From the rainforest to the reef, with a little surprise along the way

After visiting the World Heritage listed Daintree Rainforest, the natural next step was to visit the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef.

Views from Port Douglas out to sea

So we headed to Port Douglas to do a cruise out to the reef. Or so the kids thought.....

There was a big surprise waiting for them at the pub that night when two people that looked remarkably like their grandparents sat down at a table near us.

I have never heard two boys giggle quite as much as Dylan and Lukas when they realised it actually was Jami and Pa, who had flown to Port Douglas to see us all. What an awesome surprise.

Beautiful ocean-themed stained glass at
St Mary's of the Sea

So our adventurous gang grew by two for a few days as we explored Port Douglas and the reef.

We spent one day as a lovely quiet day around the hotel (yes, we were upgraded from Suzy Q for a few nights - lucky us!) swimming in the pool, exploring the vistas and walking down to the local playgrounds.

Another day was spent on our reef cruise which was great, apart from the rough seas. Lukas was sick on the way there, but doubling his seasickness medication on the way back seemed to do the trick!

The reef was beautiful and, while not as accessible as Ningaloo, there seemed to be a greater concentration of fish in one spot. We thought the colour of the coral would be much brighter, kinda like the tourist brochures, but the general tone is much more muted.


Included in our cruise was mooring on a floating platform for a few hours of snorkelling, an underwater observatory and short rides on a semi-submersible boat with viewing windows.
We've decided that it was close enough to a submarine that we've officially ticked that one off our 'vehicles we've travelled on' list.

Dylan snorkelling

So all of that packed into a busy day made for a rather tired tribe at the end of it all.

But there was still another experience that we just had to do while in Port Douglas and we weren't about to let tiredness get in our way.

Our 'submarine' experience

After some revival pizza, we headed to Iron Bar for the famous Cane Toad races. They are run by a very smart guy who does a brilliant job of playing the classic Aussie pub character, taking the piss out of pretty much everyone in the audience and himself as well. With names like "Camel Toad" you probably get the level the humour is pitched at, but it's pretty entertaining for adults and kids alike.

One lady piked on racing her toad, Pidgeon Toad, and offered it to Dylan who bravely took up the challenge. He held it, kissed it and received great cheers from the crowd when he placed a podium finish for the bronze medal.

How do you race a cane toad I hear you ask from across the internet? They simply get tipped out of a bucket and the competitors blow on them with those retractable party horns.

Never knew I wanted to see cane toad racing, but I quite enjoyed it!