On the Road Again........

There was nothing to stop us from leaving for our Christmas/New Year holiday.  The bathroom renovation is taking care of itself at "Paringa", the storage shed roller door is now installed, the reversing cameras have been fitted to the caravan and the "Saltwater" renovation is completed.  So, off we set.

We have no particular place to be apart from Christmas at Toowoomba with mum and New Year at "Evergreen" with son.  We have a few friends scattered around Queensland that we want to catch up with but they are all pretty flexible with times.  We are on a wait-list to have the van serviced at the place where we bought it at Bennetts Green (Newcastle), so we will probably head down to New South Wales to be close in case they have an opening.  We never thought that the service department would be booked out until February, but knowing the number of people purchasing caravans, it doesn't surprise us at all.

We were on the road by 9am on Monday.  It is always a bit of a shuffle to get the caravan out of our storage shed as the garden maintenance business beside us has lots of vehicles parked in just about all the available parking bays and we need a lot of room to exit!

Our first stop on our journey south was at the Babinda Bakery where we picked up a loaf of bread straight from their oven and of course the absolutely compulsory cream buns.  We stopped for lunch at a roadside rest stop and throughly enjoyed our salad sandwich, nectarine (that was not nice) and of course the cream bun.  We hardly felt like moving but we really wanted to get to Rollingstone the first night so we pushed on.

Rollingstone has an excellent van park right on the beachfront and we have stayed here numerous times.  The new management team where very helpful and they suggested that for $25 for two years, we join the Discovery/Top Caravan Park Group.  So far so good as we have already saved our membership!

We quickly set up the van and didn't even need to un-hitch as there were very few people in the park.  A walk along the beach is a must do at Rollingstone so we set off.  Even high tide didn't stop us as we strolled along the beach looking at the interesting shells and coral.  We very rarely see shells or coral at either Palm Cove or Port Douglas beaches and I don't really know why.  It would have something to do with the tide flow I imagine. Back at our camp it was showers, a couple of games of Backgammon, and straight to bed where we watched TV for a short while before a deep sleep overtook us.

Next morning we decided that we would only drive as far as our lunch stop each day.  This would give us around five-six hours of drive time or 300-400 km, and really that is as much as we need to do in a day. That way we can enjoy a late lunch and then a short nanny nap before we go exploring.  Today our journey took us through some very parched country with lots of fires around the Bowen area.  I hope the wet season comes early to water this dry country. It desperately needs it.

Our stop today was Airlie Beach and we have decided to stay here two nights.  The first time we visited the Whitsundays was on our honeymoon in 1978.  My parents had very generously given Philip and I a week on Hayman Island as a wedding present. The next time we visited was with my youngest sister and her husband some thirty odd years ago.  Back then it was still a relatively sleepy little area with magnificent beaches and Islands.  Of course the magnificent island and beaches have not changed but the area has been developed beyond belief!  Of course we have said this of lots of places and it is a sign of our age that we rememberer what they used to be like.  Having said that though, we are in love all over again with Airlie Beach.  At this time of the year there is hardly anyone around and we pretty much have the run of the Island Gateway van park.  I dare say when school holidays start it will be a different matter.

Today we drove to Cannonvale to purchase a couple of things for the van and then we headed to the stinger net on the man-made beach at Port of Airlie.  It is one of the largest stinger nets we have ever swum in and Philip enjoyed lapping up and down. As for me, well, I'm just a whale....

We are tossing whether to stay another night but our friends in Tannum Sands are waiting for us so we will head off again tomorrow.  Have no fear though because Airlie Beach is high on our list of places to return to so we will be back as soon as possible.

More......

 Someone asked me how we spend our time when we are in Port Douglas.  It is really a break from the mundane when we are here.  I don't cook many meals and if I do I make it as simple as possible.  I'm really crushing on the Marions Kitchen Range.  These were on special at Coles last week for $6 and they are good value.  All you have to add is your protein.

Our mornings in Port this time around have been pretty full on with renovations to the apartment, new roller door for the storage shed and extras fitted to the caravan.  We have also had to deliver our slide-on to Cairns from where it will be freighted to Melbourne.  The new owners will love it as much as we did.  It was kinda sad to say goodbye as we have had some amazing trips with our little "Tardis".

But, getting back to our day, each morning if we don't have anything on the agenda we  start with some form of exercise.  We both like to rise early and lately that has been around 5.30am.  We have coffee in bed and then Philip goes for a cycle with his buddies and I usually do a 5km walk.  We then have breakfast either in the apartment or at one of the local restaurants.  We had a very good breakfast at Monkey Joes this week and an awful one at Ziva.  The one at Monkey Joes was love on a plate whereas the Ziva breakfast was literally thrown onto the plate with no love at all.  

It is such a shame that some Chef's don't take pride in their presentation.  I follow Spencer Patrick on Instagram.  He is the owner and hatted Chef of Harrisons Restaurant.  He wrote that before every service he is nervous because without nerves comes arrogance and with arrogance comes mistakes.  This is very true of some chefs but you can not say that about C'est Bon Restaurant in Cairns where we again dined this week.  Their food presentation is the best I've seen.  I had Potato, Leek and Pear soup followed by Chicken Cordon Bleu. They say you eat with your eyes so check these dishes out and tell me your mouth is not salivating.....

On Saturday we drove again to Cape Tribulation for lunch with our friends who are were staying at the Cape Tribulation Camping Ground.  Gosh it is a lovely spot and one I'm certain we will return to.  When we arrived at the camp there was a note on the door that said "At the Beach". We thought that they must have gone for a walk so we settled back with a beer and waited for them to return.  We finished the beer and were about to open another when Philip decided he had better go for a bit of a walk down to the beach to see if he could spot them. He was back within five minutes with a command to follow him back down to the beach.  What a lovely surprise to find that our friends had set up a table complete with linen tablecloth, in the shade of some beautiful trees right on the beach.  The women enjoyed a glass of bubbles and the boys settled back with chilled beers while we sat back to shoot the breeze.  We feasted on home made pappardelle with a fabulous bolognese style sauce followed by Lemon Curd Cronuts.  Yum, Yum. After lunch was cleared away our friends taught us how to play a card game called Frustration.......well named!!  Around 4pm we said our goodbyes and made the return trip back to Port.  It really was one of the nicest days.

On Sunday we had a long awaited lunch date with my hairdresser (Jodie) and her partner.  Jode has been my hairdresser for 14 years!  We have such a great rapport and I love my hair appointments.  We have only caught up socially a handful of times over the past few years but each time it ends up with us all drinking rum and cokes at one of the local venues!  We started our lunch date at Seabean Restaurant where they serve delicious Tapas and Paella.  Gosh we made pigs of ourselves. Jode and I washed down our food with the Cocktail of the Day while the men stayed on beer until we moved to a different venue.  It was a long lunch date that went well into the evening with many laughs.

Most afternoons, when the heat has left the sun, Philip and I walk down to the beach for a leisurely swim in the stinger net enclosure.  We rock around in the waves for ages and we absolutely love it.  We ask ourselves every time "Why haven't we been doing this at Palm Cove?".  We put it down to just being too busy but our new year resolution will be to make time for a swim each afternoon.  It can't be that hard.....

A change of venue

We have moved from Palm Cove to Port Douglas.  No.  Not a permanent move, just while we are having renovations at "Paringa".  The body corp is waterproofing and re-tiling all the balconies at "Paringa" so we thought it would be a good idea to go ahead with our bathroom renovation while this was happening. So, we have packed away at least half of the apartment to make way for the tradies who are going to be going in and out of the apartment.  We have employed a project manager for the bathroom renovation who will oversee everything, thank goodness.  We do not have to lift a finger or make any decisions.  This also means that we can leave for Christmas holidays sooner rather than later.

So, what's been happening.  Well we moved into our Saltwater Apartment on Sunday 1st November and it has been go go gooooo!!! We are juggling so many balls at the moment and it became all too real when the manager informed us that the cabinet re-surfacing that we had approved some time ago was going to happen......WHILE WE ARE STAYING IN OUR APARTMENT!!!  

Fortunately it was only going to take two days so we decided to find things to do.  First day we drove up to Whynabeel and then on to Cape Tribulation.  We haven't been to Whynabeel for more than ten years and it was terribly sad to see Kaynak Theatre closed, the Glass Blowing Factory closed and the Tropical Fruit Farm closed.  The only business still running is the High Falls Teahouse. 

After Whynabeel we boarded the ferry to cross the mighty Daintree River and are very pleased that the Council seems to be heading down the path of two ferries rather than a bridge to ease the delays at the river crossing.  It is the right choice.

We always enjoy the drive to Cape Tribulation and this time was no different.  I am always on the lookout for the elusive Cassowary but have not had the good fortune yet to see one up close and personal. We were back in Port for a late lunch at the Surf Club. I highly recommend the Crunchy Prawn Sushi Roll!

Oh, I forgot Melbourne Cup!  What a great day that was.  No winnings for us but the company and food we enjoyed at Zinc Restaurant more than made up for it.  We joined eleven friends to celebrate a 52nd birthday on the day.  A lovely birthday present for our friend was winning the "Fashion of the Field" and  well deserved too. After Zinc we all retreated to Mamman Bar and Bistro for the after party.  This venue is fast becoming a must do when visiting Port Douglas.  It has a very relaxed atmosphere and we have enjoyed a couple of  Happy Hours since we have been staying in Port. It is recommended to book a table as it fills very rapidly.

We have had to make a couple of trips backwards and forwards to Cairns over the past couple of weeks and each time we have made sure that we have booked a table at the French Restaurant, C'est Bon.  Wow.  The food here is so incredibly good.  For $50 you get to enjoy three courses with either beer or wine and the lunch menu changes weekly.  How good is that!

Speaking of very good food, we took our friends Kate and Mike, for belated birthday presents, to the oldest restaurant in Port Douglas.....Nautilus, for a five course degustation. We feasted on Sugarcane Cured Barramundi, Seared Scallop, Grilled Moreton Bay Bug Tail, Sansho Duck Breast and Plum Tartlet. The thing I enjoy most about Nautilus is the atmosphere and charm of sitting outside under the giant rainforest trees amongst the lush tropical plants in high backed chairs that in any other setting would seem ridiculous, but here they are perfect.

In between everything that has been going on we have been patiently waiting for the second roller door to be installed at our storage shed.  So far the delivery date has been put back three times and each time the company is blaming it on the freight lines.  Jury is still out on that excuse.  We are also waiting for the reversing camera to arrive so that we can have that installed on the caravan.  When these two things happen we can start heading south for Christmas holidays. Yippeee!!

I have so much more to tell you but I have decided to spread it out over a couple of posts so stay tuned.

xx Judi