Port Douglas

Port Douglas was luxurious. When we were in Emerald we booked a 4-night, 4-star hotel deal on unsold.com and had been looking forward to our stay at the Ramada ever since (this is not a paid advert for unsold.com). By the time this stay rolled around we were both in dire need of some respite and were feeling weary from exciting, big days. We were greeted by a lovely lady who checked us in and found out some information on fishing trips for Marcus. Later that day we went back and booked Marcus in for a fishing trip leaving the Marina at 7 am the following day.

The Ramada- Port Douglas has a free pool table, board games, swim-up bar, and lagoon-style landscape (and pool) that runs the length of the hotel and which homes baramundi. We really loved the landscaping of the resort and the comfortable lounge chairs placed close to the lagoons and gardens; this serves as a perfect chilled place for work or relaxing with a book.

Aside from relaxing by the poolside and catching up on sleep, we also did a few really epic things in Port Douggie, which we will discuss below.

Firstly, Marcus' fishing trip didn't quite go to plan. He chose Hook Up Charters to go out with, which visits Mangrove and estuary areas, and had a good rap. However, he arrived back on land empty-handed, as did the others on the boat (2 others), and was given 50% money back. #sad #classicfisherman

While Marcus went fishing, Rachel went for a lovely walk at Four Mile Beach & Flagstaff Hill. This was a really scenic walk! After this walk, she explored the main street and stumbled upon 'Whileaway Book Store/Cafe". Rachel really enjoyed this place (well over an hour was spent here) and bought Trent Dalton's new book.

Above: Port Douglas walks and bookstore.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing in air-con and by the pool; we were both buggered and felt ready for another sleep after our morning adventures.

The next day was the most captivating experience during our stay in Port Douglas. We had heard about Wavelength way back down at Mt Walsh and were keen to book this outer reef experience with them during our time in Port Douggie. Apparently, most of their business comes from word of mouth.

The boat was fast and comfortable which is what you want if you're heading all the way to the outer reef. We sat on the top deck of the vessel and ended up chatting to one of the owners of Wavelength "Jenny Edmondson". She had spent time all over the world and had run a business in East Africa (but had to leave due to unstable politics in the country). Moving to Port Douglas she originally bought a small, scenic, river cruise boat, however, that lacked a sense of adventure. Naturally, she sold that and upgraded to a bigger boat able to handle the open water and voyage out to the "good stuff", the outer reef. Her company is deeply involved in reef conservation, cleaning, and research which is awesome. It's good to know that some of our money from the trip goes towards looking after the local ocean and reef areas.

The cruise had an onboard Master Reef Guide; Kasey. She was super friendly and knowledgeable about all things reef. Over lunch, she gave an in-depth talk about all things reef. We learned about coral bleeching and what actually happens and how bad the current situation is. Turns out that the media portrays that the whole reef is dying when that is not necessarily the case. There are 3000 coral reefs each with different types of corals that grow at different rates, vary in hardyness and grow in different water temperatures. therefore when bleeching does occur it does not affect all of the corals in the same way. Bleeching gets its name from the white colour coral gets when it is not covered in algae. When there is too much heat/sunlight the algae that live in the coral produce too my by-products though photosynthesis. The coral usually likes these byproducts as it 'eats' them to survive. But sometimes enough is enough. At this point the coral trows off the colourful algae in hope that the water might cool back down to a level where photosynthesis isnt so extreme. If the temperature does not drop then eventually the coral will starve and then die. Basically the take home story was that the Great barrier reef is not dead yet and that we do have a good shot at saving it by slowing the impacts of global warming as that is the main contributor to coral bleaching and then death.

Coral is basically just tiny upside down jellyfish joined together with an external skeleton joining them all together.

The information was great and so was the snorkelling. We visited 3 locations along Opal reef working our way outwards towards the continental shelf. We thought the first spot we saw was good, it turned out the closer you got to the outer reef the more vibrant the coral and the more colourfull and interesting fish. The day got better and better!

At the second location we snorkelled with a tour guide which meant we were able to get the names of the fish/ animals we were seeing.

Things we saw: Turtles, mating parrotfish, stingrays pufferfish sweetlips fish, Giant Bumphead Parrotfish and more.

Marcus' favourite sight was seeing a large school of Bumphead parrot fish swimming about 50m away from the boat. These fish are almost the size of an adult human and it was cool to see so many in one area.

We saw so many amazing sights so we will attach plenty of photos! We had our go pro on us and also have access to all of the photos that Kasey took on her very high tech expensive underwater camera that puts our GoPro to shame.

Below: Photos taken by Wavelength

Below: Marcus' GoPro photos (does not capture colour as well).

We would both give Wavelength 5 stars for their friendly and professional staff and a great full day experience. And for giving us extra cake during morning and afternoon tea :D

Green Tree Frog

Bruce Belchers Crocs