Port Douglas Day 2

This morning again dawned as a lovely warm morning with an overnight minimum of about 20 degrees. A bit different to what I have heard from home!

After breakfast Prue went to the lap pool and swam a kilometre which she has not done for some time. She walked the 2 kilometres to the pool from the Caravan Park. After she had finished I collected her in the Mazda.

I left for my bike ride at about 0700 and rode to and from Mossman. The ride over was not too bad and I had a bit of a chat to a road cyclist as we cruised to Mossman. As I was on the mountain bike and a bit unfit, he soon left me. However, I caught up again in Mossman as there was a road race to and return from Daintree Village. A brief chat to some of the riders and officials, who offered me a good handicap, but I returned to Port Douglas.

After we had showered and were ready to travel for the day, we drove firstly into Port Douglas but parking was at a premium mainly due to the weekly markets. So we then drove to Mossman where we had our cappuccinos and muffins at Temptations Cafe.

After our break, we then drove on leisurely to Daintree Village. It is a beautiful drive into the village. As we drove in, we diverted off the main road to go and visit my former cycling friend from the Northern Rivers, Chanelle. As we arrived we were greeted by Chanelle and quite soon after we met her mother, Melva.

We chatted for some considerable time with Chanelle. She told us about the area and also of her family having settled in the area in the 1880s. The area was originally a timber, cedar, area but as time passed it had to diversify into dairy farming. As the access was only by boat it created some issues later in the dairy industry. This then forced the former dairy farmers into changing to beef cattle. A large number of bos indicus cattle now graze the slopes and river flats around the Daintree area. They are ideally suited to this climate and its environment.

Chanelle's family own and operate the Daintree  Cabins in the Daintree village. They are very nice and we certainly would stay there if we were not in our Karavan. Lovely garden settings with a pool to relax in.

We went for lunch at one of the cafes in the village, Croc Eye. Our lunch was very nice and so were the cappuccinos.

Following lunch, we went for a drive and followed the road out of the village towards the west. We turned off it onto a road that traversed the valleys and eventually to the start of the infamous CREB Track. It was closed although there were varying reports on the internet that it was open. We met up with some fellows that had been around on trail bikes and they said not to go on it if one valued their vehicle.  Our original intention was not to go on it anyway.

Our return journey took us back mostly the same way, however we did divert. The first diversion was to the marker of where a Japanese bomb exploded this exact day, 31/07/1942. This was a little to the north of the main road. The plaque told us that it exploded some 50 metres to the south of where the marker is. When it exploded it sent shrapnel through a house wall slightly injuring a child. In the 1990s that child, now an older women, unveiled the site.

Our track then took us through some interesting cane and cattle farms with a stunning backdrop of the Main Coast Range. It eventually returned us to the Mossman - Daintree Road. We then drove into Cooya Beach which is a small town on the beach and just to the East of Mossman. There were some older homes but more and more development is happening in the area.

Finally, we returned to Port Douglas and to contemplate our lovely day in a fantastic part of this region.