Dad’s Town
- Sep 19, 2016
- 3 min read
Location:
Port Douglas, Daintree National Park, QLD, Australia
The great thing about being part of a tour is that your tour guide knows all the cool spots like a secluded beach with a tiny island not too far away from it. They also know where all the cool viewpoints are which makes the journey all that bit more interesting. With the Daintree being the oldest rainforest in the world, I wanted to explore it a bit more. I wanted to get right in there and marvel at its grandeur. And marvel I did particularly at the incredible ‘Fig Tree’ which is formed when branches begin to grow at the crown of a mature tree, wrapping themselves around the tree, all the way down to the bottom. Eventually this leads to the death of the tree as the branches suck all the nutrients, forming a hollow bark with all these really cool branches. There are many examples along Australia’s East Coast.
It was built up and built up! And fair enough with a menu of ice cream flavours more complicated than the main course options in a fancy restaurant, what shall we order? Surely anything we order is going to be amazing. Or is it? The problem is, now here is the dilemma! When your only payment type is card and theirs is cash, what can you do, but moan and depress yourself knowing that you are missing out on some of the nicest ice-creams in the world. Feeling sorry for ourselves, the two of us got back on the bus while we waited for the others. When our tour guide Cassie found out our problem, he insisted on giving us cash to buy some. When we reached Port Douglas, we asked if there was an ATM nearby so we could repay him, he simply told us not to worry about it and asked if we would write a good review about him. Of which we did straight away. He was certainly one of our better guides, very funny and extremely chilled!
The hostel we checked into for the night, ‘Port Douglas Backpackers’ seemed quite decent from first impressions. It will definitely suffice for one night. After we checked in, we quickly walked down to a park area where we got to enjoy the end of a sunset. While it would have been nice to see have seen it from the beginning, the sky was still so beautiful especially as we looked out into the sea. It was one of those perfect Kodak moments!
What I love about the town that bares the same name as my poor father, ‘Douglas’ is the chilled back vibes one gets. There really isn’t much to do apart from visit the beach, trek up to the view point where you can get a cool picture of ‘Four Mile Beach’ and check out the main strip. Myself and Jason decided to take advantage of the free outdoor barbies by picking up some sausages and steaks in Coles and throwing them onto one of the many free hot plates. When you have great weather, picturesque views of the sea and a huge fig tree, who wants to go to a fancy restaurant!
If I ever got the chance to come back to Port Douglas, I would jump at it. Less than a day here is simply not enough. Yes, the town is tiny, but there are other parts to explore and cool things to do which we missed out on. At least we got the opportunity to stay over and experience the laid back feel one gets when they spend any amount of time in Port Douglas!
By Andrew
Comments