Port Douglas Qld July 30th 2023

 Port Douglas Qld July 30th 2023

A photo shoot kind of blog today....

The original Parkrun on the Esplanade in Cairns. My fourth attendance. Tried for  a PB but fell 2 minutes short. The course is different from the first visits and is quite a good track. Cairns Qld

Palms at Palm Cove, northernmost part of Cairns. One of Judy's favourite places. 

We saw this string of empty carriages being shunted in as we were pulling into our caravan park. The line used to run right through the park and service the fields further down Mowbray Road. I just loved the early morning sunlight painting highlights on these rusty battered but still very much in used carriages. Glengarry Qld

Kookaburra sitting on the proverbial wire. This is when you wish you had a proper camera with a long lens. Oh well, at least the phone fits in my pocket! Glengarry Qld

Port Douglas Markets. Every Sunday whether they need them or not. Port Douglas Qld

Unusual rear view of the Sugar Shed. Built in 1905 to house the sugar coming in from the Mossman Central sugar mill, the cane train ran right out onto the wharf. Closed in 1958 when Cairns took over as a deep sea port. Ben Cropp had a museum there for some time, but now it is the most popular wedding reception venue in Far North Queensland. I took the shot while I was at the markets. Just something about the light and the symmetry. It just appealed to me

Wonga Beach, north of Mossman. Probably the pick of the beaches up this way.

You could hear the rust eating away you drove by. It's a Ford Customline ute, would be worth something if there were anything left of it. Daintree Qld

Distant waterfall, no idea what it's called. Mossman Qld

Mossman Gorge, Qld

Day 3

Another day, another market. This time we are at Port Douglas and the market is pretty huge, even if it is the same old, same old. Not to worry, someone enjoys browsing in every stall and trying on every top, skirt, wrap on offer.

With the market out of the way, we took ourselves off for a leisurely stroll of the Mossman Gorge. What!!!!! What is all this building and information centre and shop and why is the road blocked? Seems that last year they built this decent sort of information centre and closed traffic access to the gorge itself. Now, for only $6, you are driven up and back in a minibus. The carpark is the same but they have installed a big new walkway up the gorge and including a suspension bridge over one of the creeks. It’s an odd place though; you keep expecting to come across the head of the gorge and a waterfall, but you don’t. You’re led up the path through and above the rainforest, with views of the river and then up to a lookout. You can’t see anything much because the rainforest has grown so much, and then you go on to a junction where you can take a 2km round trip hike. I was by myself at that stage and elected to give it a miss. One of the ‘attractions’ is a swim in a rock pool, but you’d have to be a iceberg to actually go in. On the way back down we took the alternate path and boardwalk which is the original one we remember.

Back in the centre, we decided on the Barra Burger option and it was a struggle to eat it all. One thing they did have, which we highly recommend, is a fresh pineapple fruit drink. Yummo!

Port Douglas’ main street needed to be examined, in case there were some dress shops that had been missed (there were), and then we checked out the 4 mile beach. Just as well it was low tide, because the beach is really not much more than a narrow strip of sand and extensive sandy mud flats. 

Mossman Gorge, Qld

Daintree, Qld

We started out today with a visit to the markets at Mossman. A pretty sad affair I’m afraid to report, so we didn’t stay long and headed off to the Daintree. It’s been ten years since we were here last so we expected some changes: Daintree village itself seems pretty much the same, as did the vehicular ferry across the river. We elected not to do the river cruise, they are just too focussed on finding crocodiles and we are a bit over them, to tell the truth.

Next stop was the Discovery Centre and we enjoyed our second visit, maybe even appreciated the rainforest more this time round. It doesn’t seem to have changed much, but it’s a good attraction and worth the effort and the price. We had a sandwich here and while eating lunch, Judy finally found a real live piece of fauna, a small turtle in the creek below our lunchtime perch.

We called into Cow Bay for a look at the beach and then made our way up to Cape Tribulation, which neither of us could remember much about, except for the beach, which as you might expect, hasn’t changed at all.

Turtle. Discovery Centre. Daintree, Qld

Port Douglas, Qld

Port Douglas, Qld

First thing to do today was to replace the left hand low beam light, which blew out a few days ago, producing a ‘check low beam light’ warning message, which made a change from the ‘check park light’ error we have had since before getting into Broome. The park light may have gone away a few days ago, but having put a new headlamp in we definitely don’t have it any more. And as a bonus, the ‘angel’ eyes (a ring of soft light around the edge of each headlamp – who knows what they are for) are all working again as well.



Decided to go the long way round to get to Port Douglas, up through Mareeba and Mt Molloy then down the mountain, through the windy twist road, all in 2nd gear, and popping out on the coast just south of Mossman.


We were a bit disappointed by the van park, it’s out of Port Douglas about 5km further down the road toward Cairns, and compared to Atherton, it’s a dessert. It’s not really, just a little less greener and lush than up on the tablelands. We took a drive into Port Douglas itself and ogled all the changes since we were here last, about 10 years ago. As we wandered down onto the marina we came across the Lady Douglas, a faux paddle steamer going out on its cruise up the river, so we jumped on.


Very pleasant way to spend a hour and a half. Their highlight is spotting a few crocodiles and feeding a few birds. The Sea Eagle just ignored the offerings of fresh fish tossed up on the mud bank, until we started to steam away and then it swooped down and grabbed the free feed.


Failed completely to find any beach except the start of the 4 mile, up in town. We’d like to take a boat ride or two out to the reef, and spent an hour choosing which ones we liked the look of. I think that last time there was only the one, the one and only FantaSea. Now Quicksilver seem to be everywhere and own everything.




Port Douglas, Qld