Sunday, October 9, 2011

Queensland

We arrived at Cairns airport on Saturday evening and drove north along the Captain Cook highway to Oak Beach, just south of Port Douglas. We are staying at Mountain View Lodge where we will stay in one of the 3 cottages for 6 nights. This was intended to be a relaxing break with only the barrier reef definitely on the schedule, but as soon as we arrived, our host, Rita had a list of attractions for us to visit - we shall see!

Our cottage is lovely, a perfect place to relax for a few days. We have a green patch outside the cottage, a terrace where we can sit out, a pool, all the amenities and a delightful couple as our hosts, Rita and Walter.






Having been woken by the dawn chorus, very different from that in the UK or in France, we breakfasted on the terrace:









We had a tour of the property this morning. Rita and Walter have been here for 13 years and have planted and tended the property. The have a selection of fruit trees, mango, lychee, cherry etc and grow many different types of ginger. I have a fresh root sitting in the kitchen. This is where it came from







Here I am with my favorite fruit, mango









And some images of the garden: a green ant nest (opened up a bit by Walter to show the ants) and the fish pool



















For entertainment, we have a family of bush stone curlews, Mum, Dad and baby, who is taller than Dad but doesn't yet have a fully developed beak.









Dad is in charge of shopping and comes around demanding food: steak will do nicely, thank you. He has just been eating from my hand.










We went to Port Douglas this morning for essentials. There was a market on where we sampled fresh pineapple juice and sugar cane juice. Here they are making it: one pedaling to drive the crusher and the other pushing in the cane.









Then we had lunch and saw the small beach near the shops.







Tomorrow, the Reef so we are hoping for low winds.

Pat and John on tour