Mission Beach, Port Douglas and the Great Barrier Reef

We left Townsville with a wave and a beep and headed north.

Next Stop Mission Beach.

We arrived with the same wind from the Whitsundays and Townsville. While the wind was somewhat annoying, it was still nice and warm.

We decided to have a quick stop over, two nights max, as we wanted to get to Port Douglas and the Great Barrier Reef. 

I figured I'd leave the camper on the truck as it wasn't worth unpacking everything. Besides, given my luck, the less I move around the less likely I am to break something.

Once unpacked I thought it would be good to go for a walk up the beach, to the main town. Asking the reception chic how far it is gave me an answer that I wasn't really expecting. She explained the main town is not far, only a couple km's. Cool, that's not a bad walk along the beach I thought, until she added; there is a creek you need to cross, home to a Crocodile, but if you cross at low tide you should be OK. SHOULD what did she mean SHOULD. She may as well said you COULD get eaten, as SHOULD be ok is practically same. I guess she is "the glass is half full" type of person.

I decided to have a swim instead, but couldn't help wonder about this Croc. I mean it's the first time we've been told about them (now that we are more north and all). So, out of curiosity, I ask the fish and chip shop guy. He goes on to tell me that it's only a small one so I should be OK. SHOULD!! What is going on in this town! I figure I SHOULD just go for another swim instead.

Mission Beach Pool. What sick mind would want a fake croc at the Pool

Not long after our swim the wind picked up more but this time the rain followed. It continued all night and into the next day. We were essentially Camper Bound.

So I had two choices, given I was bored out of my brain; start an argument with the missus to make the time go faster or play my girls Batman game on the Wii.

I figured I'd save the argument for a time we don't have power, or internet, or TV reception so on went the Batman game.

Damn RAIN !! (a view from the upstairs master bedroom in the camper)

Not much else to talk about here really. I pretty much spent the day playing computer games, scratching myself and "accidentally" dropping the odd enclosed camper fart for the missus' enjoyment. We almost wasted our future argument time due to that, so I had to stop. It didn't smell that bad, I promise...

We left the next day and headed to a place called Paronella Park. I won't bore you with all the detail, other than to say a dude, in 1913, worked his butt off for his future missus while she was living it up in Spain, only to return to find out the wench went and married someone else. Moral to that story.... dude, you were in Australia, you should have built it for an Australian chic, she would have been happy to sit around and watch you work while living it up in a homemade castle.... cough.

The main "castle" at Paronella Park

Port Douglas, here I come...... and sweet, I didn't break anything at Mission Beach, my bad juju has finally left.

Looking North from the Western side of Port Douglas

Not so fast ju-boy.....

We arrived at Port Douglas around 5:30pm, just on dusk. Pretty excited to be here, as this was going to be our second longest stop and time for a holiday.

The usual procession of unpacking the camper and disconnecting the trailer took place. Up with the pop-top and time for a beer and relax. However, the winder for the pop-top felt a little harder this time, but with my cannons...

just......

a........

bit.......

harder........

and..........

SNAP... shit!

broken winder!! Arrrrrrgh

Oh no, now what?!

A camper that's 5ft inside, without the roof up, is going to be VERY bad. Damn juju....

Lucky I packed half my garage just for times like these. As night fell, I tried a few different ideas. Some started off good, but when the roof still wasn't budging we really needed a solution fast!

After some more brute force, and some heaving from the missus, we managed to get the roof up. I must say, I thought we would be sleeping on the floor for a while. But, all good in the end, and got a local welder to fix the broken winder. Dodged a bullet there!

So now for our holiday!

In short, Cape Tribulation (sorry, no beautiful cliche pic of the beach)

The rainforest bush track leading to the beach

Yep, it looked crap here. That's what a 27 knot wind does, so the above pic will have to do.

The world heritage listed, and self acclaimed oldest rainforest in the world..The Daintree Forest.....yawn.... next!

Some kind of massive tree.... no jetskiing here!

While we were still waiting for the wind to subside, we decided to check out another equally exciting place....

The Butterfly Sanctuary

Butterfly Sanctuary

Yep, you read it right... but this one had the amazing Ka-Wasa-Aki tropical butterfly. 

Ka-Wasa-Aki Tropical Butterfly - said to have more than 300hp!

Apparently this green butterfly has been known to out fly most blue and yellow butterfly's and typically have a longer lifespan than the others. I was told the blue ones, called Yam-ahaha suffer from cracks on their wings, and the yellow ones called Se-adoo-doos fall in shallow bodies of water, sink to the bottom and drown. I'm sure I've read about all this somewhere else but can't recall where at the moment.

But enough of that sissy stuff, the wind is starting to calm down, so it's time to do something "manly"!

Time to finally get my Scuba Diving License. I figured I've towed a few Seadoo's and saved a few from sinking, but if one did sink on my watch, I'd be useless.

Well, not anymore!!!

It's me... Yep, enough lead weight and even I can sink!!

I'm now a qualified submersible Seadoo recovery agent. Give me a call if you need your Seadoo recovered from; the bottom of the bay, or dragged from the river bed or even rescued from the ocean floor. Some discounts may apply.

Unfortunately I didn't see any Seadoo's on the reef, they may have all been overrun by coral already. Here are some pics, let me know if you spot some handlebars and I'll go back and have another look.

Thanks to Blue Dive and the boat Posiden. 

Adriana from Blue Dive and this massive 10ft fish that almost ate me!

Awesome few days. Loved the reefs; Anybodies, Caste Rock, Harry's and even the "reverse" drift dive that had us swim our heart out and use all our air in 20 minutes. Lucky it's not hard to see 30 divers pop up out of the water 2kms from the boat!

But sadly it's time to leave Port Douglas and the Great Barrier Reef. 100% I'll be back though.

Next stop Undara Lava Tubes and onto the Aussie Outback. I don't think I'll be jetskiing or using my newly found scuba talents anytime soon.