We arrived at the airport at 4.30am, after little sleep at the Jackaroo. Our time in Sydney and Manly had been great and the weather had been very pleasant. It was very humid stepping off the plane in Cairns at 8am, and actually suprisingly overcast for the first few days. Luckily our transfer was awaiting us, and shot us up to Port Douglas (new abbreviation is PDas we can't be bthered to write the full name everytime) immediately (an hour north of Cairns).
PD is very picturesque, the beach is proper white sand and puts the likes of Bondi to shame. During the summer months you are not allowed to swim in the sea as the Jellyfish that amass in the area are the most poisoness in the world and can literally kill you in 10 minutes flat! So we were very happy to see that nets were up and swimming was possible. The water is warm and crystal clear, the town is very clean and funky - we really loved it as a place. Dave did 3 dives on the Outer Barrier reef which he enjoyed (except the first where he had a problem with his mask underwater!). We also had a result at a local food market where we got 1kg of fresh king prawns for $10... best deal ever and they were so delicious.
Our accomodation we shared a 4 bed dorm with ourselves so were very lucky, it had a pool (which was a lifesaver), huge kitchen and a cool bar which we visted with 2 new Aussie friends we made called Ross and Loran. We also got to see Bandicoats running around in the evening - so cool.
We love this place...