Mossman, the Daintree, Cape Tribulation and Port Douglas. June 7th to 17th

Mossman

We arrived in Mossman after a windy drive along the coast line with grey clouds and periods of showers so after setting up the van it was an afternoon indoors fighting with technology and trying to do our blogs.

Mossman gorge was our adventure for our first day in Mossman. A special spot in the rainforest of tropical Qld

After a bus ride in we admired the gorge from many points by doing the walks available here

Walks included river circuit, lookout at suspension bridge and the Baral Marrijanga walk. The walks were mostly on smooth broad walks and then we followed these up with the 2 km circuit walk around the rainforest with lots of mud, tree roots and rocky steps. About 4 kms with all the walks together, a really enjoyable day.

The humidity was high and I got quite a sweat up and we wished we had taken our swimmers for a swim here. But we had been advised not to swim due to heavy currents in the river but there were heaps of easy waterholes and lots of people swimming so swimming would of been okay. Mossman gorge was beautiful and it is now run by the indigenous people who have the park looking well maintained. However boy do they over charge. They closed the road in so unless you want to walk in you take the bus they provide for an enormous $12.50 each for just 2.5 kms. We had also considered doing the guided talk and walk but with a price tag of $82.50 each for one and half hours we declined the guided talk. Even the usual magnet that costs about $4 in most places was $10. Declined again!

The Daintree was our next adventure. First we stopped at the small community town of Daintree which is cute but small. We had our morning tea by the river

Then over the Daintree river by ferry and via the windy coastal road to the Daintree info centre and rainforest canopy walk.

The displays included a canopy walk, tower, snake and aquarium displays of fish found in the rainforest areas John handling the heights on the tower climb this time unlike the one at Mamu skywalk.

Then back to the ferry and onto a river cruise on the Daintree river. We saw crocs from three months old to a big male 4.7 m long. see the video at the end of the blog.

A few birds were seen especially the pretty blue kingfisher catching and eating a prawn was interesting, he was such a pretty colour and lovely to see one in the wild. (see the video)

A busy day!

Next day after an early rise we set off to Cape Tribulation, and over the Daintree river ferry again. After driving this road by car twice we were so glad we hadn’t towed our big van up here, some areas very windy and narrow.

While at Cape Tribulation we enjoyed a walk along the beach, a walk to a lookout on the Kulki broad walk which over looked the beach and a swim in Emmagen swimming hole and river crossing 4 km north of Cape Tribulation. At the river crossing there was a sign not to swim because of crocs and just a few hundred metres up stream the swimming hole was said to be safe. We swam here in the crystal water amongst the rainforest as seen On the video. Pictures below are of Cape Tribulation.

Then we started to head back to Mossman after exploring around Myall beach before we left.

The best boardwalk and rainforest walk was half way up to the Cape at Magna where the rainforest was very damp but the vegetation amazingly vast in species and variety. The walkway crossed over Oliver creek.

Ice cream was on the menu on the way back and the Daintree ice creamery specialised in adding their exotic fruits grown on their property into their ice cream. I tried the four flavour tasting a mix of Coconut, Jack fruit, Wattle seed and Passion fruit. The traditional passion fruit still the nicest. John just had mango.

Alexandra’s lookout was the last event for the day before arriving back at Mossman

Bye Mossman, we loved the rainforest and daintree here and below shows the trees on the entrance to Mossman.

Port Douglas

Is just half hour from Mossman and we have six nights here. Most of our sightseeing we got done at Mossman so we plan to just relax and take in this area with minimal driving around, just scootering and walking the main plan.

We scootered along Davidson street which runs from the entrance to Port Douglas all the way into the township with resorts lined up all the way in. Our van park was just 2 kms from town so access in and out of town an easy walk.

We loved the relaxed week , walks and lunches out, Port Douglas a pretty place and full of shops and pubs. We shopped at the Greg Norman clearance shop and ate lunches at a few of the pubs and the marina.

We did a lot of walks to combat the eating and the walk over Flagstaff hill from four mile beach to the towns park overlooking the water was strenuous and very hilly especially in this humidity. The parkland at the end of Port Douglas township was very picturesque. See video for more pictures on our walk.

View from Flagstaff lookout

The markets another morning activity, but just another market! One morning we hired a BBQ style boat and motored up Dickson Inlet past all the mangroves. We had a bit of a fish but nothing caught was a keeper. An enjoyable outing all the same and on the way back saw a yacht burning to the waterline which had exploded not long after we had passed past it, so sad for someone. (boat trip on video)

We loved Port Douglas , the weather fantastic and warm, most nights were 24 degrees. The humidity was very high and getting washing dry really hard, the shower kept growing mold and unfortunately the site we had at the caravan park was alive with midges, neighbors telling us our site appears bad as others staying on this site previous to us had also commented, so disappointing not to sit outside but they were ferocious, something John won’t forget about Port Douglas. The little biters would get in his leg hair and eat him alive, but in all we have loved the far north qld area. Now we head to Cairns for about 2.5 weeks.