Port Douglas

14-3-2010 (Sunday)

Checking out of the Shangri-La but not after a great breakfast again. Must been said, service in the hotel is great.

The drive to Port Douglas is about 45 minutes, the road leads past the shore on one hand and the rainforest on the other, really beautiful. We made one stop to make some pictures.
We arrived around 1 at the Sheraton Mirage (http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=370), after checking in we enjoyed most afternoon at the saltwater lagoon.
The whole resort is covered with a huge saltwater lagoon, it’s like an artificial beach. It’s a good substitute for the sea, the sea is no option because this time of the year the box jellyfish are in the sea.
We booked a daytrip to the Great Barrier Reef for tomorrow, can be interesting due to heavy winds sea will not be that calm. But it’s not expected to become less windier over the next week, the winds are caused by a tropical cyclone now somewhere blowing in the region between Indonesia and here. Hope that it doesn’t come this way.

For dinner we went into town, really nice town so of the looks of it. We had dinner in The Courthouse hotel on Macrossan and Wharf street. A pub like restaurant, a lot o locals having a good Sunday night drink.
After dinner we walked up and down Macrossan street. The street was filled with little parrots, flying and making sounds like hell. This was the fourth of fifth time we saw so many birds, yesterday we saw really hundreds or maybe thousands of bats flying in Cairns.

Really looking forward to tomorrow on the reef.