Cooktown is as far north as one can travel on the east coast on paved roads. It’s another brutal 800 km to the extreme northern tip – Cape York. The “road” follows an old telegraph line and is pretty rough on humans and machines with lots of corrugations, potholes and water crossings of various depth, depending on the season. Although both our 4WD truck “Ranger” and our Outback caravan “Silver” have the capability to handle this in the dry season,…
In Daintree National Park I was expecting something out of Lord of the Rings, a thick jungle of vines and twisted trees and creepy crawly things, sodden in mist and muck. Instead, I got all good things and none of the bad! Didn’t see a single spider or snake or a surprise crocodile and I was looking because I sure didn’t want to inadvertently step on one of them critters. The environmentalists have done a magnificent job of creating boardwalks…
Not quite like the gorges we usually imagine….deep fissures in solid rock with raging waters carving even deeper fissures over time. No, but Mossman Gorge National Park is still impressive, especially since it is ably managed by the traditional owners of the land, the Aboriginal people of this area. It’s a striking landscape and we took a tour that gave us more insight into the culture and way of life of the Kuku Yalanji. …
About one hour north of Cairns lies a beautiful beach town called Port Douglas. The best aspect of The Port is the fact that there is no development directly on the shoreline. The four-mile stretch of sand is fringed in palms and casuarinas, is pancake flat which makes it ideal for walking the distance, and firm which means its bike-friendly. The resorts that lie beyond the border of woodland are no more than three stories and the one road into…