Australia Week Two Recap

Hello from week two! The weather in far north Queensland was so hot and humid, and it’s not even peak summer. I would hate to be here in January! The first 5 days of the week I was still on an organized tour exploring Port Douglas and the Daintree rainforest. Then for the rest of the week, I settled into an Airbnb in Clifton Beach (a suburb of Cairns) to recuperate after being on tour for 30 days straight.

Since I had to rearrange everything when my initial New Zealand tour got canceled it meant I would be on the go for 30 days straight. So I ended my tour in New Zealand on March 23rd, flew to Australia that day, and then started my 12-day Australia tour on March 24. Luckily the Australian portion was a bit more relaxed so I made it through without crashing which I was worried about.

Here are some photo highlights from week two.

Barron Gorge National Park

Port Douglas

During the last 5 days of my tour we stayed in one accommodation in Port Douglas called Paradise Links. I didn’t pay extra for a solo room, but since there was an odd number of girls I lucked out and got a room to myself for the week. It was actually more than a room, I got an entire apartment to myself! I’ve done several tours with Intrepid and we’ve never stayed in an apartment before so this was really nice. The other nice thing was that we would be staying in one place the entire time which is unusual for a tour. Normally you are changing locations every other day. So this was luxury.

This was a really nice area to watch the sunset. Tons of people were there with friends every night.

Roasted vegetable salad with feta for dinner one night.

This tree frog would hang out in the hotel lobby every night so we would stop and say hello.

Crocodile Cruise

Port Douglas is known for its crocodiles that inhabit the area, so we did two separate crocodile cruises while we were in town.

Mangrove trees are the perfect habitat for crocodiles.

We spotted a juvenile crocodile on the first cruise and several adult crocodiles on the second cruise that I didn’t get great pictures of since they were underwater or far away.

Daintree Rainforest

I did a full post on my day in the Daintree rainforest that you can read by clicking -> HERE, but here are a few photos.

Snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef

I also did a post on my thoughts about snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef that you can read by clicking -> HERE. It was one of my favorite activities that I’ve ever done while traveling! I went out to the reef three times.

Mossman Gorge

Our last day on tour was spent exploring Mossman Gorge and learning about the native plants and animals from a local (his name was Link) whose family has lived in the area for generations.

Link taught us how to throw a spear (which we were all terrible at lol) but this is an essential skill for fishing in the area.

Clifton Beach

After the tour ended I spent three nights at an Airbnb in Clifton Beach, a residential suburb about 30 minutes north of Cairns. Clifton Beach doesn’t have much, but the Airbnb had a pool and was a 10-minute walk from the grocery store which was all I really wanted. It’s also a 30-40 minute walk from Palm Cove which has some nice restaurants and shops along the beach. I wanted a few days to just chill out and relax before heading to Sydney because I knew I would be busy again once I got to the city.