I woke up to rain Sunday morning and prayed it would go away because my roommate and I had plans to be outside that day. We got a ride up to Port Douglas with a woman we met at a Christian barbeque and, sure enough, the rain was heading south with blue skies on the horizon.
The entire drive up, I could see rocky cliffside fall away to the blue stormy ocean. The waves were whitecapped and crashed onto the rocks with a dramatic sigh. Out the other window, the scars of mudslides presented themselves as bright red dirt amongst the foliage. 
The mangroves, where the trees overlap with the ocean, were much more impressive than the arrangement we saw at the aquarium. The roots arched out of the water like the trees were tiptoeing so they wouldn’t get their trunks wet. I wanted to jump in and play amongst the trees myself so I can see why it’s a crocodile haven.
For the last half an hour of the trip, the road twisted and turned non-stop around cliffs and beaches. Unfortunately, it was hard to focus on the scenery when my empty stomach was trying its best not to be sick on the turns.
Immediately after getting out of the car, we started the hunt for food. There was no way I was going to take a hike on an empty stomach. We stopped by a nice cafe for lunch and I had a toasted sandwich. That’s pretty insignificant to my day, but it was a good sandwich, despite the burn it left on the roof of my mouth. 
Port Douglas is the prime example of a tourist town. Essentially, if you imagine an Australian beach town where the population is 90 percent retired people, then you have Port Douglas. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s an absolutely beautiful town. Palm trees line the streets and all the restaurants have outdoor seating. The main road has a nice small beach on one end and on the other lies Four Mile Beach.
After lunch, we headed up to Flagstaff Hill. We were expecting to do a real hike, but unfortunately, the trail was closed. The road leading up to the lookout was far steeper than what I was expecting though. Trying to ride a bike down that hill would have been suicide.
Once we reached the top, we were treated to a view of the beach and the mountains in the distance. You can see mountains literally everywhere in Cairns, but I never get sick of looking at them. We escaped the rain for the most part when we headed north, but a few remnant clouds lingered above the peaks.
We lingered around the lookout for a while, not exactly ready to face the steep walk back down. My water bottle was already empty, but eventually, we mustered up the energy for the walk back. We headed for the small shops we had seen while perusing for a place to eat.
The shops closer to the beach seemed rather high class, at least to a college student anyway. We found a store filled with the basic tourist souvenirs and, of course, I bought a few keepsakes.
Although the clouds were blocking the sun most of the time, it was still rather humid. We headed for the beach for a quick swim, but not before searching the rocks for some wildlife. I saw a beautiful black pelican that nearly blended in with the rocks and a large crab scuttle between the cracks.
The tiny sand crabs are about the size of your pinkie nail, and they love to dig themselves little holes when the tide is low. They throw little balls of sand out of their tunnels and create little piles near the entrance. If it weren’t for the piles, you’d probably never actually spot the little holes.
The sand on the beach is so firm I’m sure you could drive a car on it. Maybe it was just the stormy weather, but the waves on the beach were large and curled over on themselves. None of the other beaches we’ve visited have waves like this, so Karoline and I decided we absolutely had to go play in the waves.
The water was nice and shallow, so we were able to walk out pretty far and still be able to stand against the waves. As each wave came, we plunged into them headfirst laughing every time we resurfaced. We bodysurfed and jumped over the waves before finally deciding it was time to head back.
On own drive home, we passed by the Trinity Beach wallaby herd. There were hundreds of wild wallabies roaming around this field grazing and sunning themselves. I never thought I’d see so many in one place!
When we got back to Cairns, we started preparing a typical Norweign dessert to celebrate the days before fasting starts. Most of the friends I’ve made in Australia are actually other exchange students from Norway and Sweden. We decided to celebrate with everyone and have them over for dessert.
I didn’t do any of the cooking, Karoline and Cathrine handled that. The Fastelavnsboller was absolutely delicious! It’s essentially a sweet bun with whipped cream and jam in the middle. I probably ate too many because they substituted my dinner, but I’m not complaining.
It was really fun to have everyone over for a relaxing dinner for once rather than running around beaches and waterfalls all day. We’ve decided to make Sunday nights a regular family dinner night. I’m looking forward to taco night next week!
kpctravels.com 