19 March: Port Douglas, Australia

We did make the flight from Ayer’s Rock to Port Douglas. The baggage handler that took our luggage to the bus upon arrival at Cairns airport said we were the last Qantas flight to be allowed into Cairns…..lucky us. There are mandatory evacuations for some of the towns south of Cairns, but we are going to be a few miles to the north. The resort here in Port Douglas (the Sheraton Mirage) is very nice……and if we still have power in the morning all should be well. The hotel issued a weather advisory to all guests about an hour ago: Larry is still a category 4 cyclone and is expected to make landfall a bit to the south of us. But, of course, all activities and tours that had been scheduled for tomorrow have been canceled….or as our tour guide said: We could enjoy a day of leisure at the resort instead of going out to the Great Barrier Reef. The local supermarket has been pretty well depleted by locals buying emergency supplies. My biggest disappointment was that the "Bottle Store" (read that as liquor store) near the hotel closed early today and wasn’t open when we arrived at the resort……I think facing the wrath of nature without proper refreshment will be a major inconvenience.

Anyway the storm is supposed to make landfall between 7am and 9am tomorrow morning.

If we still have power and telephone connections I’ll try to send out another email tomorrow. If not, then it will probably have to be sometime after we board the ship on the 21st.