Dave Hays

Ahhhhh.

Now this is more like it. 80+ degrees, coconut trees (watch out!), and a super chilled-out little town north of Cairns. The man at Olembia was right on– everyone here has told me that my decision to come straight to Port Douglas from the Cairns airport was exactly right. I’m pretty psyched. I think Miles told me that Port Douglas was really good, too.

Oh, and evidently I came for the really big weekend– Carnivale. Supposedly they will have like 40,000 people here tonight for the street party/parade. If you could see how small the town is, you would understand that that is either unlikely or rediculously crazy. Hopefully I will be able to get food.

Today I am going scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. It took me a few days because there has been a bit of a mixup w/ the Cornell SCUBA class and my registration w/ PADI. It isn’t cleared up, but the lovely staff at Parrotfish and HABA believe me so I’m going.

I was sick for the last few days, so I mostly took it really easy, walked along the 4-mile beach (actually ran barefoot down the beach about 5 miles the other day), had a couple of kebabs, watched the State of Origin (Rugby League) game, and read my book. I’m almost done with Theodore Rex. Really fascinating president.

It is nice to slow down and stay in one place for a little while– I noticed that when I went around Europe, that right around the 1-month mark I had to just stay at a nice hostel on the beach for a week. This isn’t exactly the Pink Palace, but it’s not too shabby. The only thing that could be a lot nicer is the kitchen. Better stocked and better stove. Eh. No worries.

It’s looking a little cloudy/rainy today, so hopefully it will clear up out on the reef. I will let you know– ooh there’s some sunshine now.

PS You should see the swarms of giant bats!