We are reaching towards the very top of Queensland, not that we plan to go that far. Port Douglas is a lovely place – who would have thought that this was a sleepy fishing village of 100 people in the 1960s. It is a great resting point to see some beautiful country, stunning coastlines, Mossman Gorge and the incredible Daintree.. We extended our stay. Twice.

Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia

Getting there

Cairns > Port Douglas (67km)

Cairns to Port Douglas is pretty simple – just drive north until you get there. But first we had to drop Mobi off at the refrigeration mechanic to get the freezer door fixed. We got there just before 8:00 as directed, and we had to reverse Mobi into the rear of the factory up against a fence. Well we did that pretty well, without a hitch, so as to speak. They told us to unhitch the van and they hoped to have it done by lunchtime.

So with time on our hands we went into town to walk around the Esplanade area. We soon found a parking spot and paid for a couple of hours parking, and walked off to explore, with our brollys at the ready – rain threatened. But we had gone no more than 100m whey they called to say the freezer was fixed. So we quickly backtracked, picked up Mobi and drove north.

We had already been on the first part of the trip on our exploration of the northern beaches, ending up at the lovely Ellis Beach. The remaining part was really lovely, as the road hugs the coast often providing tantalising partial views of the some magnificent scenery. But with Mobi on the back we can’t stop to have a look and take photos. We quickly decided to drive back down again the next day to see all that we had missed.

Port Douglas

The history of Port Douglas is one of boom and bust. The Port Douglas township was established in 1877 after the discovery of gold at Hodgkinson River. It grew quickly, and at its peak Port Douglas had a population of 12,000 and 27 hotels. Around 1882 was a boom period and Port Douglas overtook Cairns as the main port for gold and tin mining. With the construction of the Mulligan Highway it serviced towns as far away as Herberton.

When the Kuranda Railway from Cairns to Kuranda was completed in 1891, the importance of Port Douglas dwindled along with its population. A cyclone in 1911 demolished all but two buildings in the town – sixteen inches of rain fell in 24 hours.  By 1920 the business centre was moving to Mossman to be near the sugar mill. The last time sugar was railed to the wharf in Port Douglas was in 1958.

At its nadir in 1960s the town, by then little more than a fishing village, had a population of 100.

In 1984 the new Cairns International Airport brought tourists from around the world to re-awaken Port Douglas. In the late-1980s, tourism in the region received another fillip after investor Christopher Skase financed the Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas Resort.

Today Port Douglas has become a popular destination for Australian and international visitors keen to visit the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree World Heritage Rainforest.  Its permanent population was 3,205 at the time of the 2011 census

The Van Park

We are at the Tropic Breeze, which is the closest of the parks to the centre of town – it really is a short walk. It got very good reviews on Wikicamps. But at reception the man told us that as our van was so big it may prove difficult. We see that there are heaps of empty small sites in the centre of the Park, but the outside perimeter looked pretty full.

He had one option, he said and led us out to have a look. It is a smallish site on a corner, squeezed in between 2 large mobile homes. It had a concrete slab. We said we would take it.  The price was $40 a night but in the end we stayed 7 nights so that got us one night at no cost .

Getting Mobi to it also proved difficult with a couple of tight corners and trees in award positions. But we got there and quickly backed in with his assistance.

Day 0 – arrival

After quickly setting up we drove into town despite it being so close. It has a good feel to it – small and with lots of tourist stuff as you would expect, but a good atmosphere.  Not crowded and with access to a beach at either end of the main street.  The lady owner of the van park was horrified that we were driving into town until I explained that we had a big grocery shop to do.  Parking was nigh impossible, but we eventually found a spot not too far from Coles.

 

We had lunch at the Irish pub but unfortunately they did not have Kilkenny on tap.  Luckily they had bubbly.

Day 1

We had an early morning walk to our local beach – there is gate at the rear of the park and the beach is a short walk away. It is a lovely beach so we enjoyed the walk.

We had decided to drive back down the coast to have a look at the beautiful beaches and headlands that we had driven past on the way up. We drove south (obviously) and soon came to little areas where we could stop and take some pics. First up we see a strange view of mangrove trees seemingly out in the ocean.

We drove on and by a fluke stopped at Pebbly Beach – so unique to see a beach made up of large perfectly formed round stones. Never seen it like that before.

The sound of the pebbles moving back and forward with the waves was great. Like the sound of an Aboriginal rain stick, only louder. This can be heard on our video link – see below.

Oak Beach is a really lovely beach. A single road runs parallel to the beach with some really up-market homes on either side – on the right the homes are absolutely beach front. 

Rex Lookout provides great views over Wangetti Beach to the south, with the Coral Sea in front of you. Hang gliders often hover over this area, we read. None today.

At the town of Wangetti we had a good look around the lovely beach.  This is a long and undeveloped beach next to the Hwy. There were 4 young tourists who had obviously stayed at the parking area we arrived at, which had a few “croc beware” signs around it. I could never have camped there. But a very pretty beach nonetheless.  It looks a great haunt for crocs with a lagoon right there…. a bit nervous walking around.

Further south we stopped as a small rocky outcrop – the Gatz, the place of balancing rocks.  Here people had created small cairns of rocks. This was an amazing act of people power – someone started something and it took off like a scandal on Facebook. There are now more than a hundred cairns on this little stone feature. Loved it. 

 

Soon we are back in Ellis Beach and it is still as lovely as before, especially with the blue skies on that day. We realised that we were now in fact very close to Smithfield, and more importantly to the shopping centre there – Woolies, Bunnings and Dan Murphys. Port Douglas does not have much there and wine is so very expensive. Stock up on things before you head north of Cairns.  

Day 2

We went to Mossman Gorge, a very special place. Nestled in the World Heritage Listed Daintree Rainforest, Mossman Gorge contains the oldest, continuously surviving rainforest on earth. Just one hectare of the 120,000 hectare forest can contain over 30,000 species of plants and animals. 

It is a very short drive to Mossman town (19km) and the Gorge is only a few kms from there. It is also a very pretty drive, as are most drives in this part of the country.

We had booked the 10am Dreamtime Walk, and gathered with about 15 others to wait for our guide. His name we cannot remember, but he said to call him Skip. He also told us that he had given the first ever such Walk many years before.

We took a mini bus for our tour, but there is also a  shuttle bus which drops people off to do the walks, up to a covered area with a log fire going. There, Skip performed a smoking ceremony to clean away any bad spirits and to make us his companions for the day as we walked through the forest. Skip put some paperbark in the fire and we simply walked around it and through the smoke.

We then went for a walk through the rainforest stopping at vantage points where Skip told us about traditional Aboriginal beliefs and ways of life.  To them the land is not something to own or posses, but is everything in their lives from a food supply, to a school or university, to a hospital. The forest and land are providers and the people must respect and protect them.

As we entered the forest we came to an area where the spirit of the past leader of Skip’s community had been “sighted”. So he called out to the spirits to let them know who he was and why he was there, and to say he had some friends with him who would respect the forest as they walked.

At various stops we learnt about how the Aboriginal people:

    found water – look for the King Palms and the roots of the strangler fig

    used the timbers of the forest – make a canoe, make weapons, make bowls, attract attention (hit a rock on the buttress roots of a tree)

    used plants as food, medicines and soaps

    used plants as fibre to make huts, baskets, cray pots, string

    used ochres and clays for body painting

    played the digeridoo

It really was a fascinating tour and it ended with a cup of tea with damper scones and jam.   Really interesting how they used ochre and clay – not only for body paint but also for sun protection and mosquito repellent.  Not sure what SPF rating it would give you, but I guess covering yourself in clay would have to rate up there with zinc cream.

After that we walked the National Parks trails. All of the trails are only a few hundred meters, except the 2.4km rainforest circuit, and are an easy walk. Firstly down to the river pool where a platypus was spotted the day before – the Lower River Track. But it was near noon so we did not expect to see one, and so weren’t disappointed. 

This track led to the Barrjanga Marrjanga track, which took us through the rainforest to a lookout with views over the Mossman River and the mountain ranges beyond. The track includes two sections of elevated boardwalk. 

On the way through we stopped at the large waterhole where there were heaps of people swimming. We thought it best to complete the walks before taking a dip.

We then went out to the Rex Suspension Bridge, which crosses over the River. The Rainforest circuit starts on the other side of the bridge. As we had done many rainforest walks so far, and as the prospect of a cooling swim was in our minds, we decided not to do the circuit. 

Back at the swimming hole Kerry decided not to go in. So off I went with my underwater camera. I swam up to where the last section of the cascade entered the pool to get a little video – the current did not appear to be too strong. But I got too close and got sucked into the base fo the cascade – very turbulent water tossing me around as in a washing machine for what seemed like ages but was in fact only seconds.  I was so relieved when I got spat out as my lungs were empty.  There was a man near me who asked if I was ok – “you looked out of control” he said. How true. But lesson learnt.  

We were finished at the Gorge so drove back to Woolies in Mossman to stock up again. Back at the Park we had a lazy afternoon.

Day 3 

We drove to Cape Tribulation and spent the night at the Ferntree Rainforest Lodge.  

The Daintree region – the Rainforest and River – was originally home to the Kuku Yalanji Aboriginal tribe who lived in small kinships of 8-12 in camps scattered along the banks of creeks and rivers. The hunter gatherer lifestyle of these people was highly dependent on the rainforest.

In 1873 George Dalrymple named the Daintree River after the then Queensland’s Agent-General in London. In 1877 the discovery of gold changed everything for the rainforest Aboriginal people, violent clashes with European settlers often resulted in fatalities. 1879 saw the first permanent settlers in the Daintree Village area and  in 1883 the Village was established.  The Daintree River was the only way of access until 1933 when the road to Mossman was completed. Supplies and mail arrived once a week from Port Douglas and produce and passengers left on the return journey.

Daintree Village was first a base for the red cedar timber industry and in the old logging days the logs were floated down river and loaded onto small coasters at Daintree Heads. Later European and Chinese settlers on both sides of the Daintree River tried many crops – sugar-cane, coffee and other crops – but floods, disease and marketing proved major stumbling-blocks.

Now it is our turn to explore and it is really lovely country to drive through. Our first stop was at Rocky Point, where there is a large boat launching ramp. Lovely place. 

 

Next up was the southern end of Wonga Beach, which is quite stony. Further along it is really pretty – lovely sandy beach to the north and south.

Daintree Village is a funny little place with most buildings having plaques describing some historical significance, such as the original homestead – The Bushmans Lodge –  and the butter factory. Today I think tourism is just about its only functions. 

Just before we get to the Village that are open fields – with grass humps in the fields.  Strange countryside.  They remind me of my “fairy mounds” that we discovered in the UK years ago.

From there it is a short drive to the ferry and we are lucky as it is just arriving on our side, and there are not so many cars waiting. The ferry was only started in 1962.

The fare was $15 one way (we had been promised a return ticket from a friend). On board you have to stay in your car and cannot get out to look at the river. Fortunately it is a very quick crossing.

About 5km from the ferry we turned onto the dirt road to Cape Kimberley, just to have a look. It’s a good road and a really nice drive.

When we got to the end there was just a carpark. Although there were signs to a “resort”, there was no evidence of its operation. From the carpark a track led towards the beach but it looked to be about 100m through some murky looking swamp lands. We both heisted, thinking croc country. 

Then another car pulled up and 3 women got out. The younger one strode purposefully to the track.

“Have you been here before”, I asked.

“Many times she replied.

“What about crocs?” I asked pointing to the swamp.

She just shrugged, and walked onto the path. We quickly followed her buoyed by her confidence (and the fleeting thought that we could probably run faster than her in a crisis). And we were so lucky we did as the beach is stunning – one of those that you draw breath when you first see it. And one to which a photo will rarely do justice. To the south is a massive expanse of white sand extending far, far away to the distant hills and mountains. To the north a rugged headland juts out from the forest. A really stunning place.

As we stepped onto the beach – the 2 women we had been talking to on the rainforest walk the day before caught up – a nice surprise. One of the ladies  lives nearby and often comes to this beach – the younger lady is her daughter and the other a French friend.  She said it’s pretty safe from crocs at low tide (which it was luckily).

We walked to the northern end of the beach – if the 3 ladies had not arrived we would have been the only people in this truely gorgeous place. But if they had not arrived we probably would not have got to the beach.

We went back to the main road and up to the Waluwurrigga Alexandra Range Lookout, just off the road to the right. This is crowded as there are a few buses there, but we find our way to the front. The view is to the south over to the exit of the Daintree River to the sea, and to the distant beaches.

Just a few km from there we get to the Daintree Discovery Centre.  This opened in June 1989 and since then has won numerous awards. Built off the ground, the Aerial Walkway (11m high) and Canopy Tower (23m high) provide easy access to every level of the rainforest while reducing any impact on the forest.

The audio guides are great and are included in the admission price. There is also a booklet that provides information at 75 numbered points on the walk. The walk is divided into 5 sections – the aerial walkway, the canopy tower, the cassowary circuit, the bush tucker trail and the Jurassic forest.  There is also an interpretative centre, a native fish display and lot of other interpretative features. It is amazing. 

We spent 2 hours there and it could have been longer – there is so much to absorb.

This is also where the Jindalba Boadwalk and trail are, although it is very confusing exactly where this is.  We really could not identify how to get to this and drove on. 

From here we went into Cow Bay to have a look around. This is such an unusual place – to have a residential area where we saw no houses. Even right down to the beach, all you see is rainforest and driveways. Not actual houses. We drove around a couple of side streets but still did not see a home.

But the beach is great – drop dead gorgeous. Let the pictures tell the story

After that it was refreshment time – the Daintree  Ice-cream Company. This makes ice creams from exotic fruits that they grow themselves. Todays combination was Black Sapote (like chocolate), wattle seed, passionfruit and banana. You got 4 scoops for $7.50. Kerry loved the passionfruit in particular, while my favourite was the sapote.

We walked around the grounds to see what was growing – yellow spate, davidsons plumb (which I would loved to have tried), dragonfruit, and soursop. We also noticed coffee and mangoes.

We stopped at Coconut Beach – another lovely, sandy beach. 

Then we went on to Cape Tribulation – which I have had in my mind as one of the icons of the trip. The beach did not disappoint. The car park was full but we got lucky as a car in front of us pulled out. Then we walked to the beach – guess what? – another beautiful sandy beach framed by the northern and southern headlands, under a blue sky with fluffy clouds.  The rainforest came right down to the beach, fulfilling the claim by many as the being the place where the rainforests meets the reef. It is unique to have 2 world heritage icons adjacent.

 

In 1770 Captain James Cook named Cape Tribulation because ‘here began all our troubles‘. His barque, Endeavour, struck the Great Barrier Reef and they limped in to Cooktown to make repairs. Local folklore suggested that Captain Cook also named Mt Sorrow, and that he even climbed it to try to find a way out through the reef. We now know that this outstanding site was named after1850, and that Cook climbed several hills around the Cooktown region to the north of Cape Tribulation.

After walking the beach, we walked around the broad walk to the lookout. This is about a quarter of the way up the headland so is not at all a steep walk. But it went through some wetland areas that looked ideal croc territory to us.

Our accomodation was the Ferntree Rainforest Lodge, a large resort with many 1bed huts around the forested site. It was really quite nice.  But easy to get lost as there are small paths going everywhere.

We walked through the resort to the main Cape Tribulation hub to find not very much at all. But an interesting tree on the way.

A couple of cafes, a restaurant/bar (PKs), a small shop, and various accomodation options. A busy little place. We had a couple of drinks and games of pool at PKs before returning to our restaurant for dinner. 

 

It was almost a 1 women show at our resort. The receptionist  – whom we found out was Argentinian and only there 2 months – also welcomed us for dinner, and also for breakfast next morning.  The food was pretty good.

Day 4

Next day we had a few things to do before meeting an old friend for lunch. First we went back to the beach to see it in the morning light. Absolutely lovely.

The we continued north to Emmagen Creek, the place where the Bloomfield Track begins. It was a very stony crossing on the Creek, which looked to be about 400mm deep – nothing The Cruiser couldn’t handle, we thought. Not that we were going there. 

 

We had heard that there is a lovely swimming hole further up the creek and followed a track for about 500m. It was a good swim hole, even had a swing rope hanging off a tree. We did not go in  – too early.

 

Back at the crossing we meet a couple who are just about to take their Cruiser across and up to Cooktown. The man said that he does the run quite a few times and that we would have no trouble getting to Cooktown that way.  Many of the worst crossings have now been bridged. In fact he said that Emmagen Creek is now probably one of the most problematic crossings. I got a video of this crossing – not at all dramatic  – see the video link below. 

Heading south, we soon saw a Cruiser and caravan going north, obviously to the Bloomfield track. The driver waved us down thinking that we may have driven down from Cooktown. He said that yes, he was going to tow the van up the Bloomfield (all the advice says don’t even try this). We told him what the other man had said and he seemed happy as he drove off. I wished I had doubled back and watched him take the Emmagen Crossing. 

We walked the Dubuji Broadwalk near Cape Tribulation, a 2.2km mangrove broad walk that also led to Myall Beach. The Broadwalk is through a mangrove wetland – ideal croc country we reckon. Not that we are paranoid! We got to an intersection but with no signs to direct us. A bit later we got to another and concluded there must be a track across the middle. We were a bit relieved to get out of the walk and get to the beach. Another lovely sand beach that you can’t swim in.

We had one last walk to do before we met our friend Ronnelle for lunch – the Marrdja Broadwalk, of 1.2kms. We headed off into more croc country walking a bit faster than normal. But it was an interesting walk with lookouts across Oliver Creek. I guess they are so that you can see the crocs coming.  There was an amazing fig tree with roots that had formed something like a steel trussed beam, beautiful fan palms and very unusual basket ferns structured to feed from both the top layer and root layer. 

Then we went to beautiful Thornton Beach for lunch with Ronnelle. We both used to work with her in Sydney up to about 2004 but had not seen her since. She now co-manages the Daintree Tea farm with her partner and is loving the life. 

 

We were at CJ’s restaurant which has great views to the beach and across to a lovely little close-in island. Shortly after we arrived and started talking a fleet of Harleys arrive – at least 20. Fortunately they were only after drinks so the queue for food moved pretty quickly. 

I had a seafood basket which was very yummy, Des had a falafel burger and Ronnelle a greek salad.  Lots of cider and bubbly were consumed (Des was driving so stuck to water). Ronnelle was telling us about the crocs… apparently a woman from Lismore was taken in the sea just a couple of years ago in calf-high water.  Stupidly, she was a bit drunk and it was dusk.  Her local friend tried to pull her out, but the croc was never going to let go.  Another occasion involved people walking a dog on the edge of the water. A croc touched the woman hand, then grabbed the dog.   I am getting more nervous about crocs every day. Ronnelle has also lost one of her dogs to dingoes. Wild place this North Queensland.

It was really lovely to see Ronnelle again – so much to talk over. Then she showed us a bit of the tea plantation and gave us samples to take with us. The tea and honey are excellent.

From there is was back to the ferry, just coming into our side as we pulled up, them Mossman, then a lovely home. We have had a great couple of days. 

Day 5

This one is easy to write up – read, rest, write the post, and plan the next stage. In the afternoon we walked down to the beach, then into the main street of town. I bought some new shoes as the expensive pair of Merrells were giving me terrible blisters and also did not breath – so my feet were getting hot. Got a pair of Sketches which are great.

Day 6

We had hoped to get out  to the outer barrier reef today for another snorkel, but the weather continued being unkind to us. The wind came up during the previous afternoon and the sea was judged to be very choppy.  So we canned that idea.

In the afternoon we drove up to the lookout above the town at Flagstaff Hill. Great views to the south – beautiful beaches, rainforests and mountains in the distance. From there we found a lovely park at the beach at the northern end of the main street. Very pretty.

We have decided not to go to Cooktown. It’s a long way on the bitumen (267km each way) and many people told us that, given what we had already seen, it would be a bit more of the same. So Cape Tribulation, or more accurately Emmagen Creek, was our northern most point in Queensland. 

That also brought up the end of Stage 1, the Queensland Coast. Tomorrow , we head for the Savannah Way and the Undara Experience where we have booked for 3 nights.  

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Facts and figures for Stage 1 can be found, funnily enough, on our Facts and Figures page.  

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