Port Douglas, Australia, Australia

Today was a very relaxing day. After all the excitement from the full day of diving, I wanted to have a slow day to recover. I rented a bike and went for a ride down to the south end of Four Mile Beach. The bike rental guy said that it would be best to ride down the road to the south end of the beach and then ride up Four Mile Beach on the sand. Unfortunately, it was still high tide so the sand was far too soft to ride on. I walked it down the beach for about 5 minutes and was absolutely exhausted. I decided that it was far too hot and sunny to be walking along the beach pushing a mountain bike, so I went back on the road. I made a few stops on the way up the beach to see the view and gave the bike back by noon.

I spent the rest of the day relaxing by the pool and getting some rest in the room. Lisa and I headed out for dinner and went to the best Thai restaurant I have ever been to. It was a place called Star of Siam and I had the best Chicken Pad Thai ever. Seriously, even better than Galaxy in Providence! After dinner we crossed the street and went to the Iron Bar. This was a place that Lisa had read about in a guide book where they have Cane Toad Racing three nights a week. It was absolutely hilarious!

We paid our $5 entry to the race at the back of the bar and found a place to stand and see the action. Neither one of us had ever seen cane toad racing, so we had no idea what it was all about. Our host “Double-O” let us all in on the details. There were two races, and for the first race he picked six numbers out of a bucket which paired up with the ticket we paid for to get in. The first number he picked out of the bucket was 85, which of course was my number. I went up on the stage and waited for the other five “jockeys” to be pulled on stage as well. We were each given a cane toad, mine was called Sir Lancelot, and we had to give them a kiss for good luck before the race started. I hope the toad enjoyed it more than I did. The jockeys had all been given party blowers as our “whips” and when Double-O lifted the bucket off the toads, the race had started! We all had to stand around the table, blowing our party blowers at the toads to try to get them to jump off the table. As soon as they jumped off the table, we had to pick it up and put it in the finish-bucket and that was the end of the race. Sir Lancelot came in 4th place, so I went home empty handed. Ah well, we all had a good laugh.

We headed back to the hostel after the races and I met my new roommate who had just moved into my room. His name was Hagen. He seems like a nice guy from Germany. We didn’t get to chat too much because we were more intent on trying to get the air conditioner to work. We tried for about a half hour to no avail. I guess this is going to be a long, hot, humid night. Not happy!