Mon, 30th July, 2018 Mum & Dad’s home, Cairns to Lions Den, Helensvale, Qld (exploring Daintree area)

All packed. Lined up the cars and the guys at the end of the street for a photo.

Hugs and kisses with Mum and Dad – will be back in 3 weeks or so.

We were on Channel 39 on UHF so I could give them a running commentary of the countryside. They had both been to Cairns before. Headed out via Brinsmead and Redlynch.

Zoomed in up the Barron Gorge.

View left up Redlynch Valley.

Through Smithfield and past the turn offs to all the beaches. Onto the coastal scenic drive heading to Port Douglas where the rainforest meets the sea. Lovely calm sea.

Through Ellis Beach – looks pretty with the canopy of leaves.

Looking across to Red Cliff Point where Rex Lookout is.

Another photo of the mountains.

Stopped at Rex Lookout to enjoy the view. Couldn’t get a more perfect day.

Double Island

The 4WDs ready for adventure. Gecko Adventures with Malcolm in the Middle and Bob Tail at the rear.

Across the Mowbray River. I was telling the others to look left in case we see the resident croc and there he was floating in the river. I took a quick photo and later realised I managed to get him in the photo with a lot of zooming in – just his head out.

Into Port Douglas - the tourist cane loco chugs by.

Around to 4 Mile Beach for a cuppa. Lots of people out and about so we parked on the other side of the park then walked down to the beach. Put our feet in the water.

I found the photos of Mum and Dad with us kids and Mum’s parents parked on 4 Mile Beach in 1967. Oops excuse the nudist shot!! I am the one in the red togs.

Sugar cane ready to go to Mossman Mill.

Through Mossman – lovely raintrees and old church.

Across the Mossman River with its lovely painted toilets in the rest area.

To Wonga Beach then into the line-up for the Daintree Ferry. $16 for a one way ticket. The notice board said it was 25.1 degrees at 11.30am. Lots of wait-a-while in the scrub beside us. The river is through that scrub.

Mal and us made it onto the ferry. There was room for Bob but they said they had to keep to a time schedule and couldn’t wait for him. The Daintree River.

We took photos from the other side as Bob and Margaret came over on the ferry. We will be seeing a lot of these signs from now on.

Continued on the narrow road up Alexandra Range into Daintree National Park. This was all dirt when we came up in my Gemini in the early 80s.

Pulled into the Alexandra Range Lookout. Fabulous view of the Daintree River flowing into the ocean.

To the left is Snapper Island and then the very flat Low Island.

Passed the turn off into Cow Bay. Years ago there was a date palm plantation near here where all the palms were grown for Christopher Scaif’s Port Douglas entrance. They were fully grown and dug out then transported one or two at a time on semi-trailers down to Port Douglas. Quite amazing if you think what the road conditions were like then, especially over Alexandra Range.

Past the Daintree Tea Plantation. Steve said this is where we got two flat tyres, together, when we crossed a grid on our first trip to Cape York with Graeme and Anne in 1985. We had one spare on the Toyota Dual-cab so he had to break the bead on the other and put in a tube. Very handy man, my Steve.

Across Cooper Creek. We were swimming in it when the park ranger came and hammered in the croc warning sign year ago.

Pulled into Thornton’s Beach for lunch – we all prepare our own meals. Wonderful memories of camping here with the family years ago. I caught a big Spanish Mackerel in our little boat and I was pregnant at the time – Mum was worried about the baby, I was worried about getting the fish in the boat!!

Sat on a fallen coconut tree and enjoyed the nice view – further down the beach the Cooper River reaches the sea.

Continued on – across Noah Creek.

Stopped at the boardwalk for a wander. It runs down beside Oliver Creek which then flows into Noah Creek.

Steve being Tarzan.

Good info boards along the way.

Nature’s spectacular bit of artwork.

Lots of pretty plants and not so nice spikes like on the Wait-a-While.

More info about the plants.

Another couple were peering in the pool so we had a look too. There was a sleepy cod.

Not so nice to walk through – hard mangrove roots.

Lots of different ferns hanging off the trees.

We had told Malcolm about eating green ant bottoms – apparently he had a taste of a few back at the house. He got one from here and said it wasn’t as sweet as the Cairns ones!!

Cannonball Mangroves – interesting information.

End of this section of the boardwalk at Noah Creek. Found a fish and lots of midgies – should have put some spray on.

More info about mangroves.

Turned around then continued on the boardwalk. 

More mangroves – didn’t realise there were so many different types.

I think this is the lily the sign is about.

Looks like a boa constrictor going up the tree.

Reminder of the logging days.

There are still some big trees in here like this Yellow Penda.

Continued onto a new ‘plastic’ boardwalk. More info boards.

Continued on and up Noah Range to Cape Tribulation.

Lovely wide beach with mangroves at one end.

Malcolm and I got our feet wet again. Then Bob joined us.

Now the fun as we head onto gravel road and up Donovan Range.

Then our first creek crossing at Emmagen Creek. I got out and took photos of the everyone crossing the creek.

They pulled over to wait for me and then 10 vehicles zoomed by. Another little creek then the steep climb up.

Fabulous view at the top of Cowie Range (202m altitude). Bob was having issues with his car’s flat spot and it was struggling with the climb but eventually he made it up.

Up and down then climbing up to 262m. Down to 180m then a 21% descent down beside Woobadda Creek as it weaves it way down to Bloomfield.

Crossed over the new bridge over the Bloomfield River – we used to use the causeway below us. Green, neat and tidy at Wujal Wujal Community.

Continued on with the river on our right – keeping an eye out for crocodiles which we did spot on the bank so I alerted the others to look out for it.

Through little community of Ayton then through Mt Louis Station. The cattle are knee high in the lush grass. Such a contrast to Muloorina Station near Lake Eyre.

Pulled in the Lions Dens Hotel at Helensvale. Another one covered in signatures, coasters etc. Apparently this started years ago when some miners would leave their pay packets at the public house and write how much money they had spent, or still had, up on the wall. An iconic stop on the Bloomfield Track where tin was mined back in the day. The hotel was built in 1875. Had a look around and paid our camp fee. Interesting sign made of bottle tops.

Lots of people here but we found a spot for the three of us to set up for the night. First night of setting up the roof-top campers. All good and no arguments!!

Our route for the day.

Drinks then dinner. Cool evening with bandicoots running around.