Author: Carol Laird

Today was spent driving the scenic Captain Cook highway north of Cairns to take in the amazing view of the Coral Sea.

Australia

“Captain Cook Highway is a very scenic asphalted road that winds alongside the coast located  in Queensland, Australia, with a length of 75 km (47 mi). The road starts in Cairns and ends in Mossman, in the far north of Queensland. Despite the fact that the Captain Cook Highway is a short Queensland highway and also one of the most popular routes in Australia used by lots of tourists, the highway is regarded as one of the most dangerous roads in the country.” (dangerousroads.org)

The weather wasn’t hot by any means, but we stopped at several beaches and went to the
lookout to get a great view of 4 Mile Beach at Port Douglas.  This city is a resort haven with tons of tourists seeking out a wonderful tropical place.  And it was just off shore on the reef where Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin died in 2006.

Driving up the coast, we finally picked a beach just north of Port Douglas where we could have a picnic. The whole morning we were on the lookout for a real live crocodile, but didn’t find one, so instead, Jamie’s choice for lunch was a tasty crocodile pie washed down with some yummy coke sweetened with cane sugar.  The area is known for it’s acres and acres of sugar cane, and so we stopped for Jamie and Jason to break off some stocks and taste the raw yummy sugary pulp! (Reminding us of when we bought sticks of sugar cane for snacking on when living in India).

We were amazed to see a field full of kangaroos as we were returning to the lodge. Such a great day!

The alarm went off at 4:45 am and admitted it was not easy getting our carcasses out of bed.  But anticipation of an adventure motivated us to make our way to the shower for a quick wake-up and then off to the airport. The 3 hour flight up to Cairns was smooth sailing with limited view as there was many clouds.  After a warm greeting from a friend we haven’t seen in 13 years and his beautiful wife and son we’ve never met, we were off for a drive, lunch and some grocery shopping.  We perused the aisles at Woolies (Woolworths to be exact – and it’s a grocery store here; not like the department store from our younger days), and decided on a nice selection of groceries….fruit, veggies, cereal, water, kangaroo meat & Vegi-mite!  Jamie was going to go for the kanga burgers but opted or the kanga steaks… the very dark lean meat which turned out to be delish! (I wonder if I can buy it canned to bring home – kind of like when I brought home canned gater meat from one of our adventures).

It was a fabulous evening of ‘catching up’ with our friends, Jason and Kim, and hearing stories of their life as missionary pilots on a secluded island in the Northern Territories.

Tomorrow it’s a drive farther north to Port Douglas to take in the awesome view of the reef and the Coral Sea.

Stratford QLD 4870, Australia