A day on Four Mile Beach

As we left Sydney by plane yesterday on our way to Cairns, there was a bit of turbulence, which I think must have been the wind we had heard was forecast coming in. And according to the weather forecast today Sydney now has very cold, windy weather and there are emergency conditions in the Blue Mountains! Several people told us while we were in Sydney how lucky we were to get warm sunny weather in the middle of their winter and now I see what they meant, we were very lucky indeed.
The three hour flight to Cairns went fine, and we collected our hired car and set off to Port Douglas, which took about an hour. By the time we got there at about 7.30 p.m. it was dark, however we found our apartment without too much trouble. Port Douglas seems to be a holiday town with a large beach and lots of accommodation, restaurants and shops. Our holiday apartments are grouped around two pools and ours is on the ground floor. It is cool and spacious; tiled floors and cane furniture, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Not surprisingly, it feels very different from Sydney; lush green vegetation everywhere, low buildings, hot and humid. We are intending to self cater here, but because it was our first night we went out to a Mexican restaurant which was quite nice. We had a good laugh and chat at the table, I love being on holiday with my boys and I love our random conversations!
Our bed is nice and comfy but it was quite difficult to get to sleep because of the strange screeching and cawing of the local bird community which sounded as if it was all gathered just outside our window! Despite this we slept well, we were able to open the windows for fresh air because they all have mesh shutters which keep insects and other beasties out.
However, I have developed an annoying cold over the last couple of days, with all the associated unpleasant symptoms. I am treating it with Lemsip capsules and a cough mixture that we were recommended in Sydney called Robitussin. Let's hope it passes quickly; the boys are all being fairly tolerant but there is a strict time limit on sympathy from male Andersons. Today we decided to have a day on the beach, which is called Four Mile Beach. It is only ten minutes walk from the apartment, so we packed up the old beach bag with towels, sun cream and reading materials. It was a very relaxing day, and we all went swimming in the Coral Sea, which was fairly warm (once we were in!) and had lunch in a beach bar.
Later James and I went to Cole's supermarket and had a drink at the Small Harbour while we watched the sun set. it is now 8.30 p.m. and I am in bed, intending to sleep off my cold. I have noticed that my blog is publishing at UK time which is nine hours earlier. James and Davie are reading their books, and Jamie and Ally have gone out in search of wifi and a drink!