We left Cairns in the morning and headed North along the Captain Cook highway,first along fertile plains with sugar cane and then up in the mountains that meet the sea. We stopped to admire the view South at Rex Point,the sea was still a bit murky from yesterday's storm. We dropped down again into sugar cane country and we saw the first harvest taking place with the excess foliage being loaded into the railway trucks that lined the road on their narrow gauge tracks. In the distance we could see the smoke from the mill chimney.
Our destination was the Mossman gorge,part of the UNESCO World Heritage Rain Forest of North Queensland . This is an Aboriginal area and a local guide took us into the rain forest where we learnt about the flora and fauna that hey live on and their customs. All in all a fascinating insight into their culture. After lunch we checked into our hotel in Port Douglas and went to explore the local beach Four Mile Beach said to be one of the top ten in Australia. Then a little look at the town itself which is just a little beach resort,quite upmarket in its way. Upon our return we nipped into the bottle shop for a bottle of white wine (8$)to enjoy on our terrace with a big bag of crisps that cost nearly as much as the wine.
We had dinner in a local pub where we had the joy of watching a Cane Toad race followed by a karaoke session.