11 - Port Douglas, Daintree & Cairns 21/6 - 1/7/2019

Entry 11           Port Douglas & Daintree 21/6 – 1/7/2019

About 40 kilometres west of Port Douglas we propped up in the Mountain ranges staying a couple of nights in a promoted rainforest location full of birds and wildlife. It was ok but we thought the publicity was a bit on the ambitious side. We did enjoy viewing a variety of plants even if they hadn’t self-germinated.

Impressive entry

Nice camping area

It had been mentioned to us the Sunday morning Port Douglas markets were a must do. We were up early and, on our way, arriving around 9 am, finding a suitable parking location with the caravan attached about a kilometre away from the markets. We spent a couple of enjoyable hours wandering around looking at a large variety of stalls and obtained our weekly supply of fresh food directly from the farmers.

Booking in time at our Port Douglas located caravan park was 11 am and we were near completion of setting camp by 11.30 when Adelaide friends, Judy & Jim knocked on our door. Their accommodation was around a 5-minute walk down the road. They liked the sound of the Markets and we were back at the markets for another walk around. It was nearing the market finish time of 1.30 pm with most fresh food sold out, so Judy & Jim had to satisfied with shopping at the nearby supermarket. The evening meal was spent in our caravan.

One of a few lookouts we stopped at travelling down from the mountains to Port Douglas

Early the following morning we set off to explore the much-publicised Mossman Gorge. We walked all the non-cost trails feeling very satisfied with the scenery. It was a busy morning and our bodies were feeling weary after around 8 kilometres of walking.

Lovely clear flowing water

That evening the 4 of us participated in a sunset sail cruise. The sails were out supported by a strong ocean breeze. The boat put on a good speed and we were getting tossed about on the waves. Mary was hoping for a great time on the water able to cope with her past motion sickness issues. This was to be Mary’s last time on a sail boat due to a reminder, her body doesn’t cope with the rocking and rolling.

Our boat

A promoted sunset cruise and this was it for a few minutes only

Skipping along

Some of many luxury boats in the harbour

We had booked for a meal out, after the cruise and thought Mary’s meal may have been compromised. Luckily back on land she quickly improved and managed an entree sized meal.

Once again, we woke early the following morning and were on our way to our next targeted destination the Daintree region a World Heritage Listed Rainforest location. Ironically Judy & Jim were off on a days guided tour of the Daintree. As we drove down the road we waved to Judy & Jim who were standing out the front of their accommodation waiting to be collected with what looked like their transport approaching about 100 metres away.

We needed to cross the Daintree River to access our targeted area for exploration and were happy to have avoided the publicised lengthy queues waiting to get on the Daintree ferry arriving early, prior to the peak period.

There's our ferry on the other side of the river

Crossing the river

As soon as we drove off the ferry, we were in amongst the Daintree rainforest delighting all our senses with our eyes awash with a lush green environment. It was a narrow windy road with a maximum speed limit of 60 kph for the best part of the Daintree region roads. We stopped for a look at Cow Bay, a location without signage, “Not suitable for Caravans.” Near 11 am we booked into our caravan park for the next 3 nights. We enjoyed walking the caravan parks rainforest trails and viewing some of the wild life. We did enquire about the very publicised Cassowary sightings to be notified it was nesting season where they didn’t expect to hear about Cassowary sightings due to nest sitting duties for around the next month.

A regular feature signage driving around the Daintree

And another feature

More trees blocking the track

Just a small base for the downed tree

Each time we drove out onto the main road we were immediately mesmerised by our rainforest surroundings. It was simply beautiful.

The primary bitumized area of road networks from the ferry stretched north for about 40 kilometres before changing to a 4wd track (named the Bloomfield Track) and we were camped in round-about the middle region. Day two we explored our northerly regions. True to form as we had experienced at Mossman Gorge the first publicized boardwalk was closed for maintenance. Possibly this region has similarities to our Canadian experience where there were two primary seasons, construction season and the wet season. With a very wet season making it impossible for most outdoor activities leaving the dry periods for outdoor construction and maintenance. Further on, the Dubuji Boardwalk provided splendid viewing with the disappointment of missing out on the Marrdja Boardwalk quickly evaporating.

Mary standing next to the scrub fowl nest

We were delighted to spot the scrub fowl nearby

Lookout point was another worthwhile viewing location.

We had been informed by the “Smicks,” that at Emmagen Creek there was a nice walking track to a great swimming hole along the creek. About 5 kilometres back down the road on our way to Emmagen Creek a car had been following us for a while being so close to us, we thought about stopping and opening up our rear back hatch for them to get in. At about this, 5 kilometre mark the bitumen finished with a 4wd only signage displayed and suddenly this car was no longer behind us. We suspect it was a hire car with overseas occupants? It had been raining the previous night, the road was quite wet and we were having our share of traction issues over the 5 kilometres of dirt road to Emmagen Creek.

We treasured our rainforest walks with some magical settings, enhanced when we stepped out of a dense rainforest onto a beautiful beach or ocean setting.

Day three we had planned to explore the area south of our camp. We woke to the sound of rain tapping on our roof and experienced several heavy showers of rain up to 11 am. With the rain appearing to abate we headed out to our planned destinations a bit after 11 am. We were looking forward to another publicized national park walk only to find it too was closed for maintenance. That added to around half of the main national park walking tracks as closed for the Daintree region. In hindsight perhaps we should have prior checked the national parks web site for status updates. Unfortunately, in the Daintree region there is no phone reception which also means no internet, thus no access to national parks web site. Next, we attended the main lookout with alleged views of the Daintree River travelling into the ocean and Port Douglas in the distance????

We did stop at a couple of highly publicized commercial operations which also turned out not to be as advertised. Our last planned day in the Daintree turned out to be a bit of a miserable wet day not enticing us to stay longer. We still enjoyed looking around at our camp site setting amongst a splendid rainforest back ground locale. Would we return to view the Daintree region? Absolutely yes. It would have been one of the most special rainforest settings we have experienced. We would look favourably to an opportunity to explore those areas that had been unavailable due to refurbishment work in the national park areas, including retracing those locales we experienced.

Naturally the day we departed the Daintree region the weather improved. Our target locale was in the Cairns region catching up with one of Mary’s cousins. The scenery along our route from the Daintree to Cairns was rather spectacular.

We hadn’t been to Greg’s home before and had been offered a parking spot for our caravan if we could fit. His road started to get quite steep requiring low range 4wd for the last part. It was not only steep but the road also narrowed inhibiting our turning capabilities. After about six attempts, removing one fence panel we were best part in, with a slight inconvenience of only able to half open our caravan door due to a retaining wall incursion. With a bedroom in the house available for our use we managed to overcome the awkward access into our caravan.

Getting tight

Fence panel was in the way, so it was removed

Steve stood on top of the retainer wall to enter the caravan from a partially open door

Even the gradient required low range 4wd.

There were lots of butterfies fluttering about in the tree lined street

We had a wonderful time catching up with Greg, his wife Thanh and son Xavier.

Initially we were thinking one evening would provide plenty of time for a catch up, aiming to leave the following day. So, we thought. Thanh had two close friends coming from Vietnam to stay the following day. Thanh and Greg talked us into staying longer where we all spent time in the Cairns ‘Rusty’s Markets,’ Cairns Aquarium, with Thanh and her visitors providing plenty of delightful Vietnamese food experiences.

Leaving Cairn’s, we made our way to Norty’s Lake Tinaroo property which we were thrilled was still available for our use about 1 ½ hours drive away. This we planned to be our base for a while, enjoying its relaxing environment while planning our future options.