March 24th, 2015 - Port Douglas, Australia - Day 220
Big Pete's POV
Today was a little slice of home while on the road. When we are home we try every year to split up with one parent and one kid going on a two or three day trip together. We call it 1P1K and we have been doing it for years. Today we decided to do a mini version for a few hours. On this trip we have done nearly everything together, so when we decide to split up it has to be for a good reason - like a parents only dinner out or when Stacie goes to see a garden. On this day I decided to rent a scooter and drive up north with Lea. Stacie and Peter were kind of stranded without a car, so they decided to have lunch in town, buy some things and have a pool party at the house. They apparently had a great time, but since I was not there I will let them fill you in on the details.
We woke up on time and got a work out in before getting ready to hit the road. Lea and I drove Stacie and Peter into town and then headed over to the scooter rental place to pick up our ride. We first rented a little 30CC scooter, but when we got over to it I was not impressed and in fact was a little worried. While I was not interested in going fast, I was interested in staying alive and this little scooter was not our ticket to a day of fun, safe riding. I glanced over and saw the much bigger, much more road worthy 50CC bikes and asked - "how much more for those?" The owner quickly replied "not much more mate - $10 or $15". SOLD!
A little about the culture here in Australia - and in a lot of the world for that matter. I rented this scooter in about 45 seconds with a glance at my drivers license and a brief check to make sure I was actually breathing. In the US it would have taken a half hour mostly filled with signing liability waivers, testing my balance and ensuring I had 15 types of insurance. The rest of the world is so laid back when it comes to liability and it is really refreshing! No offense to my lawyer friends, but our massively litigious society makes things a lot less fun! I digress....
We hopped on our fancy new ride and were off. We ripped up the coast line laughing and screaming at the top of our lungs. It was so much fun to be cruising up the road with the wind in our face and not a care in the world. We made it to Mossman in about 20 minutes and were supposed to have lunch there, but we were having too much fun (and the town was not that inviting) so we decided to keep going.
We made it to Wonga Beach about 10 minutes later and stopped to check it out. It looked a lot like four mile beach right in front of our house, and we were having more fun on the bike, so we jumped back on and kept cruising.
Lea at Wonga beach - and don't worry she did not actually drive
We decided to head up to Daintree Village to see what that looked like and to try to find a place to eat. It was another 18 kilometers up the road and we were there in about 10-15 minutes. We spotted a cafe called the Daintree Tea House off the main road and decided to give it a try.
We walked in and were greeted by a nice man who showed us to our table in the garden.
That is our table in the back right
The whole restaurant is nestled into the rainforest and is very relaxing. There were only two other groups there, but given the location I was surprised to see anyone. We were really in the middle of nowhere.
We both ordered the special - Barramundi, a salad and chips for $17 ($13 USD), and were thrilled with the meal.
We spent the entire meal having a wonderful conversation about things ranging from what being home is going to be like to friends and how we are going to spend the next nine weeks. These conversations are the best things about this trip and these little 1P1K adventures.
We were having such a good time we decided to have desert as well. I was shocked to learn Lea had NEVER had a banana split -so we decided to order one up, and it was fantastic.
After our lunch our 4 hour rental time was starting to get pretty close and I still wanted to make it back to the house so Peter could at least get a little ride. So we jumped back on the bike and high tailed it back to Port Douglas. The ride home was just as much fun as the ride out -we had a blast.
When we made it home we honked the horn and a couple of minutes later the pool party came out from around the back of the house. Stacie hopped on for a quick ride around the neighborhood while Peter went to go get some clothes and shoes on.
We were gone for like 3 minutes and then Peter jumped on for a ride.
Peter and I went on a quick ride to get the scooter gassed up and then drop if off at the rental place. By the time we got back it was time to make dinner, play a game of Eucher (which Lea and I won for the first time) and then we watched a documentary on the early days of Australia.
It was a fantastic day that I will not soon forget.