One of the things on Ali’s list for Australia was to see some proper rainforest. What better place than to visit the Daintree Forest. This was a couple of hours north of Cairns along the Captain Cook Highway which hosts some spectacular views of the coastal scenery.
So after a rather leisurely start, due to a certain baby deciding to have a lie in, we headed north.
Our first stop along the way was to Mossman gorge. We imagined this to be nice place to have a wander and look at some water. Turned out to be a while centre with a bus link and boardwalks. Maybe a little over the top to what was needed there. But this was quite a nice patch of river and a lovely walk. Ali’s wasn’t happy as there were signs everywhere warning about not going swimming, but rather than a blanket ban like you would find in the UK, it looked like they actually updated these warnings daily based on the river conditions. After lunch in the car we continued along the highway.
The drive took us to a section of road that you can only cross by cable ferry. Fairly quick and efficient we were soon on the ferry crossing the Daintree river.
A short way after the crossing we stopped at the Daintree Forest visitor centre and spent a couple of hours exploring. They had a fairly good audio tour giving us a good guide around the board walked tour. Although Toby had other ideas about letting Ali listen to her guide and decided it made a good chew toy.
The most impressive feature in my opinion was a 23 metre high tower to climb so you could explore different levels of the rainforest. I’m not sure we came at exactly the right time of year for this as the wildlife was a little quiet, but it got the point across well. The last part of the boardwalk had a load of animatronic dinosaurs showing what kind of animals might have been wondering around thousands of years ago.
Back in the car, across the river on the ferry and back down the Captain Cook Highway towards Cairns. We made a brief stop at Port Douglas on the way back and went up to a lookout point over 4mile beach. Toby was still asleep at thing point and we weren’t very impressed by Port Douglas so we continued home.
We decided to try a Balinese restaurant that was just down the road. And we ordered a tasting meal to share. So much food! And so good! Some fish, some meat, some chicken, some veg. Toby particularly liked the spicy soup! He ate loads of different things. Lots of fruit for pudding too. Really good choice for dinner!
