We (Susan and I) finished off our second night in Cairns by having a drink at Hemmingway Brewery and taking a walk along the boardwalk past the marina, the lagoon pool and taking in the ambience of Cairns in the evening. It's such a pretty city. The rain forest gardens and vegetation are stunning and QLD do a fantastic job of providing free, large lagoon pools in the major cities, which are amazing...they even supply lifeguards, toilets and changerooms

Cairns Lagoon pool

Hemmingway Brewery...having a rare beer...but what else do you drink when you go to a brewery...it was good too!

Next day Thelma and Louise...oops...I mean Susan & I hitched up the van and drove to Mossman at the Southern tip of the Daintree, just north of Port Douglas, and parked the van in the Mossman Caravan Park for 2 nights.

Thelma and Louise at Mossman Gorge swimming hole...very cold water, probably too cold for the croc's here!!

After exploring the Mossman Gorge by taking a 2.4km hike through the rainforest we then did a late afternoon boat trip up the Daintree River on a “Bruce Beresford bird & crocodile hunting expedition”. Saw the most beautiful Azure kingfisher (gorgeous, beautiful, deep blue plumage) and also a number of crocodiles while listening to Bruce tell us stories of the area. He's been taking tours up the Daintree for 27 years and in fact is now retired and his son takes most of the tours, but because it's high tourist season he came out of retirement and we were lucky to have him as our tour guide.

An arty photo...long exposure of the swimming hole rapids 😀 Don't you love iPhones?

Mossman Gorge walk...I could put in heaps of photos here as there was so much fascinating vegetation to see.

Loved the textural bark and growth on this tree trunk

The fungi, moss, creepers etc were beautiful

While in Mossman we also took a trip out to Silky Oaks resort for lunch

Quite an expensive little lunch, but beautiful so worth it

We then moved on to a wine tasting session at Shannonvale tropical fruit winery. To get there we had to cross over a narrow spillway and I was not keen to drive through water on a road I didn't know. I was about to do a U-turn when another Subaru came flying past and drove through the water...so Thelma and Louise took the plunge and drove on!!!

Here's a video Susan took and when we watched it back it looks very tame. All the same we drove back a different way.

All wines are made from fruit and, believe it or not, they were great. The wine maker, an older women who took up wine making only 15 years ago, was amazingly knowledgable and we both ended up buying some of the wines...Susan a few more than me.

Next stop on the agenda is Cooktown. I parked my van under Herb's carport. John (affectionately known as Herb) is another of my brothers mates. They were at Dookie Agricultural College together when they were still teenagers, and have remained in contact. I remember meeting Herb when I was about 16, but haven’t had any contact since then...OMG... that was a long time ago!!! Herb was a lot of fun, a great host and his business card says it all "A knockabout Aussie larrikin" We had a great time in Cooktown...

🙏 Herb

Taking over Herb's carport

It took us longer to get to Cooktown from Mossman than planned as I took the wrong road ...oops!!!... I had to laugh as I knew we had to go south again for at least 14 kms towards Port Douglas to reach the Mulligan highway, but coming out of Mossman I turned north, which in my head is where we were heading... I ended up realising it as we were about 15kms up the road. I would have loved to do the Bloomfield Track to Cooktown (ie. the coast road), but I’ve had mixed opinions on the suitability of towing a van and driving a Subaru as to safety. Around 30kms of the road is unsealed and although they say the surface is ok there are river crossings (probably dry at the moment) and some very narrow & steep roads (35% gradient) that are quite dangerous particularly if a car is passing in the opposite direction. Cars have come off the road too often, so I have decided it’s not worth the risk... it’s off the agenda....SO, by the time we turned around and retraced our steps we'd lost some time. Did it matter...NAH!! we’re on holidays😀😎

On arrival Herb took us on an orientation drive around town and up to Grassy Hill where we saw the lighthouse, Cook's lookout and watched a stunning sunset. This photo of the red sun is exactly as I saw it...no enhancing of the photo in any way. I'm not sure why, but it was amazing to see. There was quite a lot of smoke, which you can see on the left of the photo so I think it was the atmosphere caused by the smoke

Oh I hate selfies, but sometimes you just gotta take them!!! This was taken a couple of minutes later and not zoomed in and you can see the smoke behind our heads.

The following day we explored Cooktown on foot, walking along Finch Bay beach, through the Botanical gardens, spending a long time at the Captain Cook Museum, which is housed in an historic old Convent and walking through the town.

Finch Bay

Botanical Gardens

James Cook Museum

The history of Captain Cook arriving in 1770, the settlement of the town with gold mining 100 years later and the history surrounding the treatment and assimilation of the indigenous people makes Cooktown a fascinating destination.

A bit of History here...This is the rocks on the banks of the Endeavour River where Captain Cook made peace with the Aborigines in July 1770 after there had been an altercation over the taking of a turtle.

While in Cooktown we took a "Sunset Cruise" up the Endeavour River. It was gorgeous, weather was superb. The cruise group supplied a delicious plate of cheese, dips and nibbles and we BYO drinks. We got to see a crocodile, some bird life and hear some fabulous stories about the history and events (cyclones, floods, shipwrecks etc) of the river

Taking off late afternoon and looking back towards Cooktown wharf on the right and the mouth of the Endeavour River.

Our Captain, host and story teller...he was a busy man looking after about 30 people all on his own.

As the light fades we spot a croc getting his last bit of sun baking done for the day. He headed for the water as we came alongside and entered right beside our boat. A few people moved back from the edge pretty quickly!!!

Night is falling. We turned off the motor and just listened to the peace for awhile and watched the river and surroundings go black, grey and white.

A night time view of the mangroves

While staying at Herb's Susan showed off her culinary skills by cooking us some delightful meals👏 For anyone who knows Susan, who never cooked, don't faint...she did an amazing job 😍 I think married life with Paul has domesticated her 🥗🥘

👏 Beef stir fry...tasted as good as it looks

We left Cooktown and Herb's hospitality behind to drive down to Ayton at the top end of the Bloomfield track and parked my van at the Bloomfield caravan park. When we arrived there was a sign on the reception desk saying park anywhere, get yourself set up and we will find you around the camp fire/kitchen later in the day. So casual!!!

Susan relaxing around our camp

We took a drive out to the Bloomfield Falls through the Wujal Wujal Aboriginal settlement and drove along the Bloomfield track until it turned to gravel and narrowed. That was my limit of doing the Bloomfield track. (I'd driven with friends 3 years ago up from Port Douglas to the Daintree forest so in all I've probably only missed about 50kms of the road altogether)

Bloomfield Falls on the Bloomfield River

An arty long exposure photo, just 'cos my iPhone can

I have to tell a funny episode that happened while we were at the falls and on our way back to the caravan park. Susan didn't walk into the falls with me as the path was fairly difficult to negotiate so she waited in the car. She needed to do a wee so hopped out of the car, opened both doors and did what she had to do, but heard a car coming down the track so abruptly stopped, sorted clothing and hopped back in the car. She told me about this incident when I arrived back at the car and we both laughed.

As we were driving back we pulled into the boat ramp on the river to have a look and she realised she had not completed the task at the falls so hopped out of the car and dropped her trousers and finished the job (wee that is). She was out of sight of any cars driving along the road, but not if they drove into the boat ramp and sure enough as she finished a car drove down the track right in view. All good, I don't think they got much of a bare bum. We continued back to the CP, but stopped at the Ayton store to have a look at the historical marker there. She went to get her phone for a photo and couldn't find it. Oops!! it was in her back pocket last time she had it. We quickly turned around and drove back to the boat ramp about 3 or 4 kms and Susan flies out in a panic and starts running around searching. I hopped out and walked over to where we had stopped and picked up the phone. "Here it is Susan" Phew!!! was she a happy chappy.!!! We've had a few laughs about that one since.

I'm eligible to tell this wee story about Susan as she told the story of me stopping on the road to Cooktown, for the same reason, on her FB post. The difference is I just pulled up and used the van toilet....very civilised really!!

Happy chappy Susan as we arrived back at Ayton to have a look at the historical marker.  

The following morning we packed up the van and started heading back towards Port Douglas. On the way we did a stop off at Helenvale to check out "The Lions Den" hotel and caravan park.

What a fascinating eclectic hotel, gift shop, museum, motel and caravan park, all with a beautiful river, swimming hole and rapids. People were in swimming, although I wouldn't swim there as there was a "beware of crocodile" sign plus it was very cold water, so they said. It never ceases to amaze me how complacent people are about swimming where crocodiles are. I had it likened to sharks. They're in the water, but few and far between. The chance of being taken for example is remote compared to being hit by a car, which is probably more likely. That said, being close to mangroves, estuaries and beaches where the muddy sand bars are shallow is the most likely places crocodiles inhabit. Nevertheless I'm keeping out of anything except a CP pool or council lagoon pool😎

We then stopped off and parked the van at Lakelands Caravan Park for the night as it is at the junction of the road to Weipa and I wanted to take a drive out to Laura to see the Split Rock paintings. Susan didn't come as it would have been difficult for her to negotiate the steps and steep track. I set up the van and then took off for my drive about 45 minutes away. I'm so glad I went. It's such an amazing feeling standing all alone in front of paintings that date somewhere between 13,000 and 30,000 years old. Gives me goosebumps even thinking about them now. I took heaps of photos, but won't bore you with too many...just a few!!!

This was the first rock and obviously the main viewing point. 

The viewing platform had information boards on the meanings of each of the paintings. Here's one below.

I continued upwards to another two more rocks to see more paintings.

This was where I turned to take the trek back. It doesn't look all that steep or high from here, but it was quite a good walk...good training for the Inca trail next year Cheryl if you're reading this 🏃‍♀️

The following morning, by this time it was 9th July, we headed back to Port Douglas. On the way we called past the Bustard Downs Station along a dirt track (my attempt at 4 wheel driving in an all wheel drive car🤪). We were after a toilet again for Susan!! We didn't find the toilet but we did see a bird that we thought was an emu until it took off flying😱😱. We couldn't believe it then realised it was a "Bustard". Susan forgot about the toilet after that and we turned around and continued on to Port Douglas being very excited to have seen a Bustard in reality let alone in the wild.

Until I get the next episode up enjoy the journey with me. I apologise as it is quite long again, but there is so much I have seen and done and reliving through writing a blog reminds me how lucky I am to be doing this and having these experiences.

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