“HAVE YOU TAKEN A KWELLS?”asks my obviously
concerned driver, as we snake around the first tight bend of
the Captain Cook Highway, the only path to Port Douglas
from Cairns. My white-knuckle grip on the door handle must
have given my green gut away. “This road gets pretty windy,”
she adds, and she’s not kidding.
The one-hour journey from Cairns airport to Port Douglas
is an aggressively curly yet breathtakingly scenic route, rotating
between quick visions of breezy sugarcane plantations, the distant
Daintree rainforest, some crocodile spotting, and, of course, the
sparkling turquoise coastline of the Coral Sea, leading out to the
Great Barrier Reef. With a front-seat view of such picturesque
distractions, my queasiness has no chance.
Port Douglas, or Port as the locals call it, is a town with a
history full of its own twists and turns. The gold rushes of the late
1800s saw it overtake Cairns as the main mining port, growing
the population by thousands. But tragedy struck in 1911, when
a cyclone flattened most of the town’s buildings, many never to
be rebuilt. When the initial build of the Captain Cook Highway
between Cairns and Mossman bypassed Port Douglas, Mossman
was set up as the centre of the Douglas Shire, and by 1960, just
100 Port Douglas locals remained.
I’m a newcomer to Port, with expectations based only on mixed
reviews from friends who wax lyrical about best-ever childhood
family holidays to more recent travellers unimpressed with the
still daggy and dated facilities from the 1980s. What I see today,
as we drive through the small tropical town and pull up to the
lobby of the newly renovated Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort,
is Port Douglas on the upswing.
CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT: The Great
Barrier Reef is yours to explore; The colour palette
of Port Douglas runs blue; Quicksilver Cruises have
their own spacious platform on Agincourt Reef;
A refreshing beverage awaits at Barbados;
Sparrow Coffee can helpfully caffeinate your
souvenir shopping spree. PREVIOUS PAGE:
Mossman Gorge provides more refreshing
opportunities, just 20 minutes out of town.1GETAWAYS | Port Douglas