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Day 1 - Trip to Cairns We left Sydney airport at around 9pm on Tuesday, 11 September 2001 on one of the last flights on Ansett Airlines. Near the end of our 3 hour direct flight to Cairns airport, we heard early news about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center in New York. It was an eventful night that we wont forget. The map shown details the region of North Queensland from Cairns to Port Douglas and Mossman where we spent the week.
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Day 2 - Cairns and the Trip to Port Douglas
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We spent the first half of the day in Cairns. We stayed in the heart of town so we could leave our bags there and walk about town. We arranged a transfer from the hotel to Port Douglas at 2:30pm so we had a few hours to spend in Cairns.
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We went to the Undersea World Aquarium at The Pier which Amelia absolutely adored. For her, this was probably one of the highlights of the trip and she squealed in delight at the tropical fishes.
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This map shows Port Douglas. We had a little hair raising ride in the express shuttle bus from Cairns to Port Douglas (70km). Our accomodation (Cayman Villas) is at the purple circle at the corner of Mowbray and Davidson streets which was within easy walking distance of the beach (near the surf lifesaving club), Macrossan street (where most of the shops and restaurants were) and the Marina. Cayman Villas was fantastic and had an ideal room layout, all on one level, two bedrooms, kitchen and laundry, (spa) baths, excellent pool and was idealy located.
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We walked to Macrossan Street on our first night in Port Douglas to find somewhere for dinner. We ate at "Mango Jam" which had a high chair for Amelia, but the food was a little disappointing.
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This is a 360 degree panoramic view of the courtyard in Cayman Villas. View: QTVR [286kb] | Java [99kb] | HiRes QTVR [1222kb] | HiRes Java [1124kb]
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This is a 360 degree panoramic view of our living room in Cayman Villas. You can see the pool area outside the window with the retractable shutters. The villas are quite new and were very comfortable - we can highly recommend staying there. View: QTVR [235kb] | Java [70kb] | HiRes QTVR [1149kb] | HiRes Java [778kb]
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Day 3 - Port Douglas We went for a morning swim at Four Mile Beach. The water was warm and clear, the sea was calm so the waves were tiny and Amelia loved it.
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You can rent all sorts of beach equipment (including umbrellas, chairs, toys for the kids, boogie boards, surf boards, sailboards and even catamarans) here on the beach so you don't have to bring them.
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This is a 360 degree panoramic view of Four Mile Beach. View: QTVR [421kb] | Java [52kb] | HiRes QTVR [861kb] | HiRes Java [622kb]
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We had dinner at an excellent restaurant called "Lime" (on Macrossan street). The food was excellent, though they didn't have a high chair for Amelia.
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Day 4 - Kuranda Scenic Train, Kuranda Village & Skyrail After the train was delayed by an hour, we were on our way on the Kuranda Scenic Train which took us from Freshwater Connection (near Cairns) to the Village in the Rainforest (Kuranda).
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I'd researched on the Internet for some day tours to do whilst we were in Port Douglas and there were a number of companies which did the Train/Kuranda/Skyrail tour including Reef and Rainforest Connections, Asia Pacific Tours, Down Under Tours, BTS Tours and Skyrail. I emailed most of them and Reef and Rainforest Connections responded not only promptly but also extremely helpfully so we booked our tour with them.
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Work on building the line began in 1886 and when finished (in 1891) it included 15 tunnels, 93 curves and climbs over 320 metres. Here we see the view of Stoney Creek Falls.
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The curved bridge which passes by the falls.
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The view back towards Cairns.
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Barron Gorge Station.
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A panoramic (160 degree) view of Barron Gorge from the viewing platform at the station.
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The Markets at Kuranda are famous although we were a little disappointed by what we saw (both the markets and the village itself).
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The best part of the day was the 7.5km journey on the Skyrail from Kuranda over the forest canopy to Barron Falls and Red Peak Stations and on to Caravonica Terminal.
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The view from the gondolas was fantastic and Amelia was excitedly standing up to look out in all directions.
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A panoramic (200 degree) view of the coastline from our Skyrail gondola.
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This is an untouched long exposure (2sec F2.6) taken just after sunset of the pool and barbeque area. This evening we had a tasty seafood platter at a restaurant called Sassi at the Wharf street end of Macrossan street.
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Day 5 We had a lazy day swimming and taking a walk in the area and down to the Marina. A panoramic (200 degree) view of the courtyard in Cayman Villas. The component shots taken here (at 6:40PM) were 4 to 8 seconds in length at F2.6/F3.0. On the recommendation of some of the other guests staying at Cayman Villas, we bought lots of fresh seafood from places nearby and had a seafood bbq.
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Day 6 - Great Barrier Reef We took a day trip out to the outer reef with Quicksilver. Again there are quite a number of companies that do day cruises out to the reef or low isles from Port Douglas. We wanted one that would cater well for our young child (22 months) and offer good activities. After some research and emails, we chose Quicksilver because they responded to my email, had a large boat which went to a large reef platform (good so that Amelia could move about and not feel too restricted). They also had snorkelling, an underwater observatory, semi-submersible (glass bottom) boats and introductory scuba diving.
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This is a 360 degree panoramic view of reef and reef platform taken from the top of the Quicksilver Wavepiercing Catamaran. The component shots were taken just after we'd arrived at the reef (12 noon). At the reef, I did an Introductory Scuba dive with Quicksilver Dive. I'd never been diving before and this was absolutely amazing - the colours of the coral weren't as spectacular as I'd expected (this apparently is because the red end of the colour spectrum can't penetrate far enough into the water) but the size and abundance of tropical fish was outstanding. There was an Instructor and an Underwater Video diver for each group of four intro divers and I bought the dive video (in MiniDV format) which was taken using a digital video camera. I can highly recommend the Quicksilver reef trip as well as the scuba dive. View: QTVR [250kb] | Java [59kb] | HiRes QTVR [708kb] | HiRes Java [454kb]
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This is another 360 degree panoramic view of reef taken from a similar spot later in the afternoon (2:45PM). You can see here that the tide has lowered considerably exposing much more of the reef. View: QTVR [223kb] | Java [50kb] | HiRes QTVR [659kb] | HiRes Java [424kb]
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Day 7 - Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary
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The Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary is located at the entrance to Port Douglas (6km from the main street). We also went to the "Breakfast with the Birds" where we had a buffet breakfast with the birds all around us.
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Habitat is split up into different environments including Wetlands, Woodlands, Grasslands and Rainforest.
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There is a Koala Habitat where Amelia patted a sleeping Koala.
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Day 8 - Daintree River and Mossman Gorge
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Ansett airlines collapsed while we were away. We arranged a flight home with Qantas which was 24 hours after our scheduled departure time. We used the extra day to do one more day trip with Reef and Rainforest Connections again and the day included a scenic drive to the Daintree river and the Daintree Village.
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If you planned to drive yourself then you could definitely skip the Daintree Village. The Daintree River Cruise was ok (although the weather wasn't the best and we didn't get to see any large crocodiles).
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I know it is hard to see but there is a grey snake on the branch in the middle of the picture :-).
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An hanging birds nest, designed that way so that snakes can't get to it.
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A panoramic (160 degree) view of the Daintree River.
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Mossman Gorge was probably the best thing to see on this trip and it offered some good opportunities for photography.
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This is a 360 degree panoramic view of Mossman Gorge taken from the suspension bridge crossing the river. You can see our Reef and Rainforest Tour Guide on the bridge with Louise and Amelia. View: QTVR [440kb] | Java [136kb] | HiRes QTVR [1925kb] | HiRes Java [1341kb]
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This is a 360 degree panoramic view of the Mossman River. View: QTVR [396kb] | Java [134kb] | HiRes QTVR [1521kb] | HiRes Java [1263kb]
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On our last night in Port Douglas we wen to a highly recommended restaurant in Port Douglas. Apparently Bill Clinton dined here the previous week. Salsa is on Wharf street near the end of Macrossan street. The food was tasty although a little spicy (you could probably tell from the name).
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Day 9 - The Trip Home To avoid another scary ride in an airport shuttle bus we had a limousine take us from Port Douglas to the airport at Cairns. This is a view of Cairns out the window of the plane on our way home.
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The National Park just north of Sydney.
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An aerial view of Northern Sydney (Balmoral, The Spit, Manly, Middle Harbour) and we are home.
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