NORTH QLD ADVENTURE - DAY 21 - HOUSE WORK & A TRIP UP TO PORT DOUGLAS

We’ve had a huge week in Cairns this week, so this morning we have decided to take it a bit easy.  We enjoyed a sleep in this morning until almost 8am.  We were both so tired that it was good to just wake up and get up when our bodies were ready rather than having a time we needed to get going…

Steve cooked us bacon and eggs for breakfast which we enjoyed whilst sitting out under our awning..

It was after 9am when I headed over to do the washing… We had a huge load of it with all our towels etc so needed to machines to do it all. Whilst I was doing the washing, Steve had a go at trying to fix the spotlight on the car, as it was continually drifting sideways and lighting up the roads edge rather than the highway.  Unfortunately, that will need to be a job completed at home as the tightening nut had ceased and he just didn’t have the right tools with us to complete the job… He also managed to put a new lure on his fishing rod in anticipation of getting a day in fishing when we head to Etty Bay.

With the washing done and hung out, we then cleaned out the van, I edited a few photos and then we went for a walk around the Caravan Park and took some photos of the park, particularly the camp kitchen and pool area…

I also convinced Steve to come and have one final swim in the pool with me.  It is such a lovely pool here and we pretty much had it to ourselves for the first half hour we were in…

It was quite a humid day.  We have noticed the humidity building this week, so sitting in the pool was a nice way to cool off.  Towards the end of our time in the pool we were joined by a lady who was also taking the day off from sightseeing and was also enjoying the break.  I felt a little sorry for her, as both her and her husband come from Mt Isa and had taken 9 months off to do the lap of Australia and had been on the road since April and hadn’t even managed to get out of the State yet.  Their time for seeing the country was fast running out.  

 

By the time we finished our swim, went back to the van, had our showers, had a quick bite to eat and got the washing off the line, folded and put away, it was after 1.30pm.

Since we had finished doing the jobs on our list we decided that we could manage a drive up to Port Douglas for the afternoon.  Even if we didn’t have much time to spend up there, the drive alone was worth it as you followed the coast for almost 27kms.  This is Queensland’s equivalent to Victoria’s Great Ocean Drive.  The views and scenery are stunning…

On our way up we stopped off at Ellis Beach for a walk on the beach and photograph the many palm trees that are being eaten away by the huge tides which are washing the sand from their roots and gouging out the sand along this particularly part of the beach.

Our only other stop on the way up was at Rex’s Lookout.  It was hard not to get out of the car here and appreciate the phenomenal views along the coast line from here..

We did notice a couple of other beaut places we wanted to stop but decided to check them out on our way home, otherwise we would never make Port Douglas before sunset. 

It was just after 3.30pm when we arrived in Port Douglas, and we headed straight up to Flagstaff Hill Lookout for some more awesome views of Port Douglas’s beaches this time. This is one area of our Coast that we want to come back to for a few days to explore it further.  We received a call from Pete and Maria and Theo whilst we were here some headed down to the main picnic area in town where we chatted to them whilst sitting on the water’s edge watching some of the big catamarans returning from their day out on the reef.  Quite a sight to behold.  

 After finishing our chat with them, we checked out “The Court House” which has quite a historical background to it.

This timber building was constructed on the police reserve adjacent to the waterfront at Port Douglas in 1879.

It is identified as the second oldest surviving timber court house to be commissioned by the Queensland Government. The design typifies the simple architecture which was applied, not only to regional court houses, but to other public use buildings as well.

"Official police use ceased in 1957 and it was unoccupied by 1961.  In 1963 the Department of Works considered the expense of repair uneconomical and the disposal of this building forced its removal from the police reserve. It is due to a large measure of community self-help combined with a large stroke of luck that this building remains in existence, echoing Mrs. Betty Whiting and husband Albert's remarks when purchasing the building from the State Government in 1968 … 'So, there is nothing for it but to roll up our sleeves and do the job ourselves.'

"In mid-1993 the building was returned to its original as-built site and after undergoing restoration was opened on 5 April 1997 by the newly formed Douglas Shire Historical Society as a museum."

Today the murder trial of the only woman to be officially hanged in Queensland is featured in the same room where the case first came before a court.  Police and supreme court hearings which led to execution by hanging for Ellen Thomson are now revisited through audio-visual and graphic displays produced by the Douglas Shire Historical Society.  The case, which was highly controversial last century remains so to this day.

The Court House is the second oldest building in Port Douglas after the privately owned school house.

We then drove down to the Water’s edge to photograph “St Mary’s by the Sea”.

St Mary's by the Sea is a heritage-listed non-denominational church (formerly a Roman Catholic church) at Wharf Street,  in Port Douglas.

The church of St Mary's by the Sea was built in 1914 and is associated with the early development of the Port Douglas district and the growth of the Catholic Church in North Queensland. It is one of the oldest buildings in Port Douglas and illustrates the built character of the town before modern redevelopment as a tourist resort.

Steve then wandered down to check out the boat ramp and took a few photos of the area before coming back to the car.  We then took a drive out to the Marina to check out all the boats before heading back into town to take a few photos there and then it was time to head off home again.  We wanted to do the drive in daylight areas as it is so beautiful.

On our way up we had noticed a rocky beach area where there were lots of stone towers so wanted to check this out, photograph it and add a stone tower ourselves.  We spent a good half hour, building our own and taking photos… Steve managed to build a rather tall  stone tower.  Mine was rather pitiful.  Still it was great to photograph them.

 Our lasts stop was at Palm Cove Jetty.  We arrived on sunset and couldn’t get over the number of people out on the jetty.  So many fishing…  One guy there had obviously caught something very big, but was having trouble landing it as he didn’t have a strong enough line, but he played it well.  He was still trying to hold on to it when we had walked back along the jetty.  It had tangled itself around one of the pylons of the jetty.

We watched some other guys cast a bait net and bring it in full of little mullet. 

There were lots of folk at Palm Cove enjoying the evening, enjoying picnics and a glass of wine or two along the foreshore.  It was so nice to see and the place had a real vibe about it…

It was almost dark by the time we left here to head back into Cairns.  We wanted to fuel up also before heading home so that we were ready to take off in the morning…

The fuel station was on the other side of town, so we set the GPS and took off.  It was after 7pm by the time we got the fuel and neither of us felt like cooking, so we picked up some Red Rooster on our way home for our dinner…

It was close to 8pm by the time we arrived back at the van park..  Time to have our dinner,  and then we started the packing…   Although we didn’t pack our table and chairs back into the van, they were packed up and stacked outside under our awning ready to load in the morning…

What a great week we have had in Cairns… pretty action pack… so much more to do and see here.   We definitely need to spend more time here.  Next time we need to allow ourselves a good six weeks or more exploring just the tablelands, Cooktown, Daintree and  Cairns.