Sunday 31st July Bedrock Village, Mt Surprise

  It was like Melbourne weather today! We left Mossman this morning heading to our next destination of Mt Surprise in drizzling rain, although the temperature was around 21. Going up the hilly road to Mareeba, the drizzle continued but by the time we stopped in Mareeba for a quick shop at the bottle shop and coffee, the sun was out and the temperature was up to 23. We continued to make our way inland and backtracked through Ravenshoe (the highest town in Queensland). This area has been called the Misty Mountains for a reason! We were surrounded in fog for a lot of the drive and the temperature dropped to 15. Once we were over the mountains the scenery and weather changed completely. The vegetation was that of gums and scrub and by the time we arrived at Mt Surprise the temperature was 27! The caravan park here is a credit to the owners considering where we are. Over the years they have cleared lots of lava rocks and boulders and worked extremely hard planting trees. The facilities are excellent and there is a large friendly, helpful staff onsite. The park had a “Fred Flintstone” theme.

Saturday 30th July Mossman

 Lucky us (or me)! The Mossman markets were on this morning and so once organised, we headed to the markets which were just down the road from the caravan park. There were many stalls, a mix of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and other produce, handmade clothes and jewellery, second-hand odds and ends, baked goods etc. The market was held at a lovely park very close to the centre of Mossman, under the shade of some magnificent rain trees. Quite a few people were there and Rob spent time working out who was a local and who was a tourist by the clothes, hair and footwear. Locals, footwear was optional, clothes were loose and colourful and hair was long and in dreadlocks. J We bought some fruit and vegetables popped them in the car fridge before heading to a local café for coffee. This particular café was a family owned business and had been operated by the family for 50 years. Every time we passed it was busy no matter what time of the day. Being a Saturday morning it was extremely busy but the coffee was worth waiting for. We had a great spot, at a huge open window bar where we could “people watch” as we enjoyed our coffee.  From here we drove out to Mossman Gorge and purchased our tickets to take the bus into the gorge. Arriving at the gorge we chose to do the longer rainforest circuit track which took us over the suspension bridge and into the rainforest. The circuit wound around the edges of the Mossman River as well as the creek. It was beautiful. At a couple of the spots we were tempted to go for a swim. We were both a little on the warm side as it was about 26 degrees today and the humidity was up but the water was just a little too cool for us oldies! We did see a few children and other young people enjoying the pristine water. The walk took us an hour and a half but 30 minutes of that was spent chatting to some Adelaide people we ran into and recognised. Rob had played baseball with the husband when he was young and they both were teachers/principals so I knew them from conferences and other educational settings etc.

Friday 29th July Mossman

  Rob had booked himself in for a round of golf this morning so as he headed out I did a few loads of washing. I then walked into Mossman and completed a history walk. I was happy as there were many information signs at various spots. I visited a beautiful little, stone church, St David’s. The original wooden church was destroyed by a cyclone in 1911. This particular cyclone damaged or destroyed many buildings here and at Pt Douglas. The Mossman sugar mill was busy and I happened to be there when one of the cane trains was delivering many, many carriages of cane to the mill. Once Rob had returned from golf, we drove down to Port Douglas for lunch. We had been told that a great place to eat was the Tin Shed, down in the older, historic, wharf area of Port Douglas. We were not disappointed at all even though we had to wait for a table, out on the deck overlooking the water. The food was wonderful. Following lunch we enjoyed a casual stroll along the main street, calling in at a few of the shops.

Thursday 28th July Mossman

 We left our peaceful lakeside site this morning and said a sad farewell to the beautiful village of Yungaburra. It was an easy drive of an hour and a half to our next destination of Mossman. The drive took us back through Mareeba and then a rather hilly and windy road into Mossman. On a clear day some of the views would have been outstanding. We quickly settled into our new surroundings, a lovely council owned caravan park located on the banks of the Mossman River and with a magnificent council Olympic size pool located next-door. All customers to the caravan park are allowed full use of the pool facilities. Pity it wasn’t a little warmer although there were a few people swimming. Obviously, 25 degrees is warm enough for some.  We have the crystal clear, sandy based Mossman River flowing at the back of the caravan. It looked so lovely and peaceful that I thought it could be a nice place to kayak until I saw the crocodile warning signs in the caravan park. After setting up we decided to find the local information centre. I “googled” Mossman tourist information and the only place that came up was the Mossman Gorge centre. We drove out there and tried to find some general information. The shop and gallery were huge, full of people and the carpark was full too. There was not one piece of information about anything other than Mossman Gorge and even then we had to ask about that. No information anywhere regarding costs etc. We found out that you could walk into the gorge along a shared road with the shuttle bus, quite a walk or you could do a guided tour of the gorge for $86 per person. You could do your own walks and take the shuttle bus in for $13.50 per person so we decided we would do this. There was no other information about The Daintree or Port Douglas or surrounding attractions. Back in Mossman, we asked at one of the shops and none of them knew of a general information centre. Anyway, after Rob checked out the golf course we returned to the caravan park and I went back into the office of the caravan park. They had quite a collection of general information so we were able to gain some insights there. Following lunch we went for a drive to the small Daintree Village.

Wednesday 27th July Lake Tinaroo, Yungaburra

  A quiet windy day. Today is our last day at Lake Tinaroo and with it too windy to kayak we started doing jobs ready to leave. Washing, cleaning the van and loading the kayak back onto the car were all done in the early morning before we headed into Yungaburra for coffee at the delightful Whistle Stop Café. I particularly liked this spot because not only did it have great coffee but the building was quite historical as it once the ANZ bank and dated back to 1917. The afternoon was spent sorting out our plans for the next week or so and booking places. We are heading out to the Yungaburra Hotel for dinner tonight another beautiful, old timber pub.