Exploring north of Cairns

Above:  Freeform pool set amongst concrete blocks and old trees at our Port Douglas accommodation.

Involuntary Extension

We begin the involuntary extension of our Queensland stay today (or arguably yesterday), with return to New Zealand impossible until further notice due to Covid-19 restrictions.

The additional stay is somewhat welcome as we can have a relaxing time after the rush-rush portion with a fair bit of driving.  We were fortunate to rent a wreck of a car at a fraction of the normal prices and reasonably priced accommodation at Port Douglas.

We picked up our well-worn Hyundai Getz diagonally across the road at 0930, joining a queue of many people.  We checked-out on the dot at 1000 to explore the area north of Cairns.

A friend had recommended going to Yorkey’s Knob and Trinity Beach.  The former had a yacht club where we enjoyed the view over a cuppa.  Trinity Beach had nice sand but the water, like the man places we had been to, had brownish water.

Covid-19 Test

We returned to Cairns and undertook a RT-PCR Covid-19 test so that we could hopefully travel back to Auckland on Thursday (it is Monday today).  The sample was taken from my nose and throat at 1300, which was 71h before departure; the maximum was 72h.

The New Zealand government was expected to update the travel restriction and hopefully lift it tomorrow.

Unfortunately, a couple of hours later while we were at Palm Cove, we heard that the restriction would continue until Saturday.  Our AUD145 test fee (per person) had been a complete waste of money and we’d need to repeat it later.

But we console ourselves that our airfares were free (and expiring) and our previous rental car was nearly free.

Palm Cove

After the test, we took lunch again at the marvellous RSL nearby.  From here, we drove to Palm Cove, a place I liked very much during our visit some 12 years ago.  I love the shady tree-lined waterfront and the tastefully-designed hotels, apartments and cafes.

We took time for another cuppa to enjoy the perfect temperature.  The sand here is golden but the water is browner than I had remembered.

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Ramada but not

We continued our drive north to the Ramada Port Douglas which had a lovely setting.  Concrete blocks surrounded a free-form swimming pool.  The area inside and outside the formation had lots of old tropical trees as if the development was done while retaining them.  Set amongst the nature; that appears to be the theme.

We had snapped up a room at “Sanctuary Studio at Ramada Port Douglas” at a great rate through Booking.com.  I hadn’t appreciated the significance of the strange name.

It turned out that it was a privately-owned apartment in the Ramada complex that wasn’t managed by Ramada.  The implication was that we couldn’t use the hotel’s wifi; to be fair I noticed later that our accommodation’s facilities excluded wifi.  Also, a buzzing noise with the air-con couldn’t be addressed by the hotel and we had to contact the owner by messaging.  It’s all reflected in the good price, similar to that we had paid for motels and cabins.

Having had a substantial lunch, we had a simple dinner of canned soup with a mashed-up broccoli which I steamed in the microwave.  We didn’t even have bread but made do with crackers and pretzels.