Date: 12th May 2021
Travelled: 115 kilometres from Daintree Village to Mossman
Visited: The Daintree Discovery Centre and Cape Tribulation, far North Queensland.
Stayed: Mossman Caravan Park, $38, all services.ย S16.45493, E145.37245ย
Budget: 31 days @ $139 per day.
Leaving Daintree Village we return the five kms to Lower Daintree which isnโt a town but a locality, passing cane fields and dairy farms as we do. We turn for Cape Tribulation continuing north to the Daintree River Ferry.
Our arrival at the ferry is perfectly timed, loading as we arrived. Once across we continue north on the Cape Tribulation Road.
Our hunt for the elusive Cassowary continues…the road is occasionally very narrow, rarely straight and littered with speed bumps for the next 37 kms. We stop at Alexandra Headland for breakfast, the view of the coastline is hampered by some heavy mist this morning so itโs not worth a photo.
Our next stop is the Daintree Discovery Centre. Despite the exorbitant cost of $34 pp for what is a static display, we found it an interesting 90 minutes. There are elevated walkways at different levels and a 23 metre high tower that looks over the rainforest canopy. The audio guide is interesting without going into too much detail. It reminds us to keep an eye out for the Cassowary, but all we manage to see is a fat little pigeon called a wompoo fruit dove..
The Discovery Centre done and our spending money for the week gone, we continue on to Cape Tribulation.
Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia
Our patience is repaid or maybe it was just a little bit of luck, but what should wander across the road in front of us, a male cassowary and its chick. The chick moved across fairly quickly but the male hung around on the side of the road for a few minutes to make our day.
Full of ourselves having finally seen as Cassowary in the wild we continue on the last few kms to the Cape. The road is unsealed from Cape Tribulation, the power and phone connection conclude here as well. Thereโs just a touristy shop for booking tours and little else.
After looking at the โstinger signsโ with bottles of vinegar stored next to them and the watch out for โcrocodiles signsโ, thereโs buckleyโs chance of Pam getting any closer to the water than this. There is campsite 3kms back so we go and have a look. We decide $55 to park a 100m from a beach you cannot swim in, is a bit rich, so we head back to Mossman (the campsite is attached to an Olympic Pool) and stay the night there.
At this stage I should add the Jaycoโs engine (Iveco) has developed a noisy rattle. I noticed it this morning for the first time, it seemed to disappear as the engine warmed up. But itโs back and I would rather get the Jayco back to a larger town with a mechanic…
Michael + Pam