Day 37 – 43 Friday July 11th – Friday July 18^th 2014 Port Douglas

I could get used to this weather. Every day is 27 degrees. The evenings are warm and balmy but not too hot for sleep. Geckos make their little kissing sounds in the trees. We walk on the beach and watch the sunrise. We catch the live music at The Courty and The Central Hotel and strolling home of an evening is magic. We visit the sprawling market under the palms by the inlet and buy cute things and fresh fruit juice. Some days we ride into town others we walk, it’s all too easy. And in the late afternoon we go to The Tin Shed on the inlet for cold drinks and watch the dive boats return. Some nights it rains with big loud plops as the water drips from the trees.

We go into Cairns for a few supplies and spend a lazy arvo at Yorkey’s Knob Boat Club drooling over the boats and reminiscing with a dear old mate who settled in Cairns many years ago, she’ll never return to Melbourne.

We explore the lesser known streets of Port Douglas and find the real town, where the locals live and the schools and churches are. We also find the well hidden Palmer resort and golf course and the beautiful Pullman Sea Temple.

We explore Mossman and Wonga Beach.

In 1942 Mossman was bombed by the Japanese. The only casualty was a small child who was hit by shrapnel. Fifty years on she unveiled the monument at the site of her childhood home. She was Australia’s only east coast civilian casualty of the war. In an irony of war this bombing of quiet farmlands occurred little more than fifty kilometres from one of Australia’s largest military bases and the headquarters of Australia’s South Pacific war operations.