FreeSpirit : A swim in a net

Monday 27 February 2017

A swim in a net

Saturday25th/ Sunday 26th

This morning, 2 km walk almost back to the airport to collect the campervan. 10 am was the pickup time and sure enough, the van was waiting for us....or so we thought. A peculiar thing, though, we were shown this newer van which had USB ports and a decent radio. The guy showed us around and even set the safe combination for us. Gas bottle was full as was the water tank. So I go and start putting our stuff in it. Then back he comes and said 'no this wasn't ours, the one just come out from the workshop was ours'. That one had no USB port, radio naff to say the least and it wasn't until we got to our first site in Port Douglas that we found the water tank was empty, gas bottle not full, electric kettle had no base so no way of switching it on and a damaged front wing! Their office doesn't open until Monday so we are stuck with it for the time being. Thankfully we will be passing back through Cairns so we will see what happens when we call in.

Driving this larger van was okay but I kept forgetting to give the corners a wide berth. Got to Port Douglas and found a great campsite near the town centre and beach. That night it rained, the humidity was very high and for once the aircon did the job of making sleep comfortable. How those other campers got on without AC in these temperatures (didn't drop below 29deg all night) I hate to think.

Sunday and we walked to the market. Bought no end of goodies to take back to the UK. Ah... and forgetting we only have 20kilo allowance on the flight home. May look into shipping our things across instead.

Then a swim in the net on 4-mile beach. The net is not for sharks but Box and Bluebottle jellyfish. Vinegar is also to hand to pour over a sting just in case. The Box can kill you in minutes!!!!

Another trip had been planned on the ship Lady Douglas for later that afternoon. More of a wildlife trip with the possibility of seeing a proper 'Saltie Croc'. Into the mangroves, we went keeping eyes peeled along the banks. First to put in an appearance was an Archerfish followed by a Sea Eagle Osprey, Mudskippers, Mangrove Heron, Kingfishers, Flying fox, Torres Strait pigeon, Curlew and then when we had all but given up hope, a Saltwater crocodile.