After Bas had fulfilled his dream and worn himself ragged riding the BMX around the Cairns skate park for a couple of hours in the drizzling rain, it was time to fulfil one of mine. We finally hit the road again at 9.30pm on Sunday and headed north towards Port Douglas to my dream destination – Palm Cove.
I stayed here a couple of years ago on an all-too-brief weekend visit to Cairns and Port Douglas for a friend’s birthday party. Back then I stayed at Peppers Resort but on my morning wander along the beach I discovered this incredible little caravan park on the exact same stretch of beachfront road as the swanky spa resorts. 
I vowed then to come back here one day when I got my own caravan and now here I am. Isn’t life wonderful?We pulled in just after 10pm and the gate was open so we just parked and crashed. I went up to the office this morning to pay my $20 fee and get a key to the toilets. I apologised for not phoning ahead and explained that I hadn’t been able to find their details in any of the caravan park directories or on the net.
”I know”, the manager says with a sly smile, “That’s the way we like it”.
She gave me the number “for next time” but made me promise not to give it out to anyone, and I won’t, because just like this is the way I like it too.
I woke up this morning around 7am and went for a wander along the beach front esplanade taking lots of photos and wishing I could stay here forever. I’ve spotted a nice cafe where I plan to take Bas for a pancake breakfast when he wakes up, but today I think I’ll let him sleep in a bit. It’s overcast and rainy with a lovely sea breeze and we can hear the sound of the waves crashing just across the road from our camp site. We have a prime ocean frontage position with sea views for which the resort dwellers down the road would be paying hundreds of dollars a night. Silly fools!
The weather isn’t exactly beach worthy, and there’s still the feel of a recent cyclone about the place. But the coconut palms are a-swaying, the waves are a-crashing and in my little portable home we are high, dry and very cosy indeed.
We might as well linger and enjoy this moment because the long journey homeward starts today and we have 2,000 kilometres ahead of us. But we’ve both agreed that we’d love to do this again when we have a bit more time – take a few weeks and really get to see all those little beaches, waterholes and forests along the way. We’re also talking about the possibility of doing another trip out west sometime for a taste of red dirt, desert sunsets, the outback and big red rocks.
Yes, the bug has well and truly hit.....
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