Port Douglas Thursday 26 September

Shiny...and it goes very fast.

Our trip to Port Douglas turned out to be full of drama but more of that later. We drove along a lovely coast road and arrived mid-morning in time for a coffee. The once small fishing port has now grown into a playground for the rich and idle…uh oh… mustn’t judge, we are pretty idle and comfortable ourselves! Anyway you get the idea, lots of boats, expensive boutiques and property prices off the scale. Our reason for being there was to take advantage of one of the very few companies that gets to the Great Barrier Reef in about 15 minutes. The Reef Sprinter is a speed boat that barrels out of the port at 40 knots. It’s captained by Steve, a typically laconic Aussie with a really dry sense of humour.

 

The one that nearly got away

True to his word we were wet-suited, over the side and snorkelling on the reef 20 minutes later. I had decided to hire a camera in the hope that I could get close enough to something to take its picture. As it turned out, the best shot I got all afternoon was of Fo floating past with goggles and a pool noodle. It’s not that I didn’t see much, it was simply that I found it very difficult, even with fins, to swim and point a camera at the same time! Still it was fabulous and we saw turtles, remora fish, angels, an octopus and a multitude of other smaller fish; as well as lots of different types of coral.









Proof that I got a picture of at least one fish



When it was time to go the captain turned on the boat address system and blasted out the theme tune to the 1970s film, Jaws. Everybody got back on board promptly and we then had a brief trip around a small coral cay, an island formed not from sand but from the debris of dead coral. As we sped back to Port Douglas, accompanied by Bob Marley this time, the captain did a high-speed 360 spin in the boat at the entrance to the harbour. It was very exciting and made quite an entrance.

 



Exhausted but happy



After a great day we headed back to Cairns and our apartment. If we thought that was the end of an exciting day we had more drama to come.  After about 30 minutes Fo either blacked out or had a nano nap and drove the car off the road. Thankfully, it steered itself away from oncoming traffic and onto the adjacent beach. The car dropped down about 2 feet, crashed through some bushes and grass, snuck between a large tree and a camper van full of startled Swiss tourists before finally coming to rest in a conveniently placed, and thankfully soft, sand dune. Although the car was a write off, we emerged unhurt but shaken and dazed.


Another one I managed to snap.
A ramora, rats of the sea apparently

 

Cars stopped and people arrived to help, one of whom said that as Fo had possibly blacked out we should call an ambulance. So after about 20 minutes we locked up the car and hitched a ride back into Cairns in the company of three lovely lady paramedics. Their names now elude me but they were all wonderful. As we headed back we couldn’t help but muse on the fact that a few minutes prior to the crash we had been cruising along a cliff-edge. It could have been so much worse and we were so very lucky to end up where we did and not in the local mortuary.

Our boat in a scene reminiscent of the film Open Water. Based on a true story about 2 American divers who were left behind by their dive boat on a trip out of Port Douglas. Their bodies were never found but their dive gear was retrieved from the sea bottom. Don't get left behind.