After our ‘night out’ we returned to our hotel, poured ourselves a G&T, Maice promptly falling asleep and not surfacing until this morning at 6am and as for me, I stayed up to write the blog, finished off Maice’s G&T (waste not want not) and eventually got to sleep at midnight, waking at 4.30am this morning.
Our transfer coach to Port Douglas, an hours drive further up the coast was picking us up at 10am. I suppose you’re wondering what happened to Day 4 of our yoga challenge. To be perfectly honest, we were so exhausted yesterday we didn’t have the energy to be doing any downward facing dog manoeuvres so we opted to do Day 5 this morning. So, no time like the present, at 6.50am we laid out our towels, jostling for position in our bijou room and took up the Day 5 yoga challenge. Feeling totally refreshed and energised after completing the challenge we set about packing which of course consisted of the usual arranging and re-arranging of our cases. We’d both arrived with two bags but somehow in the course of two days we now seem to have acquired a third bag. I wouldn’t mind we’ve not purchased anything extra except for the gin, six small pots of tiger balm, two postcards and a tacky fridge magnet, this is Maice’s work challenge to find the tackiest magnet for the magnetic wall at work! Oh and not forgetting the sugar sachet box. Jane (H) you can’t imagine how many we’ve collected so far and we’re only on day 7!
At our fourth and final visit to Woolworths yesterday we bought today’s breakfast, yoghurt and bananas which we ate ‘in-fresco’ on our beds then as we had time to spare we went for our last stroll to the promenade where I practiced with my new camera. I think I’m getting to grips with it now so hoping to produce some excellent photos.......so watch out Jane and Steve!
Our transfer arrived and we boarded the very jerky mini-bus, driven by Corrie, who’s a bit of a character, who drove us into the next chapter of our Australian adventure to Port Douglas. The scenery along the way was quite something, obviously a taster of what’s to come. We didn’t know where in Port Douglas our hotel was situated but we were very surprised to find our ‘boutique’ hotel, the Villa San Michele was nestled in amongst the shops on Macrossan Street, the main street in Port Douglas. One would think it was going to be extremely noisy as the hotel is surrounded by cafes and bars and shops but how wrong we were. Once we’d gone through the reception area it was like walking into Dr Who’s Tardis, the hotel was much bigger out back and had two heated swimming pools, admittedly they were both on the bijou side. The receptionist was very helpful and gave us some useful tips; don’t swim in the sea as there are stingers (jelly fish) in the water and don’t walk along the beach at night as that’s when the crocodiles come out and patrol the beach. Fair do’s we shan’t be doing either of those!!
Since we walked into our one bed apartment we’ve been acting like a couple of school kids. Honestly, its just so lovely, not a bit what we expected, and it has a spacious lounge which will be ideal for our daily yoga challenges. We can’t begin to describe how thrilled we are. The balcony overlooks a large clump of trees and although the area is very quiet considering its location, the cacophony of noise made by the birds up in the trees is quite deafening. We presume they’re birds and not bats, we can’t say for sure for try as we might we just can’t see them.
So now that we’re in, the first thing we needed to do was go out, to the chemist, to get something for my prickly heat, however the chemist was reluctant to sell me anything saying it would eventually go away. The reason for it she said, is arriving in a hot country and doing a lot of walking......well she’s not wrong there. We probably walked at least 50,000 steps yesterday!
I think we’re going to love it here in Port Douglas as it’s got such a lovely vibe. There are some lovely shops here, not good for us as we can see us parting with our money very quickly and there’s also a Sunday market which we wandered around and enjoyed a refreshing cup of iced tea. We’ll walk round it properly next Sunday before we leave for Sydney. There seems to be some lovely cafes, bars and restaurants around which no doubt will create a dilemma for us when deciding where to eat out but thankfully the hotel receptionist has recommended a few places for us. We haven’t even seen the famous ‘Four Mile beach yet which we’re looking forward to walking along, in the daytime of course. We’re out on an excursion all day tomorrow so it probably won’t be until Wednesday when we get to explore Port Douglas properly.
I’m sure it’ll come as no surprise when I say we decided to eat ‘in-fresco’......just for a change, so purchased some provisions from Coles the supermarket, which seems a bit more upmarket than Woolworths but surprisingly a little cheaper and then we returned home to finally unpack our bags which will be the first time we’ve been able to unpack properly since leaving home on Monday. Of course we then rearranged the furniture to accommodate our clothes. Why is it that hotels a) don’t give you enough clothes hangers b) don’t provide a decent set of drawers for your non-hanging clothes and c) there’s never anywhere to store your suitcases!
We finally sat down to our supper and large G&T after which we arranged our clothes and bags for our excursion tomorrow. We’re off into the rainforest where we’re hoping to see crocodiles and other such wildlife.....omg, you cannot believe how excited we are, it’s like Christmas and birthdays rolled into one.......
G’night
A&M