Day 216 A day trip to Cape Tribulation was on the agenda today. We were thinking of going to Cooktown but the road after Cape Trib is 4WD only. There is an inland route we are still contemplating that. After brekky and coffee we made our way back to Captain Cook Highway and headed north. Under an hour later we hit the cut off for the Cape Trib ferry. The ferry ride was about 15 minutes including boarding and getting off. They should really just put up a bridge. The ferry ran along a massive cable on either side that pulled it into position at either side so the captain didn't even need to steer. Once on the other side we were deep in The Daintree and it was a slow forty kilometer drive to Cape Trib. Narrow mountain roads, probably the narrowest we've had - to reduce the impact on nature - wound its way through the trees in the national park. We stopped once at Alexandra look out and then at Masons. Masons was a tourist info, restaurant and souvenir shop all in one. It also had a swimming hole in a nearby creek. I went for a swim in the cool creek water before we had a picnic lunch. Next was the cape. There we went to the beach and swam in the warm but cloudy ocean. Not long after we headed back along the speed bump filled road towards the ferry. The speed bumps are there as they are taking every effort to protect the endangered and rare Cassowary. We stopped at an Ice creamery in the hills and had some wicked home made ice cream. Then we strolled through their exquisite garden and seen some beautiful flowers. For dinner we were back in Port Douglas and plans were made for another day trip this one to Mossman Gorge.
We passed through Mossman the day before on the way to Cape Trib just 15 minutes north of Port Douglas. We got to the gorge before lunch. Recently the control and running of the gorge was handed back to the local Aboriginals and there was a five dollar bus ride up into the gorge. We got our picnic lunch ready and add a bottle of wine and headed for the bus. Once up in the gorge we basically ran through the 500 meter mini boardwalk and were at the rock pool in no time. The freezing cold water felt great. Seems like daily the weather keeps warming up. We are around the 30 degree mark most days. After the swim we had our picnic lunch and bottle of wine and strolled back to the rock pool for swim number two. We sat around amidst the big boulders for quite a while enjoying the scenery of a mountain backdrop to the forest. the last bus out of the gorge was at 5:30 and we caught the one just before that. A quick drive and we were back in Port for yet another night. We had BBQ for dinner along the esplanade.