On Sat 31st Jan we left Cairns and headed an hour north to a little place called Port Douglas. We were caught up in a heavy tropical storm and the rain kept thrashing down during the journey up there. We travelled along a beautiful coastal road which in the sunshine would most probably looked awesome! But today with the rain...everything just looked a bit bleak and we were a bit unsure of our next move!
We arrived a Dougies hostel....a good place with cabin style rooms and because its been quiet and its the wet season, there wernt too many people about so wwe got a 4 bed dorm to ourselves....sweet!
Amazingly the rain faded and stopped b y lunch time and we went out to explore this little town on some hostel bikes! Its all very flat so we didnt need gears or anything like that! Darrens back wheel break didnt worl so that was good fun, but it was nice to get out and about and not be stuck inside!!!
There is a pretty little harbour and a main strip with all the shops, restuarants and bars. It does feel quite touristy with lots a big holiday resorts on the outskirts and also lots of holiday homes. Port Douglas is a great gettaway for the Great Barrier Reef so we were hoping to head out to even more unspoilt reefs during our stay.
We had a browse around some shops, a spot of lunch and then cycled to there famous 4 mile beach. There were still plenty of low dark clouds around and the tide had washed up plenty of seaweed so today it didnt quite look like the pictures we've seen prevously! It still looks like a wicked beach and on a sunny day would be lovely! You still cant swim in the waters this time of year so they had a net up and a small area thats protected from the boxed jellyfish...but it wasnt exactly swimming weather!!!
Theres a beach lookout point at one tip but we didnt manage to get up there. A few hours into the afternoon the rain began to fall..................and it never stopped.
Cyclone Ellie was near and throwing heaploads of rain along the coast line of northern Queensland! The mosquitoes were out in abundance and even the insect repellent wasnt stopping them biting me!!!!! We sat in the hostel bar all evening, updating blogs, photos and watched the women's Oz Open final which wasnt anything special!!

The following day was a bit of a strange one.....still raining we woke up about 8.30am and our bedroom door was wide open (I've not told anyone this story as I didnt want anyone to worry) We were both sleeping on bunk beds right by the door so at first I assumed Daz had gone to the toilet. But he hadnt and when we got up quickly we noticed Darren rucksack and both our washbags were missing. Nothing else. Darrens bags were close to the door but my washbag was well inside the room. They were definately missing so we told reception. Luckily we are still being very cautious and Darrens rucksack was completely empty except for some brochures and books and all our valuables were locked in the safe. We had a search around the place and I ended up finding Darrens bags dumped in the end females toilet. Everything there. Ny wash bag was never found....I lost my Chanel perfume and my UK mobile Sim Card. The girl at reception guessed it may have been a girl. We couldnt believe it had happened to us again!
We put two and two together and guessed it must have been someone in the bar last night who'd seen us with our laptop. They stole only bags which could possibly resemble a laptop bag maybe. But still we couldnt understand how they got into our room.....until we looked at our window which are slats with a netting and some of the netting was ripped closet to the door.
Anyways nothing major was lost (although looks like i'll be having a new mobile number back in the UK) - I was really annoyed that Daz got his bags back and I didnt, I'm still without perfume....(ooo maybe thats something you could bring over Mum from the flat!)
We were both a little creeped out by it as someone actually came into our room while we were sleeping...scary stuff, but dont worry we're both ok!!!!
So we asked to move rooms and then just got on with our day!
Couldnt go to the reef because of the cyclone and it looked like it was in for quite a while!
Apart from walking into town in the rain just to escape the hostel we pretty much stayed at the hostel until we left the following morning! We watched Nadal beat Roger...awwww I was gutted!!!! Darren loves Nadal! And then we said goodbye to Port Douglas.
We glad we came up to see the place, definately much more laid back then Cairns and has a bit more of a quality feel. Its just a shame we couldnt get out to the reef and the rain stopped us from doing anything else.
We had a free bus back down to Cairns where we had already booked a Greyhound down to Mission Beach in the afternoon.
We chilled at the lagoon in Cairns (no rain!!!) before heading to Mission Beach about 80miles south of Cairns....where we began the start of our southbound journey.....however we didnt plan for the rain to flood the highways!!!!
Thats for another time!
xxx