Where I'm Going

According to Wikipedia Australia is the oldest, driest and flattest inhabited continent, and the sixth largest country in the world. It is divided into three separate time zones and takes over four hours to fly from one side to the other, compared to about ninety minutes from Aberdeen to London.

Despite having a land mass approximately thirty-one times that of the UK, Australia has only about forty per cent of the population. Although density is higher in the cities, overall Australia has three people per square kilometre compared to the UK with two hundred and seventy-nine.

All this means I’m not going to cover very much of it on my trip, and the chances of unexpectedly bumping into anyone I know are less than slim. If it happens, I’ll take it as a sign that I should buy a lottery ticket. Fortunately, I wasn’t planning any long journeys – apart from getting there and back.

The first place I’ll see in Australia is Cairns airport. Its history goes back to 1928, when Tom McDonald started flying his De Haviland Gypsy Moth off a sand ridge near the present airport. It now has a single runway large enough to handle international flights, and two passenger terminals which have been built on reclaimed mangrove swamp. It also serves as the base for the Royal Flying Doctor Service and Emergency Management Queensland. Interesting, but hopefully I won’t be there too long before venturing out.

Cairns itself is a city on the tropical northeast coast of Far North Queensland. In the 2021 Census it had a population of around one hundred and fifty thousand people, similar to Poole and York. The site of the town was originally predominantly mangrove swamps and sand ridges. Labourers gradually cleared the swamps, and the sand ridges were filled with dried mud, sawdust from local sawmills, and ballast from a local quarry. These days it is a major tourist destination, with access to two UNESCO world heritage sites; the Daintree Rainforest as part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland, and the Great Barrier Reef, one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

As it’ll be early morning when I get picked up from the airport we won’t be visiting the town, but instead will be heading north on the Captain Cook Highway. This is a scenic highway that winds alongside the coast of the tropical seaside rainforest heading towards our destination Port Douglas, and Daintree National Park. It’s not a long journey at sixty-six kilometres (forty-one miles in old money), and should take about an hour. I’ve been told there’s somewhere we can stop along the way for breakfast. As the traditional Aussie breakfast looks remarkably similar to a full English, I should have no trouble acclimatising!

Port Douglas, our destination, was originally settled by merchants in 1877 after gold had been discovered on the Hodgkinson River and a port was needed to dispatch it. Tours of an old mine are available, along with a gold panning experience so you never know... 

By 1882 there were fourteen hotels in town.  It was a boom period and Port Douglas overtook Cairns as the main port for gold and tin mining fields.  But in 1885, the rail link from the Tablelands was joined to Cairns, and development in Port Douglas soon declined. In 1960 its population was only about a hundred. In the late 1980s tourism boomed and the population is now around six thousand, although tourists can double that in the peak season of May to December. Fortunate then that I’m going in October, with average maximum daily temperatures around twenty-eight degrees and minimum twenty-one, and six days when it might rain. I can live with that.

As it will be hot and dry I’m sure I’ll visit Four Mile Beach which as the name suggests has four miles of golden sands, fringed by palm trees and with a mountainous backdrop and not a high-rise or apartment building in sight. Crocodiles have been spotted on the beach, but only rarely, and there are nets to keep box jellyfish and sharks out of the swimming areas. I have dived with reef sharks and tiger sharks in a controlled environment but have no wish to eyeball a great white, but measures are in place to ensure a family friendly swimming experience all year round. There is also somewhere you can swim with crocodiles, but that’s not currently too high up on my to do list!

Port Douglas has its own answer to Oktoberfest; Porttoberfest, which will be held while I’m there, on 15 October. It will be held at Hemingway’s Brewery (ideal place for a p*ss up) and will feature live bands, beers from around the world, and German fare to soak up the cold ones. It would be rude not to support the local economy.

Other experiences Kerry and Conor have lined up for me include wild camping in the outback, motorbike trips and snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. For many years it was on my bucket list to dive there, but I haven’t had scuba gear on since before covid so we’ll have to see how that goes. In any event I’ll still get the experience, with the benefit of more colour in shallower waters. There will, I’m sure, be many more experiences that I’m not even aware of yet, especially seeing their social media posts over the last few years. Things I’m particularly keen on include avoiding close contact with huntsman spiders, and seeing water go down the plughole the other way.

Already a month doesn’t seem long enough. Kerry and Conor might come to disagree!

It’s only a few days now until I go so I picked up a fistful of Australian dollars earlier on to tide me over, although it’s likely I’ll need a few dollars more once I get there. I think it’s pretty well all done now bar the packing, so the next time I write I should be on the way!