Driving to Cape Tribulation

Our final day in Port Douglas, Thursday the 10th, we spent driving north again. We had hoped to hike some in the Mossman Gorge but were disappointed to learn that the hiking area was closed for road and trail renovations. Instead we crossed the Daintree River on the ferry (5 minutes) and headed up the coast to Cape Tribulation. The cape was named by Cook when he was just a lieutenant and his ship the Endeavour struck a nearby reef in 1770...“I named the north point Cape Tribulation because here began all our troubles…”

at the ferry crossing

From the ferry, the road is…you guessed it…narrow and winding. Although only about 25 miles long, we spent the entire day traveling up the road and back down again. Every few miles, there were interesting short walks and overlooks. After the cape, the road north is only accessible to 4WD vehicles.

This rainforest was the real thing--incredible vines, fan palms, strangler figs, trees flowering directly from the trunk, razor sharp sedge, the large golden orb spider. Even on the ocean beaches we walked, there were warnings about crocodiles.

sunlight in the swampy area

There were also enchanting sand ball designs made by little crabs and little sand toothpaste-like coils made, we were told, by worms.

We drove and walked and drove and ate our picnic lunch on the beach and drove………All along the way were also signs warning us to look out for cassowaries but we didn’t see any. However, in two different places, we did run into lace monitors (a large lizard). The first one, over three feet in length, seemed wild, rooting around in the brush and rapidly climbing up and down trees. The second one was more accustomed to humanity since it was scavenging at a picnic table along with a couple of orange-footed scrub fowl. The monitor didn’t scare easily which is just as well since its claws were significant in size.

We went back to our hotel to pack up and go to bed early since we needed to drive an hour back to Cairns, return the car, and be ready to catch our 7:30 AM flight to Hamilton Island down in the Whitsunday Islands.