Port Douglas Adventures... Part 3

My final couple of days in Port Douglas consisted of shopping, eating and a bit of crocodile spotting... that's right, I got to see a croc in the wild! We headed to a local hotspot for seeing them, a popular fishing spot in a creek where at least four crocodiles are known to live.

Our first trip was fruitless and we ended up going back into the town to do some shopping and grab some lunch, but a local fisherman told us to head back around 1pm because one occassionally appears around then. Once again, the first twenty minutes or so resulted in nothing but the odd movement of a fish below the bridge we were standing on. Just as we were thinking about leaving, however, our luck changed!


Never smile....

My friend Lynsey managed to get this photo of him as he lay across the surface of the water. Having seen crocodiles in both Taronga Zoo in Sydney and the Wildlife Habitat in Port Douglas, it wasn't the first one I'd seen since I arrived in Oz. The difference here was I was getting to see this deadly creature in it's natural habitat, and that was amazing. High up on the bridge we were at a completely safe distance, unlike some crazy people who apparently go right down to the edge of the water here, despite the warnings, but it was still a huge deal. Seeing one in the wild isn't something that happens every day, so that's a memory I'll definitely hold on to forever!



Wildlife aside, Port Douglas is such a lovely little town. I was there just before the busy diving season so the town was fairly quiet and we got to wander around the shops and browse at our leisure.









We then took a walk to the Marina where boats go out to the Great Barrier Reef, and it finally stopped raining at that point! It's a lovely spot, with cafes and bars looking out over the water. We went to a local bar and restaurant called On the Inlet, where every day at 4pm they throw scraps out to an enormous fish that lives in the area! It's a clever marketing ploy because the bar was absolutely packed at that time, with people all ready with their cameras trying to catch a glimpse of the famous fish. That day it decided not to jump right up out of the water, but we saw it swimming around under the surface and it was huge!










Catching a glimpse of the fish!

All in all I had a fantastic time in Port Douglas, it's such a lovely place. The best thing about it though was catching up with Lynsey - it had definitely been far too long!!

Hope you are all well, thanks for reading!! :)

Port Douglas Adventures... Part 2

Having had an absolute ball at the Wildlife Habitat, I would have been perfectly happy to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the week! And with the rain we had for several days, that could have been a real possibility!! However, we didn't let that stop us and we went off to Crystal Cascades, a series of little cascading waterfalls in the middle of the rainforest!














Apparently the spider who made this eats birds... comforting...


I love this photo, old friends catching up in the middle of nowhere!!

We had planned to go to the Daintree the next day - a beautiful rainforest area about two hours north of Port Douglas, but the weather was against us. The cloud would have covered the beautiful views and the rain had made the windy roads too slippery to drive up. So I'm so so glad we went to Crystal Cascades that day! The rain wasn't heavy enough to disrupt our trip, but gave us the authentic rainforest experience - warm and rainy! It was such a beautiful place and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone. Try to go and see the Daintree if you can, but seeing somewhere like this is just as lovely! Being there just felt like another world. So hidden away and raw, and totally removed from the hectic city life of Sydney I'd been experiencing for weeks before!

Hope you're all doing well, my next post will be my final Port Douglas instalment and then it's on to my trip to Melbourne - it was amazing too!!

Thanks for reading, leave your comments below and let me know if this is the kind of place you'd like to visit! :)

ps check out my latest vlogs over on my youtube channel here :)

Port Douglas Adventures... Part 1

After an amazing month in Sydney I headed up the coast to Port Douglas, an amazing little town an hour north of Cairns, and went to visit my friend Lynsey, who I hadn't seen in a year and a half! It was so good to see her, she and her Australian boyfriend are living in Australia and travelling around at the moment, so I had missed her so much!

I arrived in Port Douglas on Saturday and spent the first night having a catch up with Lynsey over a glass of wine. I mentioned that I really wanted to hold a koala (Queensland is the only place in the world where it's legal to hold one!) and she hit me with the amazing news that jut a twenty minute walk down the road was Port Douglas Wildlife Habitat - a beautiful zoo where the animals are free to walk around and (with the exception of the crocodiles - for obvious reasons) you can get so much closer to them than in a regular zoo.



The following morning we wandered along to the habitat in the sunshine and I had the best morning! It costs around $30 per person for entry, but once you have paid that you are given a date stamped voucher, which you sign, which allows you to come back any time in the next two days for free! The first day we had a great time exploring, it's a beautiful place with a rainford habitat, grasslands habitat and wetlands habitat, and there are the most unusual looking birds everywhere you look!





The highlight of the day for me though was the kangaroos - they were so cute! I still can't believe that a few days ago I was sitting there feeding them! We made good friends with one of them in particular, who was quite happy to sit and let me pat him, video him and take hundreds of photos of him, all in exchange for a few leaves!











I still can't believe how lucky I was to get to do that! In addition to our furry friend we saw lots of other lovely kangaroos and wallabys, including this mum with a gorgeous baby in her pouch!!



We also fed ducks, ran past an amazing bird called a Cassowary, which was as tall as us, and saw some pretty scary looking crocodiles!





That day, however, we had missed the opportunity to get a photograph with a koala - luckily enough, we had our free pass to get back the following day! So we headed back on Monday morning, and I had the absolute privelege of holding a great big koala named Samson! He was really heavy, but so cute and I think I might possibly look like the happiest person ever in the photo I had taken with him!!



Sorry for the hugely photo heavy post, but these guys are too cute not to share!! I have some brilliant vlog footage from those days, and the video is all edited and ready to go - I just need a solid wifi connection for long enough to upload it! So keep your eyes peeled for that :)

Thanks for reading guys, hope you are all well! :)

Sydney Continued - The Chinese Garden of Friendship

One of my favourite places in Sydney was the Chinese Garden of Friendship. I had read about it before I even left Scotland and it sounded as if it would be right up my street... and I wasn't wrong!

Hidden away in the middle of an insanely busy city is this beautiful garden, complete with ponds full of koi fish, small temple-like buildings and gorgeous plants and trees. It cost us $6 each for entry, and then you are free to look around for as long as you like. We went on a Thursday morning, which seemed like quite a quiet time to go, and it was nice to just wander around and take it all in without having to rush for the sake of the people behind you!






















I think this is such a lovely idea!


We thought this would be such a nice place to get married!

The Chinese Garden of Friendship is just a five minute walk from Darling Harbour, and located within easy walking distance of Sydney's China Town. It's one of the loveliest, most peaceful places I've ever been and I highly recommend stopping in! You don't have to spend too long there to get great value for the mere $6 entry fee!

I'm now up in the gorgeous Port Douglas in Queensland and have some very exciting photos to show you all soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that!

Thanks for reading, hope you are all well! :)

Sydney Part 4: The Botanical Gardens

When you have weather as beautiful as we had here in Sydney last week, exploring some lovely outdoor places in the city is a must! While it was a bit too hot for us to feel like lying on a beach, Gemma, Emily and I ventured to two leafy paradises hidden right in the centre of the busy city towards the end of last week - the first was the Botanical Gardens.

The Botanical Gardens are absolutely beautiful, and I got myself all excited trying out the panoramic setting on my camera! With the city skyline appearing behind the beautiful trees on one side, and an amazing view of the water, complete with the Opera House, on the other, this is the perfect location for a stroll and a picnic - I can imagine it's a hotspot for locals to come and sit, read and relax, with a perfect mix of open, grassy areas to top up your tan, and shade in amongst the trees to cool down if it gets just a bit too warm.



















We had such a lovely afternoon here. I would definitely recommend going for a walk around if you have a bit of free time in Sydney and are looking for something free to do - we all love a free day out, especially when everything here is so expensive! Take a book, something to eat and just relax and enjoy the amazing view!

Thanks so much for reading guys :) Let me know what you've been getting up to in the comments below!! The next post will be on the absolutely gorgeous Chinese Garden of Friendship, so keep your eyes peeled for that, and afterwards I might fit in a couple of regular posts like a Weekly Favourites, or a product review - I've been missing my regular posts!