Thursday 1st September Noah's Beach – off the Bloomfield Track in the Daintree
Packed up quite a wet camper and continued on. Checked out Oliver's Creek. A delightful boardwalk in the Daintree. Some amazing trees, strangler figs, lawyer cane creepers etc. Although it is incredible stuff, you could believe it is the inspiration behind the creativity of movies like Avotar, whether it is the gloomy weather that usually accompanies this vegetation or the closed in claustrophobic feel I don't know – it certainly doesn't 'uplift' me. Was quite glad to cross the ferry and get out of it into the open spaces where there are 'views'. We drove into Daintree, very pretty little town, found some open grass and opened up our campers to dry them off whilst we made lunch. On into Mossman to check out the gorge. Again, lots of tourists, closed in rainforest, but very pretty river/gorge. Some interesting placquards – didn't know the saw-shelled turtle can breath out of its bottom! Had a chuckle at that one, might have to make some comment about that next time chauffeur eats beans. Also dragonflies, the giant petalurid can have a wing span of 16cm, live as lavae under water for a couple of years before morphing into the dragon, then it is all over in a couple of months! Also 40% of this area's water doesn't come directly from rain, but from the forest drawing water directly out of the clouds – amazing stuff. Stayed in a miserable CP in Mossman, not very far from a sugar factory, that must work 24hrs a day – it droned on all night. Had bad dreams about it producing 'illicit' spam undercover of darkness (I mean that nasty tinned ham stuff). Whilst in the Mossman Gorge carpark got talking to another couple that had a Piggyback Camper. We had looked at that on the internet before deciding on our Djan. They had already set up at the CP and we passed them as we parked up. They (and their fellow travellers) were straight over to see how long it took to set Djan up. We got the thumbs up, Djan and the remote control impressed all :-). Discovered we had lost our fellow travellers as well, they had decided to push on and not stay overnight in Mossman.
Friday 2nd September 18197 Mossman to Kuranda
The drive up to Kuranda has to be the No 1 best Henry drive yet. Miles of windy steep uphills, chauffeur would have been in his element behind the wheel of his little red Triumph. Arriving in Kuranda we had to check out the station. Think we were last here 26 and a bit years ago (Ben was a bun in the oven and he will be 27 in a week). It will be interesting to compare the 'then and now' photos. Had a good natter to the girl behind the gift shop counter, she was amazed to know that as a young lad chauffeur had lived on a railway platform. Neville the station master (definitely not a fat controller) let chauffeur into the signal box – I have just asked chauffeur for his thoughts on 'the experience' and he just said to me “Hmmm, it smelt too clean, not oily enough”. What can I add to that. I eventually managed to drag him away (100 photos later) to check out the town. Op shop closed minutes before I got there, and the rest of the place was too touristy. Were debating whether to check out the camping site where Ben had stayed 6 years ago and got 2 weeks free camping for painting their cleaning van. However, discovered there was a bush camp 25km up the road near a waterfall and that seemed more pleasing. The weather had cleared up, some lovely falls and swimming holes that we checked out before we set up camp. Thumbs up all around, especially as it didn't rain overnight.
Saturday 3rd September Kuranda – Tully Gorge
Leaving Davies Creek, I found a local produce shop, selling fresh coffee, I succombed, even though I had already had my morning 'fix'. What a treat. We drove through Atherton again, still a nice town, then headed out to Yungaburra, quite a characterful historic village – little wooden houses, and pub etc. Walked around the river there, where there are often platypus sightings, but they were all tucked up in bed for the day, only a couple of turtles on the rocks. Weather closed in again as we continued on to check out the waterfalls in the area – Millaa Millaa, and a couple of others. We were amazed at the amount of farms for sale. The tablelands is so like some areas of NZ. Began to feel a bit 'down' and thought it must be the rainy weather. However, driving down hill towards the coast began to recognise why the trees looked so strange. The trees seemed such funny shapes, very angular, but everything very green. I think it must be cyclone damage. Most of the canopy blown away, or badly damaged, and since then the creepers, suddenly getting so much sun exposure, they have gone berserk. So although the trees are green, it is the 'understorey' growth that has taken over covering up the bare trunks. When we got down to a place called Silkwood the devastation was obvious – lots of old houses with new tin roofs. Mission Beach was a bit further on, and it was depressing (beaches never look inviting in bad weather anyway) but broken trees, lots of houses for sale. We played a game 'spot an old/original roof', not many. Further south, through rain, low cloud and mist, we drove through Tully. Two massive industrial chimney stacks (from the Tully Sugar Mill) poured out their own clouds and did nothing to lift our spirits as we drove inland up Tully Gorge. I think this place would be quite beautiful if the weather improves. We drove through miles of banana plantations, hopefully they get a bumper crop, and lovely glimpses of Tully River. Quite a large fast flowing river with a bit of white water in places. Have found the campground, only a couple of other vehicles camping here. We set up Djan hastily and retreated inside. The sound of the rapids on the river is very soothing, but there is a drizzle continuing (a heavy Israeli). Fingers crossed it might ease overnight, although the forecast is for showers until Monday. Oh well, I'd better get my glass of wine and cheer myself up :-)
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