Atherton to Port Douglas

The main concern this morning was deciding if the current cyclone Nathan posed a significant risk if we continued with our plan to go to Port Douglas. We had already booked a couple of days at a nice resort right on the ocean with a no refund policy. I called and was assured that although we would be getting some significant rain, the cyclone was not forecast to make landfall.

Holding the computer at the window of our hotel room, I was able to get logged into McDonalds free wifi and confirmed that the official Aussie Met tracking had only some strong winds and lots of rain and predicted the cyclone would take a turn out to sea tomorrow.

We thought that Port Douglas may be a better spot to wait out a storm than downtown in Cairns so we continued on with our plans.

After running across the street when the rain let up for a quick McCafe and breakfast, we packed up and hit the road for Port Douglas.

As I mentioned yesterday, this area has a strong agricultural base. There are large mango and paw paw farms, coffee and macadamia nut plantations, along with sugar cane, pineapples, cashews, bananas and a slew of other crops. We stopped at Golden Drop Winery to sample some mango wine. An interesting taste and we ended up buying a bottle.

We started noticing some large mounds of mud in the fields and along the roadside. We could not figure out what these could be and had to wait until we got on the internet to solve the question. These are the home of mound building termites and can reach up to 30 metres in diameter!

The rain had sort of held off for most of the trip but as we descended from the tablelands, we could see the rain on the coast.

Entering Port Douglas reminded us of Hilton Head. All low rise high end resorts and minimal signs. We drove down the main street and up to a lookout of the beach where we could see the approaching rain.

One of the things that we had researched was the Port Douglas Yacht Club which provided visitors with a chance for a sunset sail on Wednesday nights.

We had a walk about at the Yacht Club to check it out and sadly concluded that tonight was not going to be a sailing night.

We stopped at the marina to check out some of the flash yacht and jet boats. I was surprised there didn't appear to be any storm preparations with extra mooring lines etc.

Suddenly the skies opened up and we ended up at a nice restaurant at the marina for a late lunch. We were dry and able to enjoy our food on the sheltered patio as the rain teamed down. All of the reef trips on the tour boats were cancelled for the next few days so it looks like our Whitsunday experience will have to do for our reef experience for this time. We did a bit of shopping in the marina building and when the rain let up, I ran to get the car and we drove to our apartment.

It would be a really nice place in good weather. Our balcony overlooks the beach but it is hard to see due to the rain pelting against the glass. Nice modern room with kitchen.

There was a brief break in the rain and I was able to get a photo from our balcony....

During a lull in the rain, we decided to take a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up a bit of food for an "at home" dinner. We have a fairly well equipped kitchen and did not feel like going out to a restaurant for a third time today. It also gave Chris the opportunity to catch up on the laundry.

Tomorrow's forecast is looking like up to 200 mm of rain so we will have to get creative with our activities. Lots of nice shops here for browsing and we have complimentary umbrellas from our resort.

This is the current cyclone track for Nathan which is predicted to become Category 3 overnight. Hopefully it makes that 180 degree turn!

We have sufficient supplies of drinking water, wine and beer to survive...