About Port Douglas
Established in the 1870s during the Queensland gold rush, Port Douglas began as a busy port servicing inland mining towns. When the gold faded and a cyclone hit in 1911, the town declined — remaining a quiet coastal outpost until tourism revived it in the late 20th century.
Now it’s a laid-back gateway to the only place on Earth where two World Heritage-listed sites meet: the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest. Yachts line the marina, palm trees frame Four Mile Beach, and the pace is decidedly tropical. It’s polished but relaxed — reef by morning, rainforest by afternoon, sunset drink by evening.
Credit: chatGPT
Arrival
Our flight up was similar to our flight down to Portugal, just under 3 hours. We then picked up our first hire car of the trip, one that will see us through to Brisbane over the next 3 weeks or so.
Nikki took the first drive up the Captain Hook Highway to Port Douglas, another hour north of Cairns. The road hugs the coastline but the day was quite murky so not many photo ops. We also passed through around a dozen roadworks on the trip and it seems these are all the result of flooding and landslides caused by Cyclone Jasper which made landfall in Dec 2023, bringing with it 3.2 metres of rain in less than a week. Locals are becoming incensed at the time being taken to effect these repairs, with tales of union interference as well as profiteering. It’s not just the UK that suffers in this way.
We arrived in Port Douglas and our By The Sea apartments resort. At first sight the town seems quiet, quaint and picturesque.
We took a walk up the main street and found it teeming with boutiques, cafes and bars. Many of which were shut! It seems although this is height of Australian summer, it is the low season in this part of the world due to the humidity and the rains, and it’s their Wet season. In fact we pushed our schedule out a bit to arrive in Queensland as late as we could as January is the wettest month.
We had some pub grub in one of the bars and were shocked that around 9.15 they started putting chairs on tables and half hour later we were kicked out. Still at least we got an early night after a long day of travelling.
Beach day
We decided on a quiet beach day for our first full day in Port Douglas.
It is called 4 Mile Beach. We later discovered that the beach is actually 2.5 miles long. Typical Aussies, exaggerate everything! The name derives from the 4 miles journey sugar cane trucks had to take to the port and the name stuck to the beach.
This was our first beach with a netted swim zone to keep sharks and particularly at this time of year, jelly fish, away. Although it was concerning that Irukandji jellyfish are small enough to get through the net and can deliver a nasty sting, which while unlikely to be fatal, can put you out of action for a couple of days.
We were assured though that the safe zone is regularly swept and if any jelly fish are found, the area is closed until it is cleared.
The water is like a warm bath, and even Steve was quickly able to get his shoulders under, having easily passed the gonads test. Although Steve cannot swim, he does love a sea frolic and always jumps into big waves in Portugal. Nikki generally NEVER gets her knees wet. In Port Douglas though Steve had the rare experience of being joined by Nikki in the sea, shoulders and all. It was brilliant to cool off at regular intervals this way, although you still had one eye on what was in the water nearby constantly.
In the evening we fared in a more UK like manner. First we found a stylish restaurant called Zinc, where we had cocktails and a lovely meal in lovely surroundings and cool music; second we moved on to a bar called Cosmos, that had the audacity to stay open until 11pm! Lovely vibe in there and we noted a tapas style menu which would come in handy later.
Daintree Rain Forest
We had to be up early the next morning (Friday) as we were being picked up at 07.20 for a full day guided tour to the Daintree Rain Forest. There were 9 of us on the bus including 5 Irish and 2 Swiss Germans, along with our driver James who was from UK but came to Australia 29 years ago when he was 19. James is a Tottenham fan, which delighted Steve, and they were able to share mutual suffering that results from being a Spurs fan. Steve managed to slide into the conversation that he played schoolboy football with Glenn Hoddle for around 5 years. Always impresses Spurs fans.
Daintree is another hour north of Port Douglas. Just goes to show how big this country is – from Sydney we had a plane trip north of 3 hours; then another hour north to Port Douglas, then another hour north to Daintree. We understand that there is yet another 2 or 3 hours north of that to the tip of north east Australia. Mind boggling.
James was very knowledgable on the drive and told us about the areas history with the Mason family getting approval to claim what land in the area that they liked and clear the forest for farming; the cyclones that cause such damage; the sugar cane that is no longer farmed because the landowners grew fat and lazy on easy money, let their processing plant fall into disrepair and when the industry moved south to Cairns, the cane became uneconomic to farm.
We finally arrived at the Daintree, but we took so many photos that it is worth a post of its own – coming soon!
We returned about 4.30 absolutely exhausted and probably smelling like a Dingoes armpit. We had a couple of liveners in the Tin Shed, a fascinating bar that is not for profit, as it operates for the community ploughing money into local projects.
On the way back to our accommodation, we noticed a bar called N17 and Steve was delighted to meet the owner Simon, a huge Tottenham fan, with memorabilia everywhere. Steve managed to slide into the conversation that he played schoolboy football with Glenn Hoddle for around 5 years. Always impresses Spurs fans.
After showers, we returned to our new fave bar, Cosmos and partook of cocktails and aforementioned tapas. Place was buzzing as it was a Friday night. To say dress is skimpy on a night out would be an understatement.
We left just in time, as on our way back it started to rain a little, then a bit more and then a lot, and Nikki was delighted with the thunderstorm that followed into the night.
Hamish says ....
We really enjoyed Port Douglas and Steve felt another couple of nights there would have been great as it felt like we only scratched the surface, even with half the retail/hospitality closed.
What's next
We reverse our drive down the Captain Cook Highway to Cairns for a 3-night stop in a five star hotel. We feel we need a bit of R&R as we have been on a bit of a charge for nearly 3 weeks now.
One Response
Oh I would have loved ybe rain forest 😍