In The Daintree

We escaped the unbelievable winds of Cooktown and headed south to the Daintree. We ended up at a little place called Newells Beach which is about 5 k's from Mossman.

Our first night ended up being an unexpectedly great experience. This is the time of year when the cane growers set fire to their crops and as luck would have it the cane field about 10 metres from our camp site was torched that night and we had ring side seats. Well actually I was standing and ready to run in case some big, legless creatures decided to escape the flames in the direction where I was standing.

Anyway, a guy came along on a motor bike, torched the cane and up it went - very spectacular. It burned for an hour or so and that was it. The next morning the cane was still standing but only the earth and low grass was burnt.

We visited the Mossman Gorge one day and spent a few very pleasant hours there. It has changed since the last time I was there. Now there are some great board walks and terrific trails through the gorge and I think we managed to explore all the options.

Having travelled the Bloomfield Track from Cooktown to Wujal Wujal we decided to complete the famous track, but this time from the Daintree end. We certainly picked a great day to do it as it did not present any great dramas for us, though it was a little corrugated in parts. It took only an hour or so to get to Wujal Wujal again.

We stopped off at Cape Tribulation along the way and also visited the village of Daintree.

So now we are in Cairns. We hope to get up to Kuranda tomorrow to see the falls, then the next day spend a little time goofing off in Cairns city, then it will be back on the road again for a third attempt to get to Chillagoe.