Australia, Palm Cove: House Guests Between Cairns and Port Douglas

When we left Mission Beach by bus, heading for Cairns, we had the ultimate destination of Palm Cove on our minds. Palm Cove was the place we had planned to stay for a few days with Dan's friend from work, Carl, who had rented a house there conveniently at the same time as we were going to be there.

The bus ride took just a couple of hours and we realised upon arriving in Cairns that we had not been in touch with Carl to reconfirm when we were supposed to get there. It would have been hard to get in touch with him while we were in Mission Beach because the mobile phone we had been using didn't have a signal, and didn't get a signal until we approached the outskirts of Cairns itself.

On the way to the shops, we saw a group of kangaroos at the side of the road

Once we reconnected with Carl, he said he would drive from Palm Cove to Cairns to pick us up and take us back to the place he had rented for his time there. Palm Cove was around 15 miles north of Cairns and we had some time to kill waiting for him to pick us up, so we went into a liquor store to buy some beer and soft drinks.

During the drive, Dan was able to catch up with Carl and find out how working in Australia had treated him during the past 2-1/2 years, and also how things were going with him personally. Kyle had met Carl several years ago in London and thought it was good to see him again.

For that first night in Palm Cove, Carl barbecued chicken and pork ribs; he also made a salad and grilled corn on the cob for us. It was the start of many nights in a row of drinking beers, too, something that we normally didn't do, but somehow ended up doing a lot when Carl was around. The day after arriving, we visited Daintree National Park and were fortunate that Carl had rented a 4WD vehicle to take us around on some of the park's dirt and gravel roads.

Carl had booked a 3-bedroom house in the peaceful town of Palm Cove for a few days as he was holidaying in the area. When he found out we were travelling in the same area at the same time, he kindly offered for us to stay at the house with him, which we really appreciated since our travel fund was quickly running out in Australia, the last (17th!) country that we visited during our around-the-world trip in 2007.

Even though most people stay in Cairns to explore the northern part of the east coast, we found Palm Cove to be a great place to base ourselves for a few days, but we wouldn't have been able to do so if Carl hadn't hired a vehicle to drive us around everywhere.

When we returned from our jaunt out to Daintree National Park, we ate barbecued chicken and steaks, and potato salad and coleslaw. After eating, we tried to watch the DVD "Hollywoodland", but it was a little bit slow and we were exhausted from the day in the national park, so we went to bed after half an hour or so of the film; Carl didn't even make it that far and we watched him snooze before starting to drop off ourselves.

On our second full day with Carl, we visited Port Douglas, a trendy beachside town a few miles north of Palm Cove. At Port Douglas, we walked around the town centre with Carl and then to the marina before making our way back into the centre to enjoy coffees at The Coffee Club. There, we each enjoyed a refreshing ice coffee and Carl drank a flat white coffee, or an espresso with water and milk. When we had cooled off enough in the air conditioned coffee shop, we walked back outside in the heat and stopped at an internet cafe called Wendy's Internet. It doubled as an ice cream parlour, too, but we didn't have any ice cream.

After checking emails, we headed back to the rental vehicle, Carl drove us back to the house in Palm Cove and we had lunch. Leftovers were on the menu: coleslaw, potato salad and crisps (that's the same as potato chips for the Americans reading this).

Carl decided to take advantage of the swimming pool at the back of the house and we spent some time writing before joining him in the pool. With the weather being as hot as it was, and the lounge area of the house lacking air conditioning, we were happy to jump into the pool, where the water was nice and cool due to rain the previous evening.

Before heading to Cairns for dinner, Carl needed to stop at a couple of shops to try and find a new charger for his car GPS system, which had stopped working during our drive in Daintree National Park. The roads there had probably been too bumpy for the electronic item to survive! He had no luck at the shopping centre we stopped at halfway between Palm Cove and Cairns because most of the shops were already closed for the day (many Australian businesses seemed to close at 5:00pm).

On the way to the shops, we saw a group of kangaroos at the side of the road, so the trip wasn't completely wasted; we drove on to Cairns fairly happy, but had to use a normal map to find our way around, which Carl probably wasn't happy about since he normally used his GPS device.

For dinner that evening, Kyle had planned to meet up with a friend of his from work who was also in Australia at the same time. Sarah had arrived in Cairns from London the day before and it was good timing that we had recently arrived in the area. All that we had seen of Cairns was the street where the Premier Motor Services bus dropped us off, and we were glad to be getting into the city again to walk around the centre. Sarah was staying at a hostel at the edge of the main part of town and we picked her up before heading out to eat.

The Woolshed had a dinner special for backpackers, a main course and dessert for $10 AUD (£4.44, or $8.88 USD). The deal was a bargain and we were worried about the quality of the food with the price being so low, but we were all pleasantly surprised when our food was served. Kyle ordered the chicken burrito and Dan ordered grilled chicken with sweet chilli sauce, mixed vegetables and mash potatoes.

What Carl and Sarah had remains a mystery, either because we didn't write it down or because we had consumed a few beers during the course of the meal, or both. We do know, however, that dessert for everyone was chocolate cake with ice cream, and that Carl didn't eat any that night.

When we walked from The Woolshed to O'Brien's Irish (go figure) Pub, we passed under a few large trees in the middle of one of the main roads in town. Looking up, we saw several flying foxes, the large bats we had seen all over the South Bank area of Brisbane. With Sarah having just arrived in Australia, it was as exciting for her to see the bats as it was for us, but since Carl had lived in Australia for over two years, it didn't excite him as much; several of the creepy flying creatures live in Sydney's Hyde Park, among many other places.

We had a round of drinks at O'Brien's and chatted further about our trip and Sarah's upcoming trip; when she and Kyle started talking about work, Dan and Carl took time to talk about the company they had both been working for when they met.

BREAKING NEWS... The wombat is our favourite Australian animal, but the brushtail possum has sped up the charts, aiming to compete for the top position. Last night, in Sydney (we are there writing this journal entry now), we saw several possums in Hyde Park; a couple of them came right up to us, sniffing our hands as we held them out to pet them. It wasn't our sweetness that they smelled, but pizza residue from eating a couple of slices each at New York Pizza Slice a few minutes earlier. END OF BREAKING NEWS...

After spending a few hours with Sarah, we had to all call it a night; she was tired from jet lag and a couple of pints of cider, and we were tired from the food and beers that we drank, too. We took her back to her hostel and it started raining terribly just as we stopped in front of the building. She didn't have far to walk to get inside, but there was a security gate and she had to punch in a code. After a couple of tries, she managed to punch in the code and gave us a wave goodbye before running into the hostel to avoid getting wetter than she already was.

The rage of the storm intensified and we felt like it was the storm from Mission Beach, finally caught up to us after a couple of days' break from it. Filling the 4WD vehicle up with petrol was not a pleasant experience, and we were glad that it wasn't our responsibility, happily letting Carl fill the tank up in the pouring rain. The roads were slippery and there was a lot of water on them, making us think of flash floods, but we made it back to the house in Palm Cove just fine, and in time for bed, since we were all pretty exhausted.

Checking out of the house in the morning, we packed up our things and Carl drove us to Kuranda for the day. The mellow mountain town, set in a stunning rainforest, was definitely going to be touristier than Daintree National Park had been, but we were excited to check the place out, since Carl said it was a nice day trip in the Cairns area. He had previously visited the small town with his son who came to visit him in Australia from the UK and was right that we would enjoy the place.