Port Douglas

Port Douglas is one of those places which began life as a small village, gained popularity with holiday makers and now has a real “resort” feel with luxurious apartments, health clubs, marinas and a plentiful supply of bars and restaurants and has its renowned 4 mile beach complete with net to keep out the stingers.
Like so many of the coastal towns in FNQ it has a beautiful setting and we sat, sipping champagne, in a bar which overlooked the water - sail boats were going back and forth and we were delighted to see a sea eagle swoop down and take a fish. Don’t know if there is any truth in it but we heard that Greg Norman moors his boat at Port Douglas.
It is also a popular place for weddings and there is a dinky little wooden church which has for its altar piece a plate glass window that looks out to sea. We were there on a Saturday and they closed the church because a wedding was about to take place. The bride and groom arrived together, they not in their first flush of youth so perhaps a second time around. Also no guests, just the two of them and a photographer and celebrant. They disappeared inside soon to re-appear to the sounds of the bells ringing!
We are presently in Cairns and the Suzi is having its service. This afternoon off to Undara and lava tubes.

Cooktown

Cooktown owes its existence to the fact that in the late 1800s gold was found nearby and a port was needed to bring in provisions, a site on the Endeavour River was selected and Cooktown was born. At one stage there were estimated to be 15,000 miners on the Palmer, 10,000 of whom were Chinese, and Cooktown catered for the influx with stores, pubs (50), and the like. When the gold ran out it meant the eventual decline of the town and now the “gold” is in tourism. At this time of the year the weather is warm and comfortable, the scenery is beautiful, plenty of clean water for fishing and generally a relaxing environment and laid back atmosphere.

And of course there is the fact that Cook spent time here in 1770. The town has a very interesting museum which has many of Cook’s artifacts including the original anchor and one of the cannons from the ship.

We have been on a visit to rock art sites in the company of a Nugalwarra Elder, Willy Gordon, who shared with us the stories the rock art depicts and the tour included a visit to an an ancestral birth cave. It was a 4 hour tour with plenty of walking and clambering up and over huge rocks so today our bodies are acknowledging the unused to exercise - can only be good - and we are catching up with chores and plan a visit to the Cooktown Botanic Gardens.

Tomorrow it’s off to Port Douglas, the Suzuki needs it’s warranty service, so it’s back to the Cairns area before we head west.

Market and Goanna

Mossman

Today is Monday 20th July and in Mossman it’s a public holiday - why? - it’s the annual Show. It’s on for 2 days and we went and had a look before we left for Cooktown. Some of the highlights were the show jumping with a bevy of young lasses in tight white jodhpurs trotting around the oval on their frisky ponies which often, when it was their turn to go over the jumps, refused and had to have a smack with the whip - the pony not the rider! Then there was a selection of sugar cane with a prize for the best sample, sheep shearing, wood chopping, snake handling, and of course the flowers, preserves and arts and crafts not to mention the trained ducks. A delightful traditional country show. We also visited the weekend market and bought lots of beautiful organic fruit and vegetables, the locals supply the trendy restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne and the quality of their produce is first class, of course no water shortages here and organic and biodynamic farming is a big feature.
We left the coast and crossed the Great Dividing Range and then headed north to Cooktown, which nestles between Mount Cook and the mouth of the Endeavour River. In 1770 Lt James Cook, in desperate need of a safe haven, beached the Endeavour and named the river after his ship. In later years gold was discovered nearby and the town prospered but languished at the end of the gold rush and has had to survive two devastating cyclones. It has become popular with tourists because of its pristine waters and beautiful scenery.
The average winter temperature here is a high of 26 and low of 20, so it’s pretty nice, just a tad humid at this time of the year. We were just settling in when L spotted some local fauna about 10 metres from our tent, a big goanna, which I am pleased to report seemed shy and promptly ran up a tree.

Daintree Forest

Wonga Beach & Daintree

Wonga Beach is a small seaside town just north of Mossman and south of the Daintree Forest which represents the largest block of tropical rainforest in Australia.
It was a hot day when we arrived so on with the bathers and a swim in the pool and a walk on the beach, people were fishing and had caught a big flathead the day before but nothing while we were there.
Today we took the ferry across the Daintree River (at $20 return and about 25 vehicles a crossing, which takes about 5 minutes, they must be making a bit) and up to Cooper’s Creek Wilderness, an area recently classed as the oldest forest in the world, where L did a 2 hour up hill and down dale guided walking tour (I have been having knee trouble and didn’t go) through the Gondwanan forest.
An excellent guide told the story of the evolution of forests from mosses to giants. The first flowering plant and mosquitos predate the dinosaurs by 200 million years.
There are many other opportunities to walk in the forest, we also took the Jindalba board walk through forest and mangroves and then visited the Discovery Centre where you can climb a tower and view the canopy from above.
Lunch was a de luxe ice cream, macadamia, raspberry, jackfruit and wattle seed flavours! We bought fish for tea, Nannigai - haven’t heard of this one before! - it turned out to be very tasty, firm flesh and mild flavour
Today we are going into Mossman to check out the weekly market and to stock up on perishables. We leave Wonga Beach Monday morning for Cooktown. We hadn't planned going that far north but we have spoken with so many people who recommend going there that we will go but not via the 4 wheel drive track along the coast. We will take the inland black top road which, although it takes longer, is a much safer road for we seniors!

Cairns 2

There have been good times and not so good times in Cairns, we had just finished dinner and I was waiting for a kettle of washing up water to boil when, because I was wearing my headlamp which was pointed towards the ground, I was surprised to see a lengthy snake gliding under the floor of our tent, just inches from the open door. I pointed it out to L, just in case my imagination was getting the better of me, and he was pretty surprised too. So it was into the tent, zip up both doors and close the velcro strips at the bottom and we didn’t emerge until day light!! Apparently we need not have been so concerned as it was probably a harmless (or so the locals say) python but I am still quite cautious.
The good time was the trip we took to the reef yesterday. The blurb said we would get 5 full hours at the outer Barrier Reef, platform offering shelter, shade, sun deck, showers and change rooms, underwater observatory, marine biology presentation, unlimited snorkelling with all equipment and instruction, dedicated dive tender for certified scuba divers, semi submersible tours, hot and cold buffet lunch, morning and afternoon and tea - and we did get all they promised and more. It turned out to be a beautiful day and the journey to the reef not too choppy, the young assistants were full of encouragement and enthusiasm and there was plenty of equipment available. After some consideration we decided to give snorkelling a try, there were steps down from the pontoon so it was a bit like getting into a swimming pool and the recommended area was roped off with buoys. Safety was highly promoted.
It was just fantastic, plenty of fish to see ranging from the tiny to quite large and so many wonderful colours, and the coral is just amazing. We left the park at 8am and didn’t get back until 6pm so it was a long day but so satisfying.
Tomorrow we are off to Wonga Beach which is close to the Daintree.