Cairns - Day 5

Since kids like nothing better than to hear, “Let’s go for a drive” – we did just that. We headed north up the coast to Port Douglas. We’ve heard it’s a really beautiful drive and it’s true. Unfortunately the road is so full of curves and “S” turns that Jeff really got to see none of it. They did have lookout points but by the time we noticed most of them we were already on our way by. We did manage to stop at one though.

The lookout on the way to Port Douglas, people hang-glide off here.

Comparing Cairns to Port Douglas is like comparing Niagara Falls to Niagara on the Lake. While one is mostly commercialized with all the tacky souvenir shops and tourist-y things, the other is a more laid back, upscale (aka expensive) little town. Much to the kids delight we didn’t spend long in Port Douglas (although anything longer than 5 minutes was too long).

St. Mary's by the Sea church in Port Douglas

Fortunately for them there was another educational opportunity close by. Mossman Gorge was only about 10 minutes down the road and it is “a very accessible and scenic section of the World Heritage listed Daintree National Park”. Luckily I picked up a map and brochure at the information stand and could fill them in on all the details on the way. Since we hadn’t planned on hiking today we were all in ‘thongs’ (interpretation: flip flops) but ‘no worries mate’ the path to the gorge and suspension bridge was mostly manmade and again, many were in their barefeet anyways.

On our way to Mossman Gorge in the Daintree Rainforest

On our way home we were all scanning the sugar cane fields for any signs of kangaroos. Apparently they are ‘all over the place’ here but we still haven’t seen ANY! At this point any type of jumping marsupial would do. FINALLY, about 10 minutes from the resort we noticed about 50 of them out in a field with some horses. They were small and most were lying down and looked like little mounds of dirt….but one was hopping. I think we were all blabbering hysterically and Jeff spent the next 10 minutes circling around trying to find a way to get closer to the field…which we couldn’t do – so no pics, you’ll just have to take our word for it! Stay tuned for tomorrow’s exciting adventures – bungy jumping and holding the koalas.

"Crocs" in the pool