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| A number of visitors were lounging in this beach park in Port Douglas. |
As we toured the town of Port Douglas we were amazed at how easy is was to navigate the many points of interest. Although the downtown area was packed with tourists it had a laid back, unhurried feel uncommon in tourist beach towns.
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| The main street, Macrossan Street, in Port Douglas consisted of one store, shop, and restaurant after another. |
Whether we wandered the quaint streets or walked the Four Mile Beach we always felt safe and comfortable. The only fear was going into the water where stingers lurked in abundance awaiting their next brush against human skin to leave their indelible mark.
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| Taking photos was easy on a sunny day. |
We surmised that the possibility of being stung by one of many of a variety of stingers keeps swimmers out of the water at all of the pristine beaches we’ve visited over these many weeks.
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| More shopping continued on Wharf Street. |
We noticed that there are no vendors lining the beaches in Queensland scrambling in an attempt to sell their wares. Either there are laws regarding this or, we are in an area of less poverty than many other areas of the world we’ve visited in the past.
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| There are almost 100 restaurants in Port Douglas. |
Its become familiar to us to being approached by locals trying to encourage us to purchase their handmade crafts and local trinkets. With no room in our luggage and no home to eventually use or store such products, buying anything doesn’t fit into the realm of our lives.
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| Many of the restaurants are huge and elaborate attracting the most finicky of diners. |
Without question, we certainly appreciate the diligence and hard work of those vendors throughout the world. But, for us, practicality must prevail.
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| As we wandered on foot a beach area, we spotted the historic Court House and museum. Unfortunately, it was closed or we’d have loved to go inside. |
As we wandered the main streets in Port Douglas, we realized that no matter how much “sightseeing” we do, we don’t fit into the typical tourist category. Walking past the shops we chuckled over how unlikely it is that we’d purchase any of the clothing, bags, shoes, and household goods.
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| Tom was admiring the trees at the beach park. |
And, the many charming beachfront restaurants didn’t appeal to our senses either when we’ve resigned ourselves to the fact that dining in restaurants in Australia may not be possible for me.
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| An unusual tree with a portion of its root system above ground. |
Checking out every posted menu as we walked, we further confirmed this fact. Most of the meats offered on the menus are coated in sauces and battered in a manner that doesn’t work for me. The side dishes are starchy and often tinged with sugar.
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| It’s winter in Australia and we don’t see as many of flowers as there are in the spring. |
The thought of spending US $22, AUD $30 for a unseasoned slab of barramundi and a plain lettuce salad doesn’t appeal to me when we can go to our favorite fish market and purchase barramundi for under US $5, AUD $9 a serving, seasoned by us to perfection, with a side of sautéed veggies, a salad with homemade dressing and a coconut flour muffin slathered with grass-fed butter.
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| We wandered about this beautiful beach park. |
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| The views from every direction were breathtaking. |
Sure, we’d love to visit a fabulous beach area and sit down for meal. But, we always remember that we wouldn’t be traveling the world if it weren’t for my strict low carb, grain free, starch free, sugar free and chemical free way of eating that brought me to exquisite good health after years of suffering.
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| A buoy to mark low water. |
If Tom would like to dine out, I’m happy to join him and order that plain steak or fish and plain salad with nary a complaint. Surprisingly, after all of this time, Tom doesn’t feel shortchanged. Perhaps, that is why he loves cruising.
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| The tide was low giving us an entirely different perspective of the beach. |
While on a cruise, Tom can order anything he wants without concern or worry when the ship’s chefs manage to make everything work for me as they do for many other passengers with special diets.
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| There are many beaches that are covered with rock but, overall the beaches we’ve seen are sandy. |
Without shopping, without dining out, without spending on pricey tourist attractions we happily find an entire world of wonder that we easily appreciate and cherish for its natural and unique beauty.
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| This enormous Banyan Tree reminded us of the tree across the street from our condo in Honolulu. |
In our old lives of seldom traveling, we’d often spend considerable time at the hotel, the pool, the hotel’s beach, a wide array of local restaurants, and visiting a few choice attractions popular in the area. This gave us a limited perspective of the area.
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| Possibly, a memorial for a beloved individual lost to the sea in this location. |
Now, we live in an area shopping in their shops, cooking their locally grown foods, meeting the locals, wandering through their farmer’s markets, and most of all visiting those special places that Mother Nature created for us to respect and, for us to appreciate with love and care.
For this, we are grateful and for this, Port Douglas never let us down.
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| From this view, we were seated in white chairs facing the ocean, left from a recent wedding. It was a perfect spot for a wedding. |
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| It was these rose petals on the ground that made us realize that a recent wedding had been held in this spot. |
On Cecil the lion: We can’t avoid addressing the recent heartbreaking slaughter of Cecil, the lion, in Zimbabwe, Africa. Rather than rant our personal views which our many worldwide readers can easily imagine, we share this well-written tribute by Simon Espley to Cecil on my personal favorite website, Africa Geographic:
“While that rich American dentist and the hunting industry at large, scramble for excuses and justifications for their actions, your rivals will already have killed your cubs and settled into your territory. Yes, those weak ones who could not challenge you now run your kingdom. See more at http://africageographic.com/blog/rip-cecil-lion-king/#sthash.KHlfCBVR.dpuf
You, Cecil, are the reason I am a proud African. Your spirit, your grace, and your courage epitomize my Africa. You are the reason my team and I do what we do. I am so sorry that you had to endure 40 painful hours with an arrow lodged in your body, that you were then shot, beheaded, and skinned – turned into a trophy for a man whose only understanding of Africa is that our laws cannot protect you from his money.
I am sorry that more was not done to protect you and I am outraged that you and your kind are seen not as kings, but as commodities. On a selfish level, I am sorry because I will never see you with my own eyes.
RIP big guy, and know that many of us humans DO care, and we are trying, desperately, to fight for you and yours. A luta continua!” (translated: the fight goes on)
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| Last known photo of Cecil (lying down) and Jericho who both protected their 25 cubs. Now, with Cecil gone, Jericho may not be able to protect those cubs on his own, resulting in their death. (We borrowed this photo from the UK Telegraph). |
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| We took this photo as one of many lion photos that we had the gift of seeing in the Masai Mara in October 2013 while on a photo safari. This experience forever changed our hearts and minds with love and appreciation of these magnificent beings. For more photos and details of our safari which we spread over many posts, please begin by clicking here and continuing on from there. |
Photo from one year ago today, July 30, 2014:
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| Our last night in Madeira, Portugal as we’d begin the trip to Paris in the morning. It was a memorable two and a half months but, as always, we were ready to continue on. For that final post with some of our favorite photos, please click here. |