Breakfast again around the pool, and we almost have the place to ourselves.
After breakfast we head down to the Sunday markets. They're surprisingly big, with a good variety of stalls: clothing, jewellery, fruit and veg, coconut juice, fortune telling, paintings, hats, bags, pineapple juice, jams and chutneys, sugar cane juice. I buy bookmarks for the rest of my quartet and a mango sorbet. We all get separated but Pete finds me and trails after me as I make sure I've seen every stall. We find our way back to the Marina and there's time for the boys to have a beer before we catch the steam train to St Crispin. It used to be a sugar cane train and is now run as a tourist attraction by volunteers. I don't think I've been on a steam train ride before. It's only 20 minutes there, and 20 minutes back again, but it's fun, and very popular with families.
Then it's back to the Tin Shed for lunch. Pete and Sue and I score a great table on the edge of the deck (too bad that it's in the Members Only section) and I have a bucket of prawns - they come with lemon and seafood sauce and a finger bowl and there are too many to count. Champagne, prawns, good company, great view - what more could I want? Our friends Bob and Sandy have just texted Pete to ask him if he's been to the Tin Shed yet, as they recommended it to us, so he's happy to reply that he's there having lunch.
After lunch the others are heading for the pub to watch football. Sue and I have plans to go canoeing but we stop for coconut and orange cake on the way back and decide to lie around the pool instead; after champagne and prawns and cake, canoeing sounds just too energetic. We see a poster for a film festival event that's on tonight that sounds interesting.
Reading by the pool is pleasant but it gets a bit cool as the sky is overcast. I come inside and google the film festival. It's in the park where the market was, costs $2, and they're showing Bran Nue Dae, a Chips Rafferty movie called King of the Coral Sea, and a short movie called Sharpeye. Sue and I are going to go.
We borrow a blanket and insect repellant from the nice man at Reception and walk down the main street. While we're waiting for our cranberry and brie pizza we see Pete and Jim heading home from the pub. We walk across the darkened park and see lights in the distance. There's a lady handing out programs, a popcorn stand, and a man who takes our $2. In a wide space surrounded by palms there are shadowy figures of people sitting on chairs and lying on rugs. A woman from Australian Film and Sound Archives introduces the show and says it's in Port Douglas for the first time and they qualify as remote because they don't have a cinema. She introduces an old bloke who was a pearl lugger captain around Thursday Island, and whose lugger appeared in the Chips Rafferty movie we're going to see. He talks about what a great time it was.
The first film is a short called Sharpeye about an Aboriginal Army Reserve group who beat Australian Army professionals in a simulated exercise - based on a real exercise. It was directed by a local Cairns guy.
The second movie is Bran Nue Dae. I saw the original musical years ago, and the movie is a bit different. There are some lip synch issues when they're singing but the acting is good. Geoffrey Rush plays Brother Benedictus.
After interval the last movie is King of the Coral Sea, starring and produced by Chips Rafferty. It's set in and filmed in Thursday Island and the Islanders play supporting roles (including doing a welcoming dance which looks a bit like a haka and involves bows and arrows - I'm sure that can't be right). There's a romance and a murder and Chips almost dies (diving with a helmet and hose) but the hero saves him (with newfangled scuba gear) and gets the girl.
Home again, and Pete's asleep in bed. We have fresh pineapple and go to bed too.
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