Driving to Port Douglas

We are in tropical North Qld right? Well that is what we thought when we laid out our clothes for an early start – bikini, shorts and crop t shirt for me and shorts and singlet for Iain. Imagine our surprise when we walked out the door at 4.30am and it was 7 degrees!!!!! Needless to say we sprinted to the car and cranked up the heater. We were tired and dying for a coffee, but weren’t game enough to get out the car until we got to Townsville at 8am. We found a coffee shop and proceeded to order coffee, it was only then that we turned around and realised it was part of a hotel and there was a religious convention on, I had a whole restaurant of families dressed as conservatively as they come – men and boys in suits – looking at me in my shorts and tiny t shirt. I confidently walked over to the armchair in the corner and sat as conservatively as I could!

The rest of the trip was a pleasant drive, it soon warmed up and the further north we got the warmer it got. We got to Cairns around lunchtime and decided to stop and get a new aerial for the UHF radio as we discovered we could receive transmission but not transmit.  After that we stopped in at the army disposal store to get a few more bits and bobs, this is where we started to realise that shop assistants here are not the sharpest tools in the box! A little frustrated by the stupidity we paid for what we had and moved on to our next stop. This happened to be Clark Rubber, we needed some foam for the seats of our canoe as they are very hard and unforgiving on the buttocks. Our visit went like this:

We walk in and go to the foam shelves

Assistant – ‘Can I help you.’

 Iain – ‘we need some waterproof foam for our canoe seats’

Assistant – ‘if you get that foam it works out very expensive’

Iain – ‘oh what else do you have’

Assistant shows us cushion foam

Iain – ‘it needs to be waterproof, what about this’

Assistant – ‘ don’t get that it’s even more expensive’ (I’m expecting the boss to come out and start smacking her over the head)

We finally settle on a yoga mat we can cut up and make layers

Me – ‘Do you have any self-adhesive Velcro  to attach the foam to the seats’

Assistant pulls out 2 boxes, one hooks and one loops ‘ which one do you want’

Iain looking dumbfounded – ‘uh both’ (I’m starting to get the giggles but contain myself) ‘1 metre of each please’

Walk to the counter to pay, assistant keys in price for foam then picks up the boxes for the Velcro marked $5 metre and says ‘ you’ll just have to be patient this will take a while to figure out’

That was the end of me I had to abandon Iain and succumb to hysterical laughter outside the store!

Iain eventually came out the store and we laughed half way to Port Douglas. 

After  a leisurely drive we arrived In Port Douglas, we booked into our room and set off on a walk into town. After cruising the shops and getting Iain a pair of lightweight sunnies and a playsuit for me – shorts that look like a dress – we decided on fish and chips. You would think fish and chip shops would be everywhere here, but it took a good half an hour to find one. It was well worth the effort, we had trevally and it was the nicest piece of fish I have ever eaten. We walked back to our room and I spent the next 2 hours doing some mending of clothes.

All in all it has been a wonderful happy day and I’m off to bed now.