It's Raining...It's Pouring....Apparently I'm Snoring

This is the cover of the most recent Port Douglas Gazette. Even though it is a couple of days old, it is still a timely headline. Last night, Judy was awoken a few times starting at 3:00am to the sound of torrential downpours hitting the metal overhang over our deck window. I am told that, to make matters worse, I managed to sleep right through this snoring away. She'd fall back to sleep only to be stirred by another round of downpours and snores. Apparently this scenario repeated a few times during the night, although I didn't hear anything. Hey, sorry, I'm a good sleeper.............so sue me.

The rain continued through much of the morning squashing any hopes of us going out to the Great Barrier Reef. I was disappointed about this development as that was one of the things I most wanted to do on this trip. We went into the town of Port Douglas to get another $30 breakfast and walk around a little bit. Breakfast was good, but just a short time into our walk, the skies opened up again. We took refuge under a huge banyan tree and waited out the deluge.

As an aside, this area is a lot more tropical that I expected it to be. It's very reminiscent of Hawaii both in the flora and the weather...short rain squalls but not cold temperatures. Anyway, once the rain subsided a little, we hiked up a pretty steep hill to Lookout Point and got a pretty good vista of 4 Mile Beach that runs the length of the Port Douglas area. It would've more impressive if the sun was out, but it was still pretty decent.

On the way back down, the sun peeked out and the skies cleared a little bit. I had mentioned that I should get a hat to keep the sun out of my face. In the local shopping area, Judy found this one, but I nixed the idea as it was just a little too distracting. We did find a Coles store, which is one of the Aussies' supermarket chains, and got some stuff for lunch & breakfast. We got enough for 1 lunch, 2 breakfasts, and a 6-pack of Big Helga beer (an Aussie Munich style lager) for less than we have been spending on one breakfast.

I think I've already mentioned my observation that food is really expensive here. In the resort areas where we are now, they also nickel & dime you because they have a captive audience. For instance, it's $4 for the key to the in-room safe, $4.50 to ride the shuttle into the town and another $4.50 to get back. The internet charges are incredibly high...almost $40 a day. However, you can get the free Wi-Fi in the restaurant area, so you know where I am right now as I am typing this. One other thing that we have noticed is that the Aussies do not seem to smoke very much, unlike when you travel in Europe where they smoke like fiends.

We got back to the resort and had our first cheap lunch and decided to hang by the pool and relax with our books and enjoy the sun. After being there for awhile, we worked our way down to the beach. The water in the Coral Sea is probably to warmest water that I have ever swam in. As you can see, Richard Nixon was there too (inside joke).

Tomorrow, we're off to an all day tour to the Daintree Rain Forest. We're hoping that the weather will cooperate, but even if it doesn't, we are going rain or shine.