our adventure in the rainforest.

Afterwards, we headed to the Kulki Boardwalk for a look over the most Northern part of the area accessible by conventional vehicle where the beach meets the rainforest. Webster was hoping to swim but there were lots of warnings for crocodiles on the shore.

Our final walk was on the Madja Botanical Boardwalk through the mangroves and swamps.

Before we headed home, we made a stop at the Daintree Ice Cream Company for some delicious locally-made ice cream!

On Friday, we headed into Cairns for our dose of Dukoral before our Asian adventure next week! We made the most of the time in town and went to a local fresh produce market, then had breakfast in the city before heading back for a long day of work.

Later in the evening, we went for a quick dip at the beach and into Port Douglas downtown area.

On Saturday, we packed up the car and drove South towards Bundaberg! We made it about 12 hours before calling it a day. Tomorrow, we will continue for another 6 hours or so.

This week, we are exploring Bundaberg for a few days before heading to Asia! We are meeting Mom & Andrew in Thailand. Stay tuned for some great blogs coming up in the next few weeks - thanks for following along!