Port Douglas Paradise

Port Douglas Paradise

We met so many people and made so many friends in the 5 months we were in Port Douglas and you are seeing some of these people everyday, first thing in the morning, last thing at night and all the times in between, you share the same backyard and front yard, eat at the same camp kitchens, cross paths when your going to the loo and unless you are locking yourself in your caravan then you are pretty much living with them.

Its a little like a reality show, I found myself getting rather attached to people like family (I was also missing my own family). We had many nights of BBQ's, takeways, or someone would just be cooking up a storm (like grandmamy), one night we all had tea together and had a night watching 'Beauty and the Geek'! We had a great laugh.

We first met Jamie and Tenille and their daughter Ta-leah, they worked in the park and were from the West as well. Isla and Ta-leah were the same age so they played alot when the other kids were at school. Tenille made soaps, potions and lotions from the van and they smell the greatest.

Then we met Dave and Kirrilly and their kids Xander and Kate, also from the West. Xander was the same age as Slade and they became really good friends, as seven year old boys do they had alot in common and were very energetic always off doing their exploring or just running around pretending to shoot everyone. Maybe they thought they were some kind of cowboys. Kate was a cutie she was aged in between Isla and Shelby so they were all good playing together and Ta-Leah also played together. We had met Dave first and he was a funny guy very neat and clean, washing his car and cleaning the caravan, Kirrilly called him CB (caravan bitch) which was funny when we would ask her where Dave was. He looked like Dave Hughes but with Blonde hair and luckily he didnt have Hughesy annoying whiny voice. Finally Kirrilly came out of the van, took her awhile later I discovered that she had a Thermomix (very cool appliance) she was busy cooking?? It wasnt until they moved to a site closer to us that she got her ass out of the van and felt the sunshine. We got along great we had a special connection sharing the same birthday! I had not met anyone that has the same birthday as me and our birthdays were only days away at the time so we left it to the men to organise a combined special dinner for us. Just a BBq but it was the not having to prepare it and clean up that made it special.

This birthday for me was also my 40th and I was taken to a beautiful restaurant called the Salsa Bar, very upmarket (although you could wear thongs to the venue) with the menus and the cocktails were fancy and yummy. We had a very french waiter with an animated twist to his accent, he attended to our table and read us the menu and the specials and it was a little hard to understand but very very funny, so funny that I could not look at him or Clint in fear I would fall off my seat in fits of laughter. The way he described the Mackeral and pronounced it (muckrel with a lemon zest) kind of reminded me of Beverly Hills Cop and Serge offering the coffee with the lemon twist, very similar. Made the evening entertaining that was for sure. It was nice having the night off from the kids and eating in peace. Mum and Charles arrived in Port Douglas a few days before so they were more than happy to have the kids for the night. Kirrilly offered us a ride into town so we could have a few drinks and it just so turned out that they went into town to have dinner and when it was time to go home I saw them driving and they gave us a lift home!! They put their kids to bed and we stayed up till 12ish and had a few drinks with them.