Dawn, 4 Mile Beach, Port Douglas

As is  becoming something of a tradition, we’ve returned to Port Douglas for a couple of weeks of warmth and relaxation, and thankfully, so has our luggage. Eventually.

Getting to Port Douglas from Adelaide involved approximately 4.5 hours of flying, across 2 flights. A direct flight other than by a budget carrier wasn’t available.

From Cairns airport it’s an hour’s drive north, along the picturesque coast to Port Douglas. It’s nearly 3,000 kilometres by road, a solid 32-hour drive—long enough to remind you just how vast  Australia really is. To put it in perspective: a flight of the same duration from London would land you in Athens, Corfu, Venice or Lisbon. For us, it’s simply a journey to another state that shares a border with, our home state, South Australia—albeit at the far end of it.

That’s part of the charm of Australia. It’s huge, and every corner is different. Adelaide was a chilly 7C when we arrived at the airport for our early morning flight; Port Douglas greeted us a half a day later with a humid 28C. No wonder Far North Queensland is such a draw card during the winter months.

While I do enjoy a good road trip, a four or five day drive to get here isn’t something I’d put myself—or my favourite person—through willingly. So, we fly. This time, via Sydney, which, despite the hassle of transferring through an eastern seaboard airport, remains a pretty efficient way to travel around the country.

However, one thing a driving holiday does have in its favour: your luggage stays with you.

That brings me to the hiccup in this travel story.

While sitting on the tarmac in Sydney, the pilot came over the PA to explain the delay. There was an issue with excess baggage. He said, ominously, something along the lines of, “We’ll load as much as we can.” My favourite person immediately muttered, “I hope our luggage makes it.”

I didn’t give it much thought again—until we landed in Cairns.

As we reached the baggage carousel, a text arrived: “Your luggage did not arrive with your flight. Please see baggage services.”

We joined the growing queue and were told that, due to the Cairns triathlon scheduled for the weekend, the airline had made the understandable call to prioritise bikes over suitcases. Logical? Yes. Frustrating? Absolutely. Especially since we were dressed for Adelaide’s chill, not the tropical heat awaiting us outside.

Still, check-in at our hotel was a breeze:

“Any luggage, Sir?”

“Nope.”

Not exactly how we planned to start the holiday, but thankfully, Port Douglas has no shortage of shops. An emergency T-shirt purchase, a relaxed dinner overlooking Anzac Park and the Coral Sea, a much-needed shower, and we were starting to unwind.

When we got back to the hotel I rang the airline. I was told our bags had arrived in Cairns, but there was no ETA on delivery to our hotel. We’d had an early start, so we retired early, hoping they’d magically appear overnight.

And they did.

A pre-dawn text confirmed that our luggage had been delivered to Reception, and soon we were happily reunited with our belongings.

The whole experience was a timely reminder of one simple rule: always pack toiletries and a change of clothes in your carry-on. It’s something we’ve always done for international travel but grown a bit lax about when flying domestically. That’s about to change.

Lesson learned. And now, with the sun shining and the sea sparkling, it’s time to enjoy the warmth—appropriately dressed this time.

Note: This post was another one of my AI experiments. I gave ChatGPT my draft and then edited the output.