Port Douglas

"The Beach"

Saturday 2nd October - Sunday 3rd October 2010

Hi again!

We left Cairns this morning on the free bus to Port Douglas, we were glad to as the rain got much worse last night. We had our free meal at the Woolshed as standard then went back to our lovely little hippy hostel and played cards with VB. The bus was cool, well no it was quite hot actually but the driver was cool as he ate his burger king (or "Hungry Jacks" as it's called out here) whilst picking people up from random hostels, they are so laid back here! It was only an hour up the coast (along Captain Cook's Highway. joe) and I am sure on a nice day it would have been a beautiful, scenic route. But, with the sky as grey as I'm guessing it is now in the UK, it was not such a pretty picture. There were some gorgeous coves and desolate beaches but with no sun on such a grim day the magic was totally lost.
We arrived at Dougies. It looks like a cool place, really hippy and full of "true" backpackers who wear khaki and have dreadlocks. Most of them live here and work in Port Douglas. It has a massive communal area with a big brother kitchen and it's all wood which makes it look like a western bar from the US. The toilets have doors too which is always a bonus. The weather is still pretty rubbish though so our spiritis aren't too high. (just for your information, we found out soon that the hostel is like the film "the beach" everyone actually lives at the hostel and its really clicky. When we walked through everyone starred at us and one guy had the craziest look in his eyes! Me and Macca made dinner in the hostel in a kitchen with 10 hobs and 25 people cooking, a little hippy dwarf told us off for getting in her way. I was close to throwing her in her own broth. One guy had a necklace with beads as big as snooker balls and didint know how to use a basic cheese grater. I think he will probably be here forever.! joe)
We all went for a walk into PD for a look around but we got caught in a pretty tropical storm! We were soaked through and had to take shelter half way there. It has also started to feel quite cold, maybe it was just because we were so wet! Or maybe it was because Macca kept asking how far away from town we were! We went to "Mango Jam" for a beer to cheer ourselves up which brough back some childhood memories for Joe. We then went to the supermarket, "Coles" to buy food for tea as there are no free meals here - boo! Me and Joe bought probably the worst rain macks ever too. They buttoned up at the front and were a mission to get into. Macca found watching me try very amusing and when I clocked him laughing at me, we both looked at Joe, which was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. He was not amused that we were crying with laughter while he struggled to find the arms. I thought the poor cagoole wouldn't survive his frustration but luckily it did and we walked out the door, only to find it had stopped raining! But we still rocked them all the way home for our trouble!
We had a look at 4 mile beach on our way back to the hostel but it was too blustery and rainy to walk along it. When we got back we checked out the weather forecast and it's not good up here in the tropics for the next week at least. We have decided to cut our losses and start moving south. I am disappointed as I really wanted to see the barrier reef. Originally I wanted to do my PADI here but now I would be happy with a snorkle in it! Maybe we will be able to see it further down the coast, or another time. We are a little low as the weather hasn't been great and we haven't been able to do much although we feel like we've spent so much money. We both really wanted to see PD too as Joe loved it as a kid and I've always wanted to come. But we are trying to stay positive. Everything happens for a reason. We are leaving to go back to Cairns tomorrow, with the hope of getting on a Greyhound down to Townsville and Magnetic Island. We were going to stop at Mission beach but the weather doesn't look great there either. I'm not sure when we will get there as we may have to stay an extra night in Cairns, although we have no accomodation sorted yet - ah! I'm sure it will be fine.
Will let you know when we get to where we are going and if the weather is satisfactory! I need the wow factor soon!

Its official, we booked our bus down to townsville for tonight so should get there around midnight, pitty we're leaving Port Douglas as its amazing. We went to the Ironbar in PD last night and watched some Cane toad racing, whislt drinking some scooners (3/4 a pint, pretty gay I know but no one out here drinks pints!). much love, speak to you all soon.(joe)

Joe & Elle. xx

Cairns - Again!

Sunday 3rd October 2010

We left the wierd place. Thank god. I was worried that they were going to try and brain wash us and we would never escape like Leo! We got a very perky bus driver who brought us back to Cairns and welcomed us aboard the "cosmic love bus!" The journey was fine and Cairns was slightly brighter than PD. The beaches looked so much better on the way back as the sky was brighter. There are so many little places to stop, it would be a good trip to do in a car. We also saw some wallabies!
Cairns was sunny! Phew! So we had a bbq at one of the many free bbqs on the esplanade and chilled out. the school holidays appear to have finished too as it's much quieter. We booked our Greyhound for 7pm tonight to go to Townsville so we bought food for the day and the journey on the bus. We bought some freezer packs (that was my job, Macca was in charge of bbq turning device I was the manly basket carrier. joe), but we could only get unfrozen ones. So, I asked the ice cream shop man if he would feeze them for us and he did! When we were sat having our burgers, an aborigine couple were sat on a bench near us having the best argument ever. They are friendly and polite to other people but always seem to be fighting eachother. The woman kept saying "f**k you, you ugly!"and he kept saying "I'm not ugly, you eat the world" and "go fishing" J!" This was very funny for us who were desperately trying to disguise our laughter! Luckily we had managed to put our big bags in lockers next to the bus terminal. although that wasn't so straight forward either as they were broken (me and elle had a bit of a fall out at this point as I tried to use brute force to open the lockers. J)- our luck needs to change! Ha!
The sun also didn't last long and we took shelter from the rain in a pub. Obviously. But it was good because the NRL final was on (Sydney City Roosters Vs St. George Illawara) and after a few scooners and a game of ruggaz we were happy again!
We got on the bus and watched Mrs. Doubtfire, drove through a thunder storm and arrived in Townsville 6 hours later. We got in a taxi to our hostel but the driver had no idea where Macca's hostel was. Neither did anyone nearby.(Macca at this point nearly cried as he was so scared so we took him under our wing. J) So instead of leaving him to his doom in the wild west that was Townsville on a bank holiday Sunday, we let him sleep on our floor! Ha!
The weather is amazing here - I am happy again now! We're staying tonight and then moving onto Magnetic Island. More about Townsville and Magnetic in our next update!

Lots of love,

Elle and Joe x x x (p.s. check the previous updates as Joe has edited them if you havent already!) (so you get the proper story! haha. J)