Port Douglas to Lions Den Hotel via the Bloomfield Track

Today was a move day. We were packed up quite early and were ready to get on the road by 0745. As we moved in the Caravan Park, we said farewell to Garry and Sandie. They had been beside us in Cairns and for some days in Port Douglas. They were from Melbourne.

Once on the road we decided to have a coffee in Mossman. We found this really nice café on the inland side of the main street and close to the Caravan parking area on the northern side of town. It was good cappuccinos and the jam we had on our toast was the nicest we have probably ever had. It was made from pineapple and pear. It was made only using the fruit’s own sugars. We spoke to the owner and his wife. They were a very nice couple and very friendly.

Then we moved on to the Daintree ferry. The cost to go over on it was $16.50 for our combined unit of Mazda and Karavan. It took only a few minutes to get a cross. 

Our next stop was the Daintree Discovery Centre. This is a rainforest interpretive centre. It gives a wonderful insight to one of Australia’s last remaining pockets of low land rainforest. There is a canopy tower that reaches from the forest floor to above the top of many trees. At numerous levels there are wonderful descriptions of what may be found at that level. Prue used a digital piece that at a specific number would tell the story of that location at the press of a button. There were numerous groups, including a large number of girls from Loreto Normanhurst in Sydney, there making it very busy. It was showering on and off the whole time although quite a lot is under cover.

We moved on again with our next stop being at the Daintree Icecream Company. We sample four flavours and Prue had a Mango sorbet. It was very nice and refreshing. Again, there were large numbers of people passing through the business. Their gardens and surrounds were very colourful.

Our next stop was at Cape Tribulation. We walked onto the beach and stretched our legs a little. We spoke to a few travellers that had come down the Bloomfield Track. They told us it was fine.

Several kilometres after Cape Tribulation, we started on the gravel road, the Bloomfield Track. We progressed really well, climbing up and down some steep slopes and through some creeks of varying depth and roughness. Along the way, we stopped and had some lunch.

After lunch, we moved on. All during the middle of the day we encountered rain showers of varying intensity. Some were quite heavy. 

Our travels suddenly were disrupted. There was quite heavy rain falling and we started to climb up a slope. Our momentum was reduced due to an inconsiderate driver coming towards us taking up most of the road. As I had been increasing speed to go up the slopes, I now almost stopped and slid to the side.

On attempting to restart, I could not get traction to get moving, even in four wheel drive. It was quite steep and the surface was very slippery clay with odd stone particles. I even slipped when I hopped out to assess the situation. Eventually, the local Police just appeared and they had a similar vehicle and tyres but set up a warning area either side. I had reduced the air pressure in the tyres to around 200 kpa but to not advantage.

 Shortly after, a nice couple from Tamworth, Brian and Caroline, attached a tow strap and pulled me up the remaining 20 metres to flat ground. We were very grateful. The rest of the trip for the day was very uneventful.

We finished our drive for the day at the famous Lion’s Den Hotel. It is very old and unique. We took a powered site on nice grass. By dark the area was brimming with like minded travellers. It showered very often while we were there.

Before dinner, we had several drinks and I shouted drinks for Brian and Caroline for their effort in getting us out of a ‘sticky’ situation a bit earlier in the day. They had their dinner organised back at their four wheel drive.

Our dinner was really nice. Prue had baked barramundi and I had a lovely steak. We were joined for dinner by Rob and Joy from near Adelaide. Rob is a Life Member of APEX and so we had another thing in common.

So ended an eventful day that we really had not expected to have. The moral to the story is not to use road tyres in possibly wet and slippery conditions.

The following photos are inside the Lion's Den Hotel.