port douglas

Today we are going north, as far north on the highway that a 2 wheel drive car can go – which is Cape Tribulation, Northern Queensland! It is about a 90 minute drive in total to get to Cape Tribulation, with a couple of stops and a ferry ride on the way!

After yet again a wonderful breakfast of an omelette, chicken sausage along with some fruit, we were off on our road trip! Our first stop is Mossman Gorge, which is in the Daintree Rainforest, which has a raised walkway in the forest to see the gorge and also accessible transportation from the visitors centre to the entrance to the walkway to get there! It is only about 20 minutes up the road, so an easy drive to start!

Arriving at Mossman Gorge the rain forest is LUSH and thick – the Visitors centre is also very appropriate like most visitor centers we have encountered in Australia – not ostentatious and sticking out, but melding into the environment! Despite the humidity and temperature that was rapidly increasing, I passed by the ice cream freezers in front of the information counter and bought our admission to the Gorge. We could have walked the 30 minutes up into the gorge however $15 AUD was worth not having to do it in this heat! The first bus was not accessible so we waited for the next bus which had a ramp for me. Off we went on our 10 minute drive up the road to where the tree top walkways and entrance to the Mossman Gorge begins.

Mossman Gorge is part of the “Wet Tropics” UNESCO World Heritage site due to its exceptional natural beauty, outstanding example of evolutionary history and is a significant habitat for rare and endangered species along with unique plants and animals that are not found anywhere else. The Wet Tropics Area goes from Townsville, which is south of Cairns, to Cooktown which is north of Cape Tribulation and covers 894,420 hectares.

We walked through the tree tops to first the swimming area and then the view point – there were more trails that could be walked however they involved stairs and were not walkways so as directed by the bus driver, we stayed off them. At the view point here is my panorama view of what we saw – the water was so clear!

Most of the water that feeds the Mossman Gorge is not from rainfall, which I found to be very interesting! It comes from the moisture in the “wet” forest that drips down into the soil and then forming the various rivers that lead out to the sea.

After stopping by the cafe in the Mossman Visitors Centre to get some cold drinks, where the cafe also acts as a training centre for indigenous youth, we were on our way to Cape Tribulation and what I will call the most expensive ferry ride in the world!

On thing that I had read about in the Mossman Gorge and people are warned about are the Cassowary birds. These are fairly large birds based on what I had read and they are also fairly aggressive and one should stay away from them. Several people had spotted them based on my readings in the Mossman Gorge, however we did not see any. They are native to Northern Australia along with some other tropical locations such as New Guinea. The birds are flightless, and they are the third-tallest and second-heaviest living bird, smaller only than the ostrich and emu. Cassowaries are very wary of humans, but if provoked, they are capable of inflicting serious, even fatal, injuries. They are known to attack both dogs and people. The cassowary has often been labeled “the world’s most dangerous bird” however statistically the ostrich still kills more people each year (2-3).

Driving up to the ferry that crosses the Daintree River, which costs $51 AUD return for a 15 minute cable crossing in each direction (I think these ferries are free in the interior of British Columbia) there was a wooden image of a Cassowary that I took a picture of just so I could have a life sized image. Then shortly after that the small motor home we were following along the road stopped and we wondered why and guess what was in the middle of the road blocking the one lane bridge? A live cassowary bird just strutting about! Here is the wooden image and then the real thing! It is quite at LARGE bird! The 1M marker that you see beside it and the Oliver Creek sign is to let drivers know how high the creek is above the road – so that cassowary is at least 1 metre tall!

We then continued our drive up the highway to Cape Tribulation. It was like the road to Hana on Maui at times! Lots of turns and also driving through a cut in some heavy vegetation! Then came the speed bumps! Not sure which brilliant engineer invented them however I think they ran out of concrete when forming the speed bumps and so they decided to “fill” with huge rocks. Well, over the years the concrete has worn away and left what I would call “speed bump rumble” strips! Very interesting to drive over!

Here is my panorama picture of Cape Tribulation Beach –

As we are as far north as one can do on the regular road, we are now heading south towards Port Douglas again! I did not know until I saw the sign, that this road is actually called the “Great Barrier Reef Drive” and it goes from Cape Tribulation down to Cairns! Interesting as in the next 24 hours we will be driving the complete 125 km distance!

Along we drove, past some very organized road construction, over some one way bridges over some very peaceful looking rivers, past the Daintree Tea fields and yet more “speed rumble strips” until we got to the Daintree Ice Cream company which was our reward for our excursion of the day! Wow – did they have some GOOD ice cream! I had chocolate coconut while Andrew stuck with the awesome plain chocolate flavour! Now, for the last little bit of our journey being some tourist busses who were also visiting the same Ice Cream stop on their way back from Cape Tribulation!

Back at the Sheraton Port Douglas now, we packed up as we have an EARLY departure for Cairns the next morning! We are taking the Queenslander Train from Cairns to Brisbane which is an overnight train that departs the Cairns Train Station at 7:40 am and gets in the following day at 9 am to Brisbane’s Roma Train station! We are an hour north of Cairns and need to gas up the car and drop it at the airport prior to taking a taxi or Uber to the train station… Departure time? 5am! Time to hit the sack for some quality sleep time – who knows what type of sleep we will get on this train ride tomorrow night!

Lets go for breakfast and show you the where we eat breakfast and how bright and open the area is! For my Celiac friends – that is a gluten free toaster, toast, gluten free bags of Corn Flakes, GF Wheetbix and GF Granola on offer along with a bunch of apples!

Its time to sit and sweat on the beach! Okay, well not the REAL beach as there are no beach loungers out on 4 Mile Beach or more importantly to me, umbrellas (not the ones that go into the drinks although those would be nice!) to protect me from the EXTREME rating for UV rays that this area of Australia currently is rated, however it is the resort “pool” beach! Yes, in several places they bring in sand and place it at the waters edge and then it goes into the water so it feels like you are at the beach! Wahoo!

The “commute” to the beach was quite short – out around the pool to the other side – if I could walk on water it would have been even faster from our balcony! They had some really nice mesh loungers and HUGE umbrellas stuck into the ground that did not move which was great if there was any wind or breeze at all. Nope, frigging hot day again! We got our pool towels out and sat down and started sweating. I called my parents from the beach lounger and was talking to them, lying on my side, while wearing a tshirt and when I got off the phone Andrew pronounced that I was “sweating a lot”. First a lady perspires! Second – what the dickens was he talking about? My the back of my tshirt was completely soaked and I had done NOTHING but drink water and talk to my parents! Yikes! Very soon after that we ended up getting into the pool to cool down!

The pool water, which was supposed to be salt water, was highly chlorinated! Makes sense as it is a pool! The design of the pool was pretty cool though – the sand sloped down into the pool however it was kept from sloping all the way down by a gentle slope up – which Andrew figured out as he is taller than me – that kept the sand in that area of the pool. Then the pool dropped down in depth to about 6 feet and then back up where the balconies were with the ladders to get in. Interesting design! Here are some pictures:

We were QUITE parched after that sit and sweat and swimming session of a couple of hours and unfortunately the sun was moving and Andrew’s lounger was no longer in the shade! Time to move on. We went to the Pool Bar and got a carafe of water with lemons and sat down to have some nice cold water to drink! We actually had to refill the 1.5 litre carafe again we were both so thirsty! Here are some pictures of where we sat and the area (which I know is not accessible) for the Pool Restaurant. We sat instead in the Lagoon Restaurant area which was closed but then I did not need to go uphill climbing with my walker.

Now back in our room for some cooling down time, we eventually got ready to go for dinner. I had booked reservations as suggested at the hotel’s upscale restaurant called Harrison’s. It is a very well reviewed and rated restaurant in Queensland. Great for a treat! It was a lovely evening walk there and they had a table set up for us right on the lagoon which was great! Only issue with the restaurant? To get to that table required me to go down stairs! They said we could eat in the back corner of the restaurant instead which was a fairly dark area, however the ambiance was just not there! Sitting on a balcony surrounded by water as the sun set sounded MUCH more appealing!

The restaurant indeed was very high end and a special occasion definitely to dine there! While there was more on the menu for Andrew to eat – I quickly narrowed what I wanted for dinner – shrimp on the barbie – Aussie style! I had the 6 huge shrimp along with some brown butter mashed potatoes which I shared with Andrew who had pork tenderloin for dinner. There were quite a few wait staff at the restaurant, however our waitress had a certain “air” about her that I recognized but I could not place. I also could not place her accent but it sounded pretty familiar to me the Aussie slant to it was throwing me off! I finally asked her if she was from Australia and she said “no” and as soon as she said the word “no” I knew what she was going to say next – she was Parisian! It all fit together – she was kind of abrupt with the guests – polite but abrupt like we had experienced in Paris when we were there a few years back and that accent – if you took that Aussie layer away was the same as a person I volunteer with at YVR who is also from Paris! I then addressed her in French and explained we were from Canada which is bilingual and I am a volunteer at YVR airport and I am required to speak “plane” French. (that is not plain – but PLANE as in travelers) She thought that was funny! Off she then went – quickly and as abruptly as she appeared!

Next though she had the dessert menu and “oh la la” she said, there is a “sans glutin” item for me to enjoy! I wish I remember its name though – we think it was called the Volo! It was sheets of meringue, sorbet, fruit and whipped cream. Really it was a pavlova (national dessert of Australia) deconstructed! Andrew got a different desert whose name we cannot remember either however it was something like Mumu! It was basically a ball of cake, which they poured brandy over and lit it on fire!

Okay, so after that dessert session my Libra diabetes alarm was going off quite frequently however it was an AMAZING dinner! We completed the dinner by going to the lobby of the hotel using the GOOD elevator and getting some brochures to where we wanted to take a day trip to tomorrow – Mossman Gorge, Daintree Forest and Cape Tribulation! Looks like I have some planning to do overnight! Join us on our excursion tomorrow to the far north east corner of Queensland also called FNQ!

Let’s get up early and go snorkeling!  Today we need to be in the Port Douglas Marina – about a 5 minute drive away – by 9 am to catch a boat to take us out to the northern edge of the Great Barrier Reef.  After doing some research several months ago I had selected Quicksilver to take us to the Outer Barrier Reef.  Previously I have been to the Great Barrier Reef with Karen, out of Cairns, however as we are about 1 hour north by car, this will be a different portion of the Great Barrier Reef. 

For those who do not know about the Great Barrier Reef – it is the world’s largest coral reef system, located off the coast of Queensland, Australia, and is visible from space. It is composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands, spanning approximately 2,300 kilometers and covering an area of about 344,400 square kilometers. Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1981, it is the planet’s largest single structure made by billions of tiny organisms called coral polyps (living organisms) which form over 400 types of hard and soft coral, and it also supports an immense diversity of marine creatures such as sea sponges, anemones, worms, and mollusks and marine life such as the endangered dugong (“sea cow”) and six of the seven species of marine turtles.

For all the companies that provide “tours” to the Great Barrier Reef, they must have a permanent dock or “pontoon” installed near to the reef they visit so they are not constantly anchoring and destroying the ocean bed each day. This is also way more environmentally friendly and protects the UNESCO site. There are also only a limited number of companies that can provide trips to the Great Barrier Reef and in the fee you pay to the company, there is included a conservation fee paid to a fund that protects the reef activities. Today, we will be going to Agincourt Reef, which is called a jewel-like ribbon reef on the very edge of the north edge of the Great Barrier Reef.

After a filling breakfast at the hotel, we were on our way!  All decked out in our swimwear with various things like knitting and Mr. Dass’s book to keep me company on the 90 minute ride out to the reef and back.  Check-in was very simple and we then waited for permission to get onto the boat.  I was a bit concerned about getting onto the boat as it was so high up in the water!  However once they allowed us onto the dock, I saw a ramp all the way up onto the boat and I was MUCH relieved!  They did said that the boat was accessible!

We were greeted when we got onto the boat and lead to a table where I could park my walker and sit comfortably.  Very soon afterwards a family with a young kid who was screaming moved into the section of 4 seats behind us, so we quickly moved to the other accessible table on the other side of the boat!  The other lucky thing about this sailing is that the boat was only about 1/4 full.  Normally they take 200 people to the reef each day and today there were just less than 50 people.

The ride to the reef was very smooth – so smooth that I got a bit sleepy and lay down for a nap on the 2 chairs beside me!  Good thing we had beach towels from the hotel for a pillow!  Andrew in the meantime watched a video about Marine Life that the Marine Biologist onboard the boat was putting on upstairs and no accessible to me.

A LOT has changed since I last took a cruise to the Great Barrier Reef – while I cannot remember if we are using the same company, I did have a fairly bizarre experience on the boat – the head lifeguard came to visit me about my “medical conditions” and to see if it was safe for me to snorkel!  First I was a little taken aback, however I filled out the form and he came back to “interview” me.  He asked things like how long it has been since I have snorkeled (3 weeks), what medication I take and then based on what I filled out told me that I had to wear a red life preserver when in the water and a red tipped snorkel.  I also had to swim within the penned area!  He did know that I would be swimming with Andrew though.  Did not make a difference.  Oh well, those are the rules!  NONE of this applied when Karen and I went snorkeling previously!  They probably would not have let her into the water the way they were dealing with me!

Once we arrived at the pontoon, everything sprung into action – staff donned their various gear and then people got off as they were pretty excited to start snorkeling or scuba diving.  There are all sorts of things that are offered – mostly an upgrade – such as being able to scuba, rent underwater cameras, snorkel with the Marine Biologist, have pictures taken by the photographer, take a helicopter ride – those are some that I remember. 

While it is best to visit the Great Barrier Reef for visibility and calm seas are typically from May to October, I was aware that it was November and some nasty weather had just taken place in Northern Australia. The sea was a bit choppy at the pontoon in my impression for snorkeling however we are here lets jump in! We got off the ship and I found a fairly steep ramp down to the snorkeling/scuba deck which was awesome! There was a sign about getting a Lycra suit which puzzled me and I saw a bunch of people wearing what I thought were wet suits. Nope, they are Lycra suits just like the green men at the Canucks games wear but these are black! You have to put one of these on to go snorkeling due to the stingers in the water at this time of year! Great – like I needed something heavy on me to drag me down! So off we went to get our Lycra suites which were basically head to toe – including a hat and mittens attached to the long sleeves for the hands and the feet just had straps as one is supposed to wear flippers. I do not wear flippers as they will hurt my muscles in my leg and affect my back – been there and do not need to do that again! I also have fairly powerful swimming legs when they want to work!

Now we look like aliens, we got our snorkel gear and I got my red PFD and red tipped snorkel and Andrew chose to get a PDF for himself too and we were ready to go! Now I did have to go down some stairs to get into the WARM water – however it was fairly easy with rails and then benches you can sit on in the water to get used to it and then a lower platform to step onto to swim from. Very easy to do and we were off! I snorkeled around a bit and saw some lovely brain coral, some very large fish and lots of white spiny coral with a few tufts of blue coral thrown in for fun! However I was battling both my PDF riding up around my ears making it hard to swim and the wave action. This was just not too enjoyable! Time to reset and retry! I then got out with the assistance of the lifeguard and optimized my gear and Andrew and I then tried again but to no avail. I kept on getting pushed into the ropes that were the barrier that I was to swim around – so I left Andrew out swimming and enjoying himself and I went back to take some pictures and hang out on the deck! Here are some pictures that I took –

After all that snorkeling we sure built up an appetite! Lunch was served back on the boat and that is also where we changed out of our swimming gear and back into some dry cloths! The lunch was wonderful – I got a chicken sandwich plus some GF cookies and a vegetable / egg frittata thing and they also told me that the Indian chicken dish on the buffet was gluten free – which I paired with the white rice for an extra treat! I then relaxed, read and knit while Andrew went and climbed down into the Underwater Explorer to check out what he could see! Being a bit claustrophobic at times and the stairway was VERY steep, I passed on that adventure! Here is what Andrew captured!

The temperature outside was about 38 degrees today – which is down from the 45 degrees with humidity we hit yesterday, so when we returned to the hotel, we were happy to have Air Conditioning in our room! The water at the Great Barrier Reef was so nice and warm considering it was still the same body of water that flows into Vancouver too! We then relaxed for the evening, Andrew had some cold beverages and as we had both a big breakfast and a fairly good lunch, we just had snacks for dinner before calling it a night!

Here is a panorama picture from the balcony of our hotel room as the sun fell.

Not sure what trouble we are going to get into tomorrow however I am sure we will get up to something! Check out what we end up doing!

I was up early YET AGAIN and having some quiet alone time on the sofa, occasionally interrupted by some snoring noises coming from across the room, when all of a sudden I noticed that the light next to the bed I had turned on, went out.  I thought maybe it was on a timer and I had left it on too long.  The Sheraton Resort that we are staying at is really into conservation efforts – I was reading in their brochures how much they recycle and also there are 1.5 litre bottles in the room where you can fill them with water from water stations around the property – such as downstairs by the elevator.  You actually can choose between chilled still, sparkling or ambient temperature water!  Quite fancy!  I continued to work away on my laptop as I was already using it not plugged in and was happy on the couch!

A couple of hours later, Andrew got up and was frustrated as he could not use his shaver as there was no charge left in it and the charger was not working.  This was about 7 am.  In Australia, the shaver plugs are 110/220 volt and a North American 2 prong shaver plug can fit into them.  I suggested that he use my converter plug that goes from an Aussie plug to North American plug instead at a different spot in the room and it did not work.  Then I plugged in my laptop to the converter plug as I knew it had charged my laptop overnight and it was not charging the laptop now… At that point the light bulb came on in my MIND – I remembered the light going off – I think the power is out!  I tried messaging the front desk through the Marriott app on my phone but that did not work so then I phoned them (thank goodness for the International Phone plan that Telus came out with the month before I left) and sure enough the power is out to the hotel.  That means I am now stuck in our room unless I want to go down 6 flights of stairs as the elevator is not working either!

I called the hotel back after a while and mentioned that we cannot get to the buffet breakfast due to this and they offered Room Service and took our order and we had a lovely breakfast in the room!  I felt for the guy who brought the trays and had to climb the 6 flights of stairs!  Breakfast in the room was a nice experience! The only thing that was missing from our order was Andrew’s coffee and my apple juice.  I called them again to remind them that those items were missing and at the same time the lights came back on!  Andrew at this point was DESPERATE for some caffeine so he made some coffee in the room and within 10 minutes another cup arrived along with my bottle of apple juice! 

Now, for a tour of the hotel!  First our room…

We, after successfully taking the elevator downstairs, walked out of the North Tower that we were in and around one of the pools to 4 Mile Beach which runs from the town of Port Douglas, north of the hotel, along towards the Sheraton Hotel and a bit further south down the beach.  Right now, you cannot swim in the ocean as there are jelly fish with deadly stingers on them – they come out from November to March – tourist season!  Here is a picture of 4 Mile Beach –

The hotel has salt water pools and lots of them – some have beach access and some have access from wharf like structures.   There is a swim up bar and a restaurant near the pool along with, we soon found, the Feast Restaurant, where the morning buffet breakfast is served.  However by the time we got from our hotel room around to the Feast Restaurant and up the ramp – I was both covered in perspiration and exhausted!  I decided to go up to the lobby which is above the Feast Restaurant to chat with the Elite Members desk where I checked in.  Last night, when I asked them (as they had neglected to tell me) where the breakfast was, they told me there was an elevator in the lobby that went down to the Feast Restaurant. 

I asked a server in the Feast Restaurant where the elevator to the lobby was and she looked at me kind of strange while at the same time Andrew said he found the elevator – it was right next to the restaurant called Harrison’s where we were planning on going for dinner on Friday night.  I went up the elevator while Andrew climbed the stairs.  Out the elevator I walked and there were more stairs to get to the lobby – no ramp to be found!  Very bizarre!  I called the hotel on my phone (again happy I have this Telus plan) and the operator came out and said I had to take the elevator I came up in back down to the Feast Restaurant and then go into the restaurant and by the washrooms there is a DIFFERENT elevator that goes to the lobby.  Why the server did not tell me that I have no idea.  I got into the elevator to go down and Andrew went back down the stairs.  The elevator would not move.  I got out of the elevator and then the door closed and it went down to where Andrew was!  Go figure!  He sent it back up for me and I repeated and it would not go down.  Andrew even tried calling the elevator and it would not go down.  I called the operator again and said there is a minor situation with the elevator not working…  Soon a front desk clerk arrived and he tried to help however he also was shocked that there was no ramp up to the reception area!  The Chief Engineer was called and when he arrived – guess what happened?  The elevator behaved!  I then got back into the elevator with him and then went to the other elevator and went to the lobby.  At this point – this “exercise” had taken over 30 minutes.  I was furious. 

I spoke to a very nice Manager on Duty named Jaime and explained how wonderful the correspondence with the hotel had been, I let them know what my accessibility needs were, however being placed at the far corner of the hotel on the 3^rd floor with a power outage is not a good start!  Also, I was having some issues finding my way around the hotel grounds from an accessibility standpoint – I had found the ramp to the Feast Restaurant now, however the distance to travel is quite far and my expectation from the discussions that I had with the staff were that I would be closer and that the hotel was WAY more accessible, based on what is listed on the website, than it currently is.  Such as the bump to get into the room – why does it exist where the rooms in the hallways that are Air Conditioned have a flat entry?  Bizarre planning when building the hotel!  I could see the lip on the 1^st floor but not the 2^nd or 3^rd floors.

Long story short, I pointed out the room type I had originally booked and where I ended up was not really an upgrade but a downgrade and I was perplexed with what happened and that no one had mentioned to me how to get around the property from an accessibility standpoint when it is obvious that it is not very accessible compared to what is listed on the website.  She agreed and found a closer room for us, which funny enough, was a similar room type that I had booked and even funnier – had a walk in shower!  It was an identical room to the one we were in on the 3^rd floor however it has a swim-up balcony with a ladder to get into the pool (which would not work for me).  I had booked a lagoon/pool view with a balcony.  Sometimes I wonder about my communication skills vs. people’s reading and listening skills.

We then went out to the local grocery store – Coles to get some groceries and beverages for our stay.  As always, I enjoy shopping in different countries to find different gluten free items and I found a WONDERFUL soft, squishy set of 4 brioche buns to make sandwiches!  I was so excited!  After Andrew patronized the Bottle Store, we went back, dripping wet yet again, to the comfort of our hotel room to relax and have some dinner! 

Now that we have wasted 1/2 of a day, we went back to our 3^rd floor room and packed up (well Andrew packed as I had not unpacked) so that they could move us to a different room.  Eventually that happened and Jaime and Allan, who had checked me in and is new to the hotel, came with her so that he could learn better the needs of people who use wheelchairs or walkers like me.  The new room as I mentioned was just perfect and very similar – only negative is it still had the little bump up to get into the room.  I can handle that if I pay attention!  The benefit is that about 200 feet away is a ramp into the Ballroom space and through that corridor, is the Feast Restaurant where we need to go for Breakfast.  It is not a kilometer walk sweating away, around all the pools to get there each morning!  We thought we would celebrate this achievement of moving rooms and a quasi relaxation day buy going to the Lagoon Restaurant which serves Asian Small plates.  We got there and it was closed as it was a Tuesday!  Again, the website failed us – now it is only open Wednesday through Sunday.  Oh dear.  Andrew deserved a drink so we went into the Feast Restaurant, up the elevator to the lobby and to the Rain Tree Bar where they were supposed to have drink specials on. 

We found a ramp!  There is a ramp from the lobby to the entrance to the Daintree Bar – unfortunately the ramp does not go down any further so unless you like sitting at high tables or at the bar (both of which have tall chairs) again, not very accessible as the main part of the bar is down some stairs!  Oh this hotel is sure not what the website indicated!  We enjoyed a nice drink and then went on our way back to our hotel room. That said, the bar was pretty impressive with its wall of alcohol bottles that Andrew and I gazed over and tried to figure out how they were arranged!

Well, back to our “lagoon view” room now to get some sleep as tomorrow is going to be a busy day! We are off to the Great Barrier Reef!