Plane, train and automobile - instead of southern Africa it's off to FNQ

[bPeteb]

for the next couple of days we just bummed around. We managed to see the elusive croc just down the path past Sea Temple



One day we walked the four km down the beach to Kewarra where it was clear that Kewarra Beach Resort, our original May LE booking, was still not open. It looked beautiful









a forgotten lunch order, then only getting half of it when re-ordered, saw us get our lunch and one round of drinks comped at Drift (?) Cafe. The staff were really nice and we were in no rush and they kept thanking us for being so understanding

 

[bPeteb]

Pool, beach walk, pool, read on verandah, lunch, dinner. What a life

Our bubbles and the Italian style Gallo camembert



Dinner at The Reef House. Sadly their degustation is not offered at the moment







biscotti so hard you could clad you could use it as roof shingles





on our last night in Palm Cove we had dinner at Beach Almond - excellent!



In the honesty drinks fridge of The Reef House. Corn and coriander? Just no

 

[LadyC]

Some lovely photos there. The train ride up looked quite good and worth considering. I am sure FNQ will be overrun with Victorians like me searching for a local holiday once Dan finally let's us out. Thanks for posting!

 

[bPeteb]

Our trip up into the Daintree had been in the rain so it was very nice to wake up to another spectacular sunny FNQ winter's day. After another walk on the beautiful beach we packed up, said goodbye to The Reef House







and wandered down to Nu Nu at Alamanda Resort for lunch. Last year we couldn't get a table without booking days in advance. This year we were glad we booked as we got a table out of the sun but we could have walked in.



Excellent meal and service although we can now say we're not a fan of betel leaf

 

[bPeteb]

We've added Ellis Beach, just north of Palm Cove as somewhere to consider for a return trip. Beautiful beach with a caravan park with beachfront cabins. Surf club across the road for meals. Perfect

Parts of the road between Palm Cove and Port Douglas reminded us both of the road up the west coast of the south island of NZ. Quite a rugged coastline.

Across the ferry after a very short wait





and into the beautiful rainforest of the Daintree. We stayed at Daintree Crocodylus for the first two nights Daintree Rainforest Accommodation at its WILDEST



lots of communication from Sally after we booked regarding things to do in the Daintree, process for check-in, what to expect etc - be ready for bugs (no problem for us), power only on between certain hours, showers only available during that same time, meal times.

This place is definitely not for everyone. I describe the huts as tent structures. They are constructed from poles, shade cloth and tarp material. We stayed in Pender, a family hut with a double bed, bunks and two singles. Maybe that was in case we decided to host some cute backpackers...





view from our verandah, bug spray essential







pool

 

[bPeteb]

We were surprised the whole time that we were away by the number of young foreign tourists. There were English, French and Dutch (that we spoke to) staying here. The English guy was someone who had been on employment sponsored by Comm Bank that had been cancelled, the young French guy (always without shoes, short shorts and shirt open, cute as ) had enough money to stay it out and the three Dutch girls who hit a cassowary on the way in (they went and found rangers who confirmed it had survived) also intended to stay until they ran out of money.

Sally cooked dinner and breakfast. It wasn't gourmet but it was simple, and very good. Steve her partner was a little over the top with his social distancing - two metres for him - but better safe than sorry. Crocodylus offers single huts, duplex huts and then more dorm like large huts with four or eight rooms. There was a large shower block and a kitchen for the self-caterers. Our hut had it's own bathroom. That is non-negotiable for me

breakfasts were huge!







Food was cheap as was the beer and cider. We didn't bother with trying the extensive wine list of two reds or two whites. Not sure why I didn't take pictures of the very good curries or the perfectly cooked steak. The communal area.





We were kept awake both nights by the shrieking of the scrub fowls. OMG they were loud. Apparently 50 pairs live in the area! Pigs as well scratch around at night. Early in the morning of night two we were woken by something moving around in the room.

There are very loud warnings not to keep any food in your room and we'd made sure we hadn't. Well, nearly made sure. Torch in hand I investigated and a small animal shot off the bed we had our bags on and out through a gap in the wall. We had a look and there was (had been) a packet of unopened fruit tingles in the pocket of one of our packs. Two tingles gone. zipped up the pocket and a while later same kind of noise. bigal got up this time and quickly got me out of bed. There in my medications bag was this small animal





I'll start first by saying after the photos were taken I took it outside where it very happily, and rapidly, bolted back into the bush. We went back to bed but in the daylight could see it had chewed into a tray of nurofen advance and also eaten half of one of my blood thinning tablets. We showed Steve the photos and he told us it was a melomys, a native rat. No joint pain or thick blood for it for a while

 

[bPeteb]

We pre-booked a night walk through and from Crocodylus. We'd done one in the Peruvian Amazon so maybe my expectations were a little high bigal enjoyed it more than me but it was a nice way to be enveloped by the sounds and the smells of the rainforest. Lots of crickets and spiders but not much else. I'm looking through the photos and despite the Galaxy S20+ Ultra supposedly being the bestest camera phone ever, I'm only posting photos taken with my iPhone X cos they're better (still not 4/3 or DSLR better)...

We're both good spotters and I managed to find the premo Daintree reptile on the back of a tree, a Boyd's Forest Dragon





a cricket, or katydid?



ghost snail



a moth (?) spotted by bigal that flew over to us as soon as the torch lit it up







our guide explained what the noises were that we heard, what the berries on the ground were. Sadly no cassowary

 

[kookaburra75]

Great Trip Report - thanks for putting it together. MrsK and I have booked our winter escape at The Reef House for next June, so your review and suggestions for things to see and do, and where to eat and drink are greatly appreciated.

 

[bPeteb]

Before we headed further north to Cape Tribulation we drove down to the beautiful Cow Bay. We should have listened to some people we'd met the night before who said to wear sturdy shoes so we could cross the rocky 'headlands' between each strip of sand. Bare feet were not good for that but then we would have missed our feet in the sand.

 

[bPeteb]

Great Trip Report - thanks for putting it together. MrsK and I have booked our winter escape at The Reef House for next June, so your review and suggestions for things to see and do, and where to eat and drink are greatly appreciated.

We didn't make it this time but the Greek restaurant next to the little supermarket was great last year. elgreko Greek Taverna. We just ran out of nights

 

[bPeteb]

We saw some cars parked beside the road just south of Thornton Beach. Stopped and wandered back and they were waiting to go on a croc cruise. So we waited and joined them. Cape Tribulation Wilderness Cruises - Daintree Rainforest - Tourism Town - Find & book authentic experiences in Daintree at Cooper Creek



I'd imagine if this was a trip non-COVID we wouldn't have stood a chance of getting on without booking. Instead there was room to spare. $35 each. The guy who owns the boat hilarious. He's been doing this for 30 years. It's the only boat operating inside the Daintree National Park.



Did we see crocs?

 

[bPeteb]

Lunch at Thornton Beach Cafe. Thornton Beach is one of the only places north of the Daintree River where you can get Telstra connectivity. Optus users have nowhere as many issues. People were sat all around us at Crocodylus using their phones. It had been pouring when we walked out onto Thornton Beach the week before. Today another amazingly beautiful Daintree beach





bigal had been on the lookout for this sign since seeing it flash by on our trip to Cooktown



we stopped at the Marrdja Boardwalk. Excellent easy walk Marrdja Boardwalk - Daintree Rainforest - Tourism Town - Find & book authentic experiences in Daintree

we so so many amazing strangler figs

 

[bPeteb]

I forgot that we'd visited Daintree Discovery Centre and then the 'long walk' (there is a boardwalk) at Jindalba while we were at Crocodylus. The dinosaur walk, however Clive Palmer that sounds, was bloody funny, in a good way

the demon duck of doom animatronic is hysterical!



the canopy tower

 

[bPeteb]

We'd originally booked PK's Jungle Village Pk's Jungle Village | Cape Tribulation Cabins and accommodation As we arrived at Maryborough station I received a text message confirming cancellation of our booking. Mmm... Checked email and booking had been cancelled due to the hotel closing! Madly rebooked the other place we'd considered Welcome - Ferntree Rainforest Lodge

We booked a garden loft. Told at check-in that we were in a newly renovated room and that they only had 21 of 51 rooms available for guests due to both COVID and need for renovation. We were given a map



that we were asked to return when we checked out and pointed to the path to take to get to our room. What we should also have been told - room would only be serviced every second day (we don't make our own bed everyday so no biggy but would have been nice to know, milk gone after first morning), breakfast was not being served (walked down road to Turtle cafe, we need the exercise), dinner was only for a couple of hours (that wasn't a big deal, food was good), take your room towels to the pool (only tried the pool once, beautiful but freezing).

From the gardens the lofts look really nice. They are all huge, a ridiculously huge super king bed, big bathroom and a loft with two single beds. Ours was freshly painted inside, spotlessly clean, and it had some new electricals including a fridge and jug, but it was clear it was built in another era. I've found some YouTube videos from the early 2000s that show a trip to the Daintree that included staying at Ferntree. It was a luxury lodge back then with two pools, a bar and games room., fine dining at the restaurant. I hope the current owners make it through COVID and get it close to what it was. It'd be a gold mine.

So much original external woodwork at this place needs to be replaced. The ends of every board of our deck had rotted. They'd been sand or water blasted to show what needed to be replaced. All of them. It was safe to use though and showed that they were aware work needed to be done.

To the room, loft 25

 

[bPeteb]

As the map shows the lodge/hotel is spread out over a large area. We were happy with how close we were to the restaurant/bar, reception and where we were able to park the car. The gardens were beautiful if like us you love tropical gardens. The restaurant and bar area also really nice and the pool great, but as I said bloody freezing







The night we got there it was roast night, bookings essential. As with Crocodylus the bar/restaurant were also used by locals as they are pretty much the only place open for dinner. Food was simple with large servings. I had a perfectly cooked steak one night. Another we had spag bol





we were constantly surprised by the variety of beer and other drinks on offer



one day we drove up to Cape Trib Lodge for lunch. It was less fancy than I'd thought it was going to be, not really a bad thing



we also made ourselves a fancy cheese platter to finish off the smoked cheddar cheese we'd bought at Gallo. Why didn't I know a teaspoon could be substituted for a cheese knife? bigal, full of surprises

 

[bPeteb]

We took a morning fast semi-rigid out to Mackay Reef with Ocean Safari Great Barrier Reef Tour - Ocean Safari Cape Tribulation only 25 minutes out to the reef compared to hours further south. Beautiful coral, lots of fish and we did manage to see a turtle.











and an afternoon horse ride with Cape Trib Horse Rides Home where I finally found a horse that liked me. The ride along the beach was terrific. A little concerned having a croc pointed out to us on the other side of the creek as we rode through the forest near the beach!

 

[bPeteb]

The beaches of the Daintree are just amazing. At Cape Trib there's Myall and Kulki (Cape Trib beach)

Myall beach











Kulki/Cape Tribulation beach

 

[bPeteb]

Another rainforest walk. We had two options - one down on the boardwalk that we'd already walked three times and one up in the rainforest at the end of the road the lodge was on. We chose the latter.



Reception somehow got the time wrong the first time we tried to go and we sat at the meeting point for half an hour before we gave up. He turned up five minutes later...

Second attempt was successful but hindsight says that maybe we should have gone with the boardwalk. The rainforest was very dry, there's was lots of old construction material as we walked where the first houses of Cape Trib were built (and since demolished) and the rainforest was reclaiming. There was a small hydro plant up there that made a terrible racket in the peace of the rainforest and it was also the site of the jungle surfing zipline company that closed own after a person was tragically killed when he and his wife came off the zipline late last year.

Hardly any wildlife - a bandicoot (we'd seen one at the hotel), some spiders, some freshwater prawns and an eel. The guide was desperate to find the dragon we'd seen at Cow Bay. Wasn't game to tell him we'd already seen one

Apparently David Attenborough thinks this wasp eating parasitic fungus is the best!



loved the cauliflorous trees



a blurry frog



no idea but I took a picture anyway



despite numerous reports that they were around, the closest we got was a huge very fresh poo on the boardwalk



what we did see were bloody horrible screeching fruit bats (we have a huge colony less than 100m from our house)



lots of spiders



a very fast moving snake



and more of those noisy scrub fowl

 

[bPeteb]

Sadly the time had come to head back to the real world. The Daintree and Cape Trib feel like a different planet. If I could just get over the humidity, and we could build an entirely off the grid house (within our budget) I think it would be a pretty special place to live. Maybe even one of the beaches near Mossman. One day.

Enough dreaming. Brekkie again down at Turtle Cafe







then a final walk on beautiful Myall Beach where Ocean Safari was getting ready to head out to the reef





we decided against stopping for icecream again at FloraVilla at Cow Boy and instead stopped at Walu Wugirriga lookout for a very beautiful view of the coastline and the mouth of the Daintree River





before pretty much driving straight on to the ferry where I spied a decent sized croc on the southern bank. bigal thought I was joking until he zoomed in on it

 

[bPeteb]

Mossman Gorge had re-opened only the week before and we're really glad that it had because it was unexpectedly beautiful. We new nothing about it and were both surprised to see we had to catch a bus up to the gorge itself



again we chose the long walk, Beautiful rainforest and that equally beautiful sound of water running through the boulders. I don't think my dickie hip or bigal's dickie knee thought it was as beautiful as our eyes did











the visitor centre is a great example of Oz architecture. Loved the super oversized 'bottom mounted' gutters



and one of the more surprising buildings we saw while we were away - the gorgeous Spanish mission Mossman District Hospital