I can’t believe that we have only been on the ground in Australia for 2 weeks as we have already seen and done so much! Today we are heading to Port Douglas which is about an hour away from Cairns and reported to be a great place to see the Great Barrier Reef. We had our final breakfast on the deck overlooking the rain forrest then packed up the car and went to check out. Our first stop of the day was only about 15 minutes from the Hotel and it was a walk around Lake Eacham. This is a lake in the crater National Park, this lake was created about 10,000 years ago and formed by an eruption of underground water and heat which caused it to produce steam and then the lake formed. We did the lake circuit walk with was about 3.5km which was a wonderful walk with some magnificent trees and root systems but unfortunately not many views of the lake! it took us about an hour and was a really nice way to stretch out our legs before spending time in the car, of course this was helped by the fact that it is only about 25C and there is a little breeze round the lakes. At the end of the walk we spotted a turtle but we didn’t see the freshwater crocodile that they talked about on the posters! From here we drove to the Mulgrave Settlers Museum which to be honest wasn’t what I expected. I thought it was another outdoor / living history museum but it was actually quite a small display of items from the time that people first settled in the area, however, the woman that was in there was actually the daughter of a sugar cane farmer and very knowledgable about how things have changed, she still lives on the farm but has leased out the actual farmland for someone else to farm. She has lived in the area all her life and we think she was in her 80’s as she said that her husband died a few years ago and they were married for 60 years. She explained the whole process of farming the cane and also how it has changed over the years and when we had finished looking round the museum she stood outside with us and explained how the processing plant worked – it was just over the road. She also explained that although the farmers are still independent, the processing plants which used to be run by a cooperative are now mostly owned by business from either Thailand or Singapore, she also explained that the local processing plant has broken down a lot this year and there is actually only a very small window between when the cane is cut and when it is processed where it is viable, if they cut it and it isn’t processed by the time it comes to processing it the cane is probably worthless because of the reduction in something she called CS level. We spent a while talking to her then continued to Port Douglas. We stopped in Cairns on the way but to be honest it looks very much like all the other seaside towns we have passed that are dedicated to tourism then onto Port Douglas and our apartment. It would seem that we have lucked out again on the apartment, we have a 2 bed which has a massive lounge and a balcony with both a sofa and a table and chairs so we will probably be having more breakfasts on the deck, the only downside is that we don’t have a view of the sea and the temperature has gone up to 33C and to be honest out of the breeze you really notice it but I am sure all will be well after a few beers and something to eat.
