Day 18 - Port Douglas

It was 7:30 AM when my eyes first opened up and I don't think I moved very much last night. I took some NyQuil to help minimize my cold symptoms so that I could sleep better, and it seemed to work. Although I still have this rotten thing stuffing up my nose. I don't like being sick. Especially while on vacation. I feel like this one is going to hang on for a while too.

Today we are heading to Port Douglas to check out the market they have there on Sunday's. I had noted in an earlier blog post that Margaret's sister Jennifer had indicated that this was worth checking out, so we decided to make a day of it. We undertook the usual morning items including a quick shower and some breakfast before heading down to the lobby to meet the rest of the crew. We got there a few minutes early today and I made sure to greet Margaret, when the doors of her elevator opened, with a pleasant, "Good morning sleeping beauty". She just laughed at me.

Up to the second floor where the elevator lets you off in the car park. Alf, Di, Margaret and Steve all went in one vehicle as they wanted to make reservations at a few places for their driving trip back down to the Brisbane area where Alf and Di just moved to. Laureen and I took our rental and led the way to Port Douglas. It takes just over an hour to get there and the road is scenic and curvy. It reminds me quite a bit of the driving in the Shuswap area in British Columbia. The only difference is, in the Shuswap's, I'm driving beside a lake.  Here, I'm driving beside the ocean where the next stop is Peru, South America. The only thing is, the road had a few places of construction where they had a stop light to only let one direction of traffic through at a time. I see that both Australia and Canada have a season in common - Road Construction.

We arrived at Port Douglas and Laureen guided me to the location of the market. It was a bit of a challenge to find parking as the market seems to be quite popular. As we were driving around, a couple of larger bus-like vehicles pulled out and I managed to snag one of those stalls. Alf found one just down from us where another patron was just leaving.  Then we stepped out of the vehicles. Wow. 

My phone registered that it was 31 degrees Celsius and the humidity was well over 85%. It was smoking hot. We started wandering down the lanes with booths on both sides. There were all kinds of of cool items from Jewelry to clothing made from old clothes (yup, recycled clothing), baking, fruits, veggies and even instruments. We spent some time chatting with the gent about the didgeridoo's he had on display. He really seemed to know his stuff about them, and he even played one a little for us as he was describing the sounds the different ones would make. 

I think Di found herself something at the market, and Steve and Margaret bought some fruit from someone. Two kinds of dragonfruit and a bag of passionfruit. Later, Laureen and I were kicking ourselves for not buying some for ourselves. Sigh. 

We walked around for about an hour and everyone was feeling the heat. We left the market area and walked down the street and looked at a few of the shops. Tommy Bahama had the nicest air conditioning of all of them.  I can only wander around and look at $174.00 shirts for so long.  Although they are nice, they are not THAT nice. Eventually we stopped at Paddy's Irish Pub & Grill for lunch to sit in the A/C. Lunch was, well, pub food but good. It took a little longer than I expected, but nobody was in a hurry to get back out into the heat. 

Before we left to come back to Cairns, we had a short discussion about going to the crocodile place that we were planning to go to tomorrow. We had actually driven by it on our way to Port Douglas. Going there today would mean that we wouldn't have to drive all the way back for it tomorrow. But, the heat has really taken its toll on us all, so we decided against that. Back in the cars to head for home base in Cairns. Laureen snapped a few pictures on the return trip.

A Bit of the Road Back to Cairns

Next Stop, Peru, South America

Nice Beach. No Swimming. Croc's.

On the way back, Alf was following me.  On occasion, a car would get between us, say from a traffic circle (and there are many of them here). Also, in sections where there was a passing lane, I might pass a vehicle ahead of me that was going slower than the speed limit.  Most of the road is one lane in each direction with little to no shoulder. I was kinda looking back and keeping an eye out for him, not because he didn't know where he was going, but more so that we would travel together. I was also enjoying the curvy roads a little as well, so I was taking the corners a little firm. At some point I looked back and I couldn't see him any more. There are lots of white cars on the road, so there were a couple quite a ways back, but they didn't look like the Kia that they were driving. At one point, at a traffic light, I said to Laureen, "I think we lost them".

We continued on our way back to the hotel parking lot. As we got out of the car, we heard the squeaky gate open and a few cars came in, but it wasn't them.  A few minutes later, we saw their car pulling up the ramp into the parkade. Apparently, a different white MG (Laureen and I are driving a rental white MG) pulled in front of them, and they started following it. It turned off into a residential area, and they thought I was taking some kind of short cut. The car eventually pulled up onto a driveway and they realized they were following the wrong vehicle.  Thunderous laughter broke out in the car. The poor person they were following probably thought they were going to get car-jacked. They told us the story when they arrived at the hotel, and we all had a good laugh. 

Margaret, Laureen and I met downstairs at the pool for a swim to cool off from the warm afternoon.  It was refreshing. Steve had a nanny nap, Alf went for a walk - a longer one than he had planned, and I'm not too sure what Di was up to. On our way up to the room after the swim, Margaret indicated that she would message us when they had figured out what was up for dinner. We went back to the room and I had another shower to remove the chlorine from my skin and then took a bit of a nanny nap myself as this cold is still dragging on. I'm starting to wonder if I'm going to need some antibiotics for this one. I also made a trip over to "Wooli's" and picked up some pineapple and passion fruit, along with some paper towels.

The word came in that we were going for Thai food at 6:00 PM, so we met in the lobby at that time and made our way to a little place that they had found called Phetyai Thai. It was a tiny little place where you had to order from the counter and then they would bring out the food. We agreed on a few shared plates and placed the order. Our food started coming out and we all began digging in. It was very tasty. Although my plate was kinda sticking to the table and I made the mistake of putting my napkin (which was a box of facial tissue) on the table and it stuck to the table.  Seems they have been wiped so many times they have gotten kinda - well - sticky. But the food, was fantastic.

We then wandered down the street to a place called Just Devine Gelato for some (you guessed it) gelato for dessert. We sat at the tables in front of the establishment and enjoyed the amazing flavours. It's not the weight of my luggage that's going to be a problem on the way home if we keep eating like this. 

For the last bit of the evening, Margaret and Di went to the Night Market to get a foot massage (I tried to convince Laureen to join them, but she wasn't up for it). Steve and Alf went back to the hotel (probably a footy game is currently on). Laureen and I went to the Night Market also, but to pick up a couple of things that we had scoped out before to bring home. It's the souvenir run.

All-in-all it was a great day.  Looking forward to the croc's tomorrow.

Curt & Laureen in Cairns, Australia