Thursday 7th November 2002

At about 5:00 we left Silky Oaks and the Daintree NP for Port Douglas. On our way, underneath the beatiful raintrees in Mossman, we were stopped by the highway police carying out an alcohol test. JJ's first alcohol control in 11 years! In Mossman, Queensland, Australia. It went something like this: "G'day, please blow untill I say stop. Pffffffff. Stop, thank ya, g'day."

We got at the Rydges Reef Resort at about 6:00, checked in, unloaded our gear. It's a typical, big family resort, with lots of pools and leisure activities (like water handball, minigolf, kidsclub,...) We had ourselves a quiet room, looking out over the back garden. After a bit of unpacking, we drove down to Port Douglas centre, went to a lookout point which looks over the 4 Mile Beach, and then explored the main (and only) shopping street, Macrossan Street. We went into a local music store, and looked for some aussi music. JJ got himeself some dance compilations with an Australian twist to them. In the local Peter Lik gallery (an aussi photographer) we completed our little collection of picture books of all the places we visited (in case of our own pictures would turn out like mashed potatoes). It was getting past dinner time, and we started to look around for a decent place to eat. Lots of eateries around, but all to our surprise fully booked. We didn't want to wait around for 15-20 minutes for a table, so we drove back to the hotel.

On our way back, we were stopped by the police, again. Another alcohol test, at 8:20, just three hours later! No drinks, no worries.

We checked out the hotel's restaurant, where again they told us it would be a 15 minutes wait. We finally decided to get roomservice, which serviced us in 20 minutes. Food finally: Indian pizza, smoked chicken sandwich, potato wedges.

Looking forward for the next day, the Great Barrier Reef...