Port Douglas, Qld July 26, 2024

 Port Douglas, Qld July 26, 2024

Easy 130km down the mountain to Glengarry, which is as close to Port Douglas as you’d like for a caravan park. This year, as the Cook Highway is a bit of a mess between here and Cairns, we though we might slide down there tonight, stay in a hotel and I can do my Parkrun at 7am Saturday, rather than leaving at 6 am and hoping to make it on time.

We stayed in a grandly name hotel, The Palm Royale, out at a suburb called Manunda. The hotel is conveniently situated not far from several shopping centres and a 10 minute drive to Paloma, which is where I’ll do the parkrun. Found the hotel easily enough, the traffic on a Friday arvo is manic, the shops all look half empty and to be honest, the whole area looked a bit seedy. Our room had a nice little balcony overlooking the pool and we decided to drink bubbles and get a pizza for dinner. All the pizza shops, and there are  a lot, just around our area, all seemed to be flat-out. I finally drove to one, ordered a pizza and was told that it was 30 minutes wait. which is OK. I wandered into the nearby IGA, which again, looked half empty and 3 parts dead. They had one (1) can of Coke in the fridge... It seems to me that the whole area is over-serviced by an astounding number of shopping centre, large and small, and that none of them are doing very well. There are lots of closed shops everywhere.

After my Parkrun, we left the hotel and went right back up to the northern end of Cairns, Palm Cove to be exact. Always nice up here, with huge palms and giant melaleuca trees covering the waterfront, the hotels, cafes, bars and shops. It might be my imagination, but those trees seem to have doubled in size since last year. If it were in Sydney you have to wear a suit and tie to be allowed in. Parking is always a drama, but we lucked into one straight away and went off to find some breakfast. Suitably fed and watered, we did the obligatory perambulatory lap of the promenade and headed back to Port Douglas.

Giant melaleuca tree. Palm Cove, Cairns Qld

The Cook Highway was totally closed early in the year following heavy rains and multiple landslides onto the road. There are now four traffic-light controlled stop-go zones, and even with the heavy traffic, it wasn’t too much of a delay. Some of those rock falls look pretty huge though and it’s a wonder the road is open at all. At the northern end it looks more like the ocean side land had been eroded from under the road. They certainly have some work to do to fix this lot up!

Ah, Port Douglas. It is obligatory that one has to take luncheon at the Court House Hotel and indulge in a bucket of prawns. We have done this a number of times over the years, rough times to know that you need to take you our 1000 Island sauce if you want to get just the right taste from your gambini!

Judy in 7th heaven. Court House Hotel, Port Douglas Qld

About the only thing a poor old pensioner can afford to do in Port Douglas, apart from eating prawns, is the Lady Douglas cruise up the creek. Prices for cruises to the outer reef, or even the closer Low Isles, are extraordinary! Anyhow, despite having done the cruise any number of time, we elected to go on the Sunset Cruise, so called because its the last one of the day, nothing to do with the sun-setting. We were greeted by the skipper telling us that the 'head', boatie term for a toilet, was blocked, and if we went on the cruise we couldn't go, so we'd better had go at the marina before we left. Interesting start to an hour and a half with 30 bods or so on board. The charm of this cruise is totally dependant on the skipper. Today we had a really chatty one, who regaled us with all the gossip and news and history of the town of Port Douglas.

Being quite a high tide we didn't expect to see any crocodiles but eventual someone called out "Croc ahoy" and pointed to a bump in the water further up the creek. Probably a logodile, but newbie croc-spotters were happy.  Apart from the serenity of floating up the creek, you get a plastic cup of champagne and some raw carrots with humus dip as a snack. I'm still amazed at how many boats, yachts mainly, get brought up here and basically abandoned. Eventually they sink and every few years Council lets out a contract to salvagers to clean them out. 

Obviously didn't float the owner's boat. Left to sink and die in the mangrove swamps.
Packers Creek, Port Douglas Qld

Nestled among the super yachts, is John Farnham's boat, Phantom, bought by him back in the 1980s when he was a very big deal. Port Douglas, Qld

Speaking of John Farnham, the story is that when Christopher Skase, who invented Port Douglas, its marina, resorts and golf courses, gave the grand opening party, his special entertainer was John Farnham, high on the charts with his resurrection comeback as Whispering Jack. Mr Skase was so pleased he gave Mr Farnham not one, but two, luxury units in the newly completed Sheraton Hotel. Mr Farnham reputedly still owns both. Good on him!

One of the driving forces for our return visit to the area is to get up to Mossman, where, according to Judy, they make the best vanilla slices in Australia, way better even than the original Beechworth Bakery ones. We managed to nab one last year, but when we went back the next day they were closed! Outrageous.

Anyhow this year they were open and had a whole trayfull of the things so coffee and vanilla slice it was for morning tea. The smell coming out of the bakery into the alfresco dining area (fancy term for footpath) was too much. We went back in for pies for lunch and a pair of vanilla slices for 'ron'.

There seems to be a recurring theme here...
Judy at the Mossman Bakery enjoying a much anticipated Vanilla Slice.
Mossman, Qld

Apart from Mossman Gorge, and close proximity to Port Douglas and a short hop from the Daintree which brings loads of tourists in, the only other work in town is cane. Growing it, cutting it, carting it and crushing it. But wait. The 123 year old mill has just closed forever. According top Dr DuckDuckGo, It was reused several times from closure, the last by a cooperative formed by the farmers, but now having struggled for years, they just can't produce enough cane to keep it running economically, and so it is closed. It will be interesting to see what effect that has on Mossman and the surrounding area over the next few years. For a start, all the cane will now have to be taken by truck down to at least Cairns and beyond. Apart from the costs, the very thought of those huge can trucks rumbling up and down the Cook Highway, already congested and backed with 4 landslides, will be a nightmare. 

Cane Train. Probably the last one to ever come to Glengarry, July 2023

End of the line for cane trains, 2023. Mossman, Qld

And as everyone knows, just south of Glengarry is a bridge over the Mowbray river, which has become a huge tourist drawcard. Its even had a prop[er bridge and carpark put in for all the Croc-spotters.

Look! a croc! Mowbray River, Glengarry Qld

And there it is. 

Oh and look, there's lunch..... Thrill seeker.
Mowbray River, Glengarry Qld

 Port Douglas Qld July 28th 2023

Turned out rather a nice day, no rain and lots of sunshine between cloudy bits. We went on the now rather lame Lady Douglas cruise up the Dickson Inlet. We’ve done this maybe four times before and I guess we’re just a bit over it.  They managed to find two small crocodiles, so they got a tick-in-the-box, but we probably won't bother again. Apart from anything else, the skipper kept banging on about how crocodiles only eat once or twice a year, which I'm sure is just plain wrong. Research shows that a crocodile can last for up to three years without a feed, they normally feed on ‘snacks’ every few days.

Baby saltwater crocodile, maybe 60cm long. Dickson Inlet Port Douglas Qld

The marina is looking tired an unloved. Today we hear that it was bought a few years back by some billionaire who wanted to pull it down and build two, yes two, huge hotels on the site. So, all the tenants closed their businesses and left and the builders started pulling things apart, like the slipways and the jetties. But then, for no apparent reason, the plans were shelved and its been left in limbo ever since.

Of interest is the new junk in town. Ostensibly commissioned by the CIA and used for surveillance of the coast of China. It's now owned by one of the tour companies and we saw it making its way up the Inlet, looking for crocs no doubt.

Chinese Junk. Dickson Inlet Port Douglas Qld

And the little trains that used to run up and down the old cane track, but it was pulled up and the trains are now permanently parked and the carriages used as seating area for a cafe. 

We took ourselves off to the Court House Hotel for our usual bucket of prawns for lunch, but they were very few in number, expensive and lacking in flavour. 

Prawn quality control Officer. Court House Hotel Port Douglas Qld

Undaunted we decided that the best thing to do was go back to Mossman and get another vanilla slice.

Disaster! They had run out. I've never understood why these bakeries do that: only bake a few of everything, including the things they invariably sell out off.

Anyhow we found another cafe and had scones instead.

Port Douglas Qld July 26th 2023

 Port Douglas Qld July 26th 2023

Time to leave our favourite spot in one of the top three van parks by our reckoning. It’s been raining on and off but stayed relatively dry while we broke camp and moved out. By the time we hit Mareeba it was raining properly and continued to do so all the way to Glengarry. That descent from Mount Morgan down to the highway is pretty special, it even has a sign that says “All vehicles use low gear”. I couldn’t help but wonder how many drivers would know what “low gear” means or how to use it. The road also has a “Danger: High Accident area”. So enough said, take lots of care and lots of time to get down safely.

Glengarry is on the Captain Cook Highway just south of Craiglie, which is just past the turn of to “Port”.

Luckily it stopped raining while we set up, but it’s very damp, even muddy underfoot. We had some shopping to do so went into town to the shops, had some lunch and returned to the van. The rain started almost immediately but as I was asleep most of the afternoon, I didn’t really mind!

Port Douglas, Qld 4Aug2022

 Port Douglas, Qld 4 Aug 2022

Today is the day. Pack the backpack with least minute 'must haves', close the van up and move it to the  storage area, call a cab and off we go!

All the way to the Shangri La hotel in Cairns where we waited for the tour bus to turn up. Meanwhile, the last tour's passengers were just drifting out and on their way and a few other new tour people turned up and joined us.

We had to either do a RAT or show an Exemption Certificate due to having had covid recently and away we went, All the way to the next hotel, and the next. Some poor sod failed the RAT and had to abandon, stuck in the Rydges Hotel room for 7 days.

A couple seemed to have gone missing but turned back around at the Rydges, so we picked them up and made it across to the airport to get our last couple. Good thing for all of us is that we are now 16 instead of 22 which should make for a more comfortable bus ride.

We travelled up to Port Douglas and were taken right into town where we were to get our own lunch and meet back at 3pm. Lunch for us was a no-brainer, bucket of prawns and garlic bread at the Court House Hotel right across the road. Followed by an icecream of course from further along the main street.

Judy hopping into the prawns!

Finally we made it back to our hotel for the night, the Sheraton Mirage Resort (Chris Skase's folly). It is huge, like 10,000 rooms or so and buses lining up out the front to disgorge a throng of patrons. after a short wait where they thoughtfully provided a glass or champagne or beer, we found our way to our room in block 5. Its a nice room, but the lure of the huge lagoon pool was calling and we went on down for a swim. The pool basically is 9 pools but look like they are all one pool and surround the entire complex. The water is pumped in from the ocean and filtered, so it is salt and a pleasant temperature. Very refreshing. 

Sheraton Mirage, Port Douglas Qld