October 19- 24: Port Douglas

Arrived in Cairns and picked up our rental car in an absolute torrential downpour. Somehow managed to pack up the car and find our way out of the city to head towards our next destination of Port Douglas. This stretch of highway was VERY slow going with many tight curves and drop offs along the coast....made for an interesting couple of hours to only go 70km!Our accommodation in P.D. was brilliant. Fully self-contained apartment: 2 bedroom, 2 bath, full kitchen, laundry (it's funny how excited a traveler gets when laundry is included!), living area and balcony. We were just one block from the beach and one block from the main strip so perfect location. Lots of funky restaurants and shops...really a fun little town.
The next 3 days we did a number of day trips to the surrounding attractions. Most of these consisted of hikes: Mossman Gorge (where Don jumped into a fresh water swimming hole and Jacelyn ran into a former co-worker from Halifax); Daintree Rainforest (excellent boardwalk hikes on many different levels of the tree canopy with some great lookout points); Maardja (sp?) (botanical walk through mangroves); full day to Kuranda (which included a 7k sky gondola ride over the mountain and treetops to the townsite and then a scenic historic railway trip back down the mountain.) All were great days with spectacular views and experiences.
The weather was really warm in P.D., but there were very high winds which kept us off the ocean the first few days. The wind finally settled down by Friday to 15-20 knots, which allowed us to head out on our Great Barrier Reef snorkeling adventure. We went out to 3 outer reef sites and spent the entire day snorkeling. Brought back our memories of how magnificient the Great Barrier Reef is. Shelley even experienced snorkeling for her first time. Saw amazing coral formations, incredible variety of fish and even some turtles. Was a great day!
Our last night at P.D. was at a local restaurant/bar that we heard about that had cheap fish/chips night with live Rock and Roll band. The highlight was Don and the waiter competing in a 'dance off'.....winner to be determined! The verdict was that they should BOTH enter into "So You Think You Can Dance AUSTRALIA"

Our next leg of the trip is off to Airlie Beach for our sailing trip through the Whitsunday Islands.