Saturday, May 27, 2006

Queens for a Day

The Kousser and Cawthon contingency has settled in tropical Port Douglas for the weekend, the gateway to the Greater Barrier Reef. Thad and I did some snorkelling today, with the ladies taking their turn yesterday and the rotation of babysitting alternating between the pairs. If you recall from an earlier blog posting, I had done some diving in this area last January with my friend Tyler. The water is a bit colder now, but still not mandating a wet suit, should you be of hearty stock. We're also at the end of jellyfish season, although a few days ago some were stung.

Danger aside, we all had fabulous turns being amongst the reef. Thad and I saw three different types of sharks, including a rather large black tipped reef shark. Our encounter was a bit unnerving, having occurred in shallow water with few others around. The girls were fortunate enough to see rays, turtles, giant cod, squid and more of a variety of marine life.

Tomorrow, we're going on a rain forest hike in the Daintree forest. Should the mozzies agree to abstain, we should have a pleasant time. The weather has been fantastic, the locals saying that this weekend has been the nicest in months. There is certainly a difference from the chill of Sydney. We're almost fully into winter now.

It's Carnival Weekend in Port Douglas this weekend and the locals have gussied up with the glitz and glam. This otherwise sleepy tourist town is alive with activity, the evenings filled with a Siberian circus, aussie rules footy match, not to mention a food and wine festival. All this makes 'the Doog' seem somewhat sophsiticated. We were under this impression until seeing the locals' version of semi-formal attire. Before tonight, I didn't know that flower-print satin/polyester overalls even existed, let alone be used for a cocktail function.

posted by ncawthon at 9:17 PM