Author: Mr A
Location: Newell Beach & Daintree National Park
Today (Sunday) was the first time we experienced thick, jungly rainforest, in all its prickly, sweaty, slippery, mosquito rich glory. Only a short drive from our caravan park we disappeared up this goat track (the Manjal Jimalji Trail or Devil’s Thumb trail), kindly signposted with pink ribbon.
The walk was a tip from the waiter at our restaurant last night. He did try to diplomatically point out it was quite a tough walk, casting his eye at me when he said that. Little did he know the young beast that lurks under this ageing frame.
We were quickly absorbed into the atmosphere of this other worldly forest, with strange bird calls, and a narrow path that was only apparent a few metres at a time. We forded this river quite early on.
Then it was pushing on up through the creepers and vines, with thorny strands ready to latch onto your clothes or exposed skin and hold you in its grasp. Why do they call it “Wait-a-while”? Mmmm..
It was a stunning place…so of course there was a rusty car….in Australia they go together like Vegemite and toast. What was the story behind this long abandoned vehicle? Would love to know.
After nearly 3km of bush bashing up this path, we beat a tactical retreat. Three kilometres doesn’t sound like a lot, and its not, unless every step is fought uphill and against the scrub. So it was a slip and slide back down the path, with a “ouch” punctuating every few minutes from one of us.
It was great to experience such a different terrain, with more to come over the coming weeks. Must pack the tea tree oil though!
Back at Newell Beach, birds were everywhere – Australasian Figbirds (yellow one with red eye band), Rainbow Bee Eaters, and honeyeaters:
And down at the boat ramp a view towards Port Douglas looking tantalisingly close, but further by road.
After returning to the Zone we decided to bite the bullet and have a go at fixing our Dometic window, as the fly screen was failing to retract and flapping about. Now we had been given some tips by the ever useful resource of the Zoners Facebook group, but still, this was new territory for us. Screws were undone, and the window taken off, (quite a feat given I barely know one end of a screw driver from the other)! Thank goodness for my ever practical wife.
It was pretty obvious what had happened, one of the retaining lugs had fallen off the bottom. So that was pushed back on and after a few attempts we had it re-assembled, with a very timely phone call from Peter Thomson, a fellow Zoner with deep expertise from his past life with Bushtracker Caravans. Peter recommended we glue it to prevent future issues, so we took it off again and did so. The proof will be after 24hrs when the glue has dried, does it work? Your lives will be a chasm until then right?
We settled in to a few sunset wines with our fellow campers, and sighed with contentment at this view from our caravan, Love this area.
We moved swiftly on to the fortified wines which were a little more palatable. We walked away with a bottle of Kaffir Lime, which would be lovely with a splash of soda water as a light aperitif, and a Chocolate port for those moments which require a little more decadence. We have a delivery of delicious Margaret River Amelia Park wines being delivered to Palm Cove ready for our return to Cairns, which will much better suit our palates.
Once away from the swimming areas it is relatively peaceful, moss covered rocks with a crystal clear creek tumbling down all around, surrounded by old growth rainforest of the Daintree National park. 
Birds flitted around, perching sideways on the vines that hang down from the canopy above and swooping across our path to catch the insects we disturbed as we strolled along. Being rainforest there was a lot of rotting wood, and with that an amazing array of colourful fungi – I drove Mark crazy with my gasps when I saw the next amazing colour scheme I had to capture.
Giant fig vines which had long overtaken their host tree were a key feature, looking like incredible sculptures with their expansive roots and vines, often more than a century old.
It is definitely a photographer’s paradise, with often two or three people already set up in front of lovely waterfalls with their cameras on tripods, stealing the best positions for their digital artworks.
We returned happy, having had our taste of nature and got showered and ready for dinner.
Fortunately we were pleasantly surprised – not only an interesting menu (for example an entree of prawn & crab salad, burnt corn, pickled coconut, chilli, shallot, green pawpaw and a ginger citrus vinaigrette, and mains of Spanish Mackeral with a rainforest salad – mesclun, Quandong, rainforest lime, roasted macadamia, lemon myrtle & vanilla vinaigrette) but also a great wine list. Top marks Mojo!
Returning to the caravan we found a pair of Ulysses Butterflies fluttering around the Zone – attracted to flowers planted specifically to entice these beautiful insects. Such a treat to see them.
We had booked the Toyota Landcruiser in for its 100,000 km service and so dropped it into the workshop while we went into the city.
The service did not reveal anything untoward on the car and gave us peace of mind for the next few weeks. We have booked it back in to get new shocks when we return to Cairns at the end of the month.
We spotted this place on WikiCamps that was a bit light on reviews but was described as variously “Open” then “closed” and a “gravel car park”. It actually turned out to be one of the nicer bush camps we’ve had. Yes its a gravel car park and the gates to the beautifully mown grassy areas that surround it are locked, after hoon damage from car tyres and rubbish left lying around.
Then there are big grassy paddocks around the car park are surrounded by towering, forested hills. The light is just so vivid, and we love it.
We felt so at peace here, we decided to stop another night before heading into Cairns.
Tassie loves it here too. She did a long walk around the area, exploring the pool, digging in the sand and climbing on the boulders – for a 75 year old she isn’t going too bad – she takes it all in her stride, sniffing new smells and creating new memories…we definitely recommend a short stop here if you want a restful break in fantastic scenery.
In season at the moment are bananas (Mission Beach is the centre of massive plantations) and they taste just so full of flavour, so it was a steal at 7 for a dollar! Then “bush mandarins” – not so smart looking as a city variety…apparently..but tasted just great, and 6 for a dollar as well we couldn’t go past them. Now custard apples, a favourite of ours, they were just gigantic and we just had to have them, not worrying at this stage how our caravan fridge was going to squeeze them in. A quality problem to have.
Eating really fresh produce, and spending the time to find it, is something we are really enjoying and we think benefiting from in our overall health. Certainly when we have access to quality produce like this makes an incredible difference to the taste of the meals produced in our Zone. It’s also a good feeling to be giving our money to these local vendors not the big supermarkets.
A beautiful view south towards Hinchinbrook Island was our reward on reaching the top, which we enjoyed along with a pair of sea eagles which glided before us. We’re just loving the richness of this tropical environment.
Other than a purple fingernail, and a few minor bruises (including a black and blue ego) there was no bad outcome from this one, and he was soon back in his boat continuing the trip.
We were dropped off at the caravan park, and we hurried off for hot showers to warm up.
We lost no time in jumping on the bikes and heading off for a 22km explore. We had seen a multi-use track marked through the Djiru National Park, so we rode out of town to find that. We had high hopes of spotting a cassowary, but they were not to be seen today.
Was that anything to do with my “Crusher” as we call it, charging through the woods with all the stealth of an elephant stampede?
We were excited today to be heading out to Dunk Island, which sits just offshore from Mission Beach. What the booking agent had forgot to mention was that we would be wading out waist deep though the beach break to board our water taxi. No jetty in sight. A little wet, we settled for the ten minute transfer out there. For $40 return a head it seemed OK value for this part of the world (I can hear my friends in Asia giggling) and we were soon unloaded into another world.
We skipped past this testament to the fragility of investments in this part of the world and hiked up to a lookout on the peak of Mount Kootaloo, and when I say up I mean…straight up.
Forty-five minutes of pretty sticky walking brought us this incredible view across the Family Group of Islands.
Quickly we were joined by 5 backpackers who had come over with us on the water taxi, and finally caught up with the Agile Andersons, we headed back down for a picnic lunch on a deserted beach. Well, until the backpackers turned up again…they really are keeping this economy afloat up here.
We had a very bumpy ride back to our pick up point and even wetter on the way back into the beach, but who cares when the water is 27 degrees and not a croc in sight..and let me tell you I was looking hard.
Little Crystal Creek was our first destination, up a hair raisingly steep and windy road. It was worth the drive, with nothing little about the falls there, a spectacular series of cascades. We could imagine it would be a great place for a dip on a hot steamy day.
There is something so peaceful about being amongst all this greenery and water, the rainforest trees and foliage almost reflecting the movement of the water in its flowing vines, trunks and roots.
Tuesday morning began with fresh bread. I’d made the dough last night and after it had risen, kept it in the fridge ready to bake this morning. It came out nice and crusty and went well with the BBQ’d breakfast Mr A served up.
We had the whole campground to ourselves, which pleased Miss Tassie in particular who has been able to roam freely without fear of cars or dogs while we have been here.
Our final destination on our hike was Witt’s Lookout, the best by far, with a magnificent outlook over Halifax Bay and the Palm Islands.
Again, the rainforest environment was a big part of the drawcard, the fresh air (about 5 degrees colder up at the top than down on the plains), the lovely smells, the sounds of the birds calling in the canopy.
This area is home to one of the rarest of all birds, the endangered Cassowary, but sadly we didn’t see one. Hopefully we will have more luck at our next destination, Mission Beach.
New neighbours arrived this evening, and we were excited to see that they too are travelling with a cat. It’s such a shame that Tassie and Mau-Mau can’t have a chat in cat language and exchange stories about being felines on the road!
While organising the bikes at the shop the assistant pointed out a koala wandering along a neighbouring tree, a great start to the day!
We headed off from Nelly Bay to find breakfast. We had been recommended a place in Arcadia called the Bikini Tree, and settled ourselves in. A salmon stack for madam and a baked egg dish for me, both cooked just right.
Fortified we tackled some more big hills, which on an e-bike means just changing down gears and letting the 250 watt motor help you up. It’s great to see this form of transport really catching on globally, and for a hilly place like this they are ideal.
Interestingly, when we posted our trip visit on Facebook a friend commented that her great, great, grandmother was the first white woman to set foot on the island. There is evidence of aboriginal occupation since the last Ice Age, when this would have been just another group of hills joined to the mainland before sea levels rose.
A refreshing dip concluded the afternoon and all too soon it was time to head back to the mainland, tucking away some great memories of this little corner of Australia.
We were camped on the showground in town, surprisingly busy considering it is a dry dusty field, with some freshly painted, but fairly tired amenities provided. Apparently it is sugar harvest time, so many travelling farm workers have arrived to help with that.
The end of next week will see a huge harvest celebration, culminating with the burning of the sugar stubble.
We crossed a bridge and rode back on the other side, making a great 13km circuit.
Friends we had made in Moonee Beach back in March, fellow Zoners Cathy and Gawain Bowman are also camping here, so we snuck over to their Zone with a glass of red wine each (it’s meant to be a dry campground) to catch up on their news. They’re in Townsville to care for their son who is recovering from some major back surgery, and it was great to see them.
We found our way into town, collected a final parcel from the post office, and investigated The Strand, the road alongside the waterfront, facing out towards Magnetic Island, just 8km out to sea.
We didn’t see another cyclist on the bike path, and after lunch in town rode back, completing a good 32km ride. Many birds were spotted along our ride, including Blue Winged Kookaburras (they have a different laugh to the usual ones!), many Rainbow Bee-eaters, Egrets, Dusky Moorhens…the list is endless. Apparently the river is home to freshwater crocodiles too, but we didn’t see any.
A delicious curry from a local (very seedy looking) Indian takeaway concluded our day – we’re pleased the food was better than the ambience in the empty restaurant! Tomorrow we head offshore, out to Magnetic Island.