16:29.20s 145:27.50e Port Douglas

 

We pulled into the Reef Marina in Port Douglas, where Elize the friendly South African administrator had put us on one of the brand new 25m berths. Wow – what a fantastic improvement. Coming in and out of the river mouth still has to be done near to high tide, but plenty of depth on the berth.

 

 

The marina is filled with boats that take tourists out to the reef – fishing, snorkelling, sailing and diving - from sailing catamarans, to high speed jet boats, to the huge Quicksilver Catamarans that can cruise at up to 35 knots. Have a look at the specs of these boats – and the very interesting wave piercing bow.

 

 

 

Sadly it was time to say “good-bye” to our visitors. It was our last day with the Elvin-Jensen’s, and we did a whistle-stop walking tour through the little town, had dinner and put them on the bus back to the airport in the morning.

 

 

 

 

As you can see from our pictures, Mike and I continue to enjoy driving around on our bicycles as every opportunity.  We took a long ride on the beach on the ocean side and also took the dinghy for a cruiser up the river ... Croc spotting.  There are lots of crocs up here, and swimming is NOT an option. There is no creature alive that scares me like a crocodile. While a shark may bite a human by accident, , these monsters love a bit of mammal!

One evening Mike went fishing for barramundi, but the only bites he got were from the midges ...they are vicious around the mangroves at sunset.

 

 

 

One day we hired a car to explore a little more of the area. We got the cutest little Fiat 500 – which really impressed us.  We went north to the Mossman Gorge, which is the in Daintree Forest.  This forest is a world heritage site and stretches down to the ocean and the Great Barrier Reef  – and is therefore marketed as the only place in the world where two world heritage sites touch.

 

   

 

We opted for a traditional Aussie lunch at Daintree Village – not really a highlight of the day – the meat pie!  It is quite interesting to see how the foodie culture in Australia has moved on. From the traditional meat pie – to a country obsessed with great ingredients, fantastic restaurants, top chefs and more reality TV cooking shows than anywhere else in the world.  YUM!

 

We also drove down south to check out a marina just north of Cairns, called Yorkie’s Knob, where we spotted the fabulous Nordhavn 86, Mystic Tide anchored there. There are a remarkable number of Nordhavns in Australia.

 

 

Our lovely visit in Port Douglas was coming to an end as we had word that Mike’s mother had a stroke. It had been our intention travel further north and explore more of the Great Barrier Reef, but Mike felt it would be better to get the boat back to a secure marina so he could fly home. So south we headed, crashing and bashing into the South Easter, towards Magnetic Island.