~ Princess Pumpkin ~: FNQ Holiday Wrap

Now that we're back in cold, wet Sydney, it's time to reminisce about our Far North Queensland holiday before all those lovely memories fade.

Itinerary: 1 night Cairns, 3 nights Palm Cove, 4 nights Cape Tribulation. (Click links to see where we stayed!)

Cairns Highlights: Not much considering we only stayed for 1 night and slept most of that day! We did have a great seafood platter for 2 at Mangostins on The Esplanade for dinner. Great value too - only 75 bucks with the 25% early bird discount (seated by 5pm and done by 7pm). Yeah we true Asians.

Palm Cove Highlights: Great little beachside resort town that's a little less touristy than Port Douglas or Cairns. Thanks to the stinger net on the beach (below) we swam with wild abandonment and baked off on the beach afterwards. (We did lie under one of many palm trees so as to not get too burnt.)

Speaking of stingers, I love this article which basically says that YOU WILL DIE if you get stung by a stinger. This, according to Aussie Stu, is actually not true because it does depend on where you get stung - e.g. chest and face more likely to be fatal.

I must say reading The Phantom comics while lying on the beach was a highlight. It's got classic lines such as "Cold voice of angry Phantom chills even jungle tiger's blood - Old Jungle Saying". Hilarious.

Also the 40 min drive between Palm Cove and Port Douglas has magnificent views of about a million beaches.

Port Douglas Highlights: I've already raved about this in a previous post but snorkeling on the GBR was really the highlight of the entire trip. Here's one of us knackered on the boat afterwards! (More pics on my flickr!)

We went with Wavelength which I highly recommend. The 10% off for YHA members also helps!

Daintree/Cape Tribulation Highlights: Aside from licking a limey ant's bum? Snorkelling AGAIN on the Great Barrier Reef! This time we went with Odyssey H2O and I must say we enjoyed it more than the dive at Port Douglas.

Although there were only 2 dives (both off a reef site aptly named Turtles - see below), the Reef was more pristine and more beautiful there. And it's only a 45 min boat ride to the Reef!

Jerms found a turtle and I saw at least 3 sting rays. Pity we didn't have an underwater camera that time!

Another highlight was swimming at the freshwater swimming hole behind Mason's. Apparently they were one of the first white families to move to the Cape. The fresh water was so refreshing after the really salty sea water!

Finally, seeing a cassowary was pretty special - even though we only got a picture of his butt (can you spot it?). Apparently he's the resident cassowary at the Coconut Beach Resort and his name is George!