January 2, 2019 Port Douglas chill

Ah, to sleep in a bit on vacation.  Woke up at 7:30am and we saw cloudy skies but no rain which made it easy to decide on a walk to High Tides for breakfast.  It is right at Four Mile Beach and a block from our apartment.  We took a peek at the beach - it was high tide and windy as all get out with muddy water.  That, stinger signs and bottles of vinegar at the entrance to the beach, plus white caps, made it very unlikely we’d be swimming.   And made us all agree whole heartedly that snorkeling in that surf would have been a miserable experience

Looks like a great place to swim, right?

Then literally as we were walking up the steps into the restaurant for breakfast the rain started.  It tapered off as we ate, and we didn’t see a drop of rain again during the day.  Our luck held once again.  Our meal was very good though we were starting to look at our watches and were just discussing “Island Time” when our food got delivered.  Not a big deal, though people all around us were arriving, eating, and leaving before us.  We took it all in stride (being on vacation makes us very relaxed) so we were truly shocked when the host took Yolanda aside and let her know our meal was comp’d because the food was so slow.  We’d never said a word to anyone, so we were truly surprised.  We left a nice tip (Australians don’t tip) and the waitress came out to let us know we didn’t need to do that.  We said we understood but we appreciated her service and wanted to say thank you.

With nothing specific planned for the day, since the snorkeling was cancelled, we caught the Port Douglas shuttle from our White House Apartments to the Wildlife Habitat.  It was a highlight of our trip.  And not just because I got to hold a Koala.  Though that had a huge part of it.

Male Eclectus

Very Large Crocodile

Once he sank down 6 inches under water you couldn't see him.  Spooky.

We were rinsing our hands in the river yesterday....thinking we were safe....till you see just how high out of the water a croc can get...

Loved those feathers

Petting a Kangaroo in the Wildlife Habitat

Wallaby

Nail Tailed Wallaby - endangered

Koala

Sleepy - but love that foot

We saw Cassowaries, Kangaroos, Wallabies, Tiger Quall, Lizards, Turtles, Crocodiles, Cockatoos, and who knows what all else (I can’t remember) and we got to hold a Koala!  Supremely awesome.

Kookabura and Cerlew across from our apartment

We spent the afternoon shopping then swimming in the pool again. 

When we’d arrived we’d made a reservation at 2 Fish after a recommendation (saying it was one of the top seafood restaurants in all of Australia) and we were there right at 7:30pm.  I ordered the whole baby Barramundi, Ken and Yolanda ordered the Coral Trout, and Greg ordered Yellow Fin Tuna.  All our meals tasted amazing.  I’d planned on ordering the Bug Tails but when I saw the Barra go by I changed my order.  I’m so glad I did! 

Presentation is everything, but taste matched it, in this case.

We wandered back down to Jimmy Rum’s for an after dinner cocktail (the same place we’d gone on New Year’s Eve) and walked back to our apartment enjoying the night sky (we could see stars – though as we sat on our balcony it also rained).

Tomorrow – Rainforest Tour.

Crazy trees

The White House apartments

Cerlew who lives by our apartment