We had a good trip back down the 'Mulligan Highway' from Cooktown. When we stopped again at the 'Palmer River Roadhouse' for morning tea, there were people and cars everywhere. It turned out that the annual 'Cairns to Cooktown' cycle ride 'Cure for Cancer', is on this weekend and the lunch stop was Palmer River. They ride the 360kms over 3 days. On the first two days participants ride about 140kms. Friday night stop was Mount Carbine , Saturday night stop was Lakeland, leaving just over 80kms to ride on Sunday. When we met the 12 groups of cyclists, they had just completed the 1.5km steep climb up the mountain. There were around 250 cyclists riding this weekend. Some intend to return to Cairns, cycling on the Bloomfield Track. That would be some challenge, after our drive last week!  A new trip was planned on Saturday morning on the Hema Map - Cooktown to Geraldton. I wonder how many kms it will be? The trip from Darwin to Cooktown has been 4,704 kms and Adelaide to Darwin via Kakadu was 4560kms. Before we descended the mountain to Port Douglas, we stopped in one of the pull-off areas for a photo shoot. On a clearer day we would have had magnificent views down through the mountains to the ocean. It was a little misty on Sunday. There were three bikers resting in the pull-off area. They asked us about the transfers on the side of the caravan, which was a starting point for the conversation we ended up having. We learnt more about the sugar industry and they did tell us "There are more bikers in the Cairns area, than any other parts of Australia".  This is because there are so many great rides through the mountains and around the tablelands.  We had passed a number of the trucks carting the cane from Mareeba down the mountain to the mill at Mossman. The cane is in special crates that are dropped at a siding at the bottom of the mountain. There was a large number of these crates sitting on railway carriages. The train picks them up and takes them to the mill. The guy that I was talking with said "Farmers were concerned about the amount of time the cane is sitting and waiting before being taken to the mill". The sugar content is affected if it is not processed within 18 hours. The 'Sugar Cane Railway Line' is all around Port Douglas and cane seems to be growing anywhere and everywhere! The sugar mill at Mossman is old and small. Normally it would process about 800,000 tonnes a year, but this year with the Mareeba farmers carting to Mossman, it cannot handle the deliveries quickly enough. There are 28 sugar cane mills between Mossman and Mackay.  We spent some time on Sunday watching a paddock of sugar cane being harvested. It certainly doesn't take long for the harvester to fill the chaser bins. There were two that were working with the harvester and they were taking the load to the rail line and tipping it into the crates.  The train had dropped them there earlier. Each crate was loaded with approximately 10 tonne of cane.  We have had a real 'sugar fix' today and I think we can now tick the 'sugar box'! Enough photos taken of the industry!  We are staying at the Big4 caravan park, on 'Captain Cook Highway', just a few kms from Port Douglas. The setting is lovely at the foot of the mountains. Not many CP's in Port Douglas. Mostly resorts. The town of Port Douglas is on a small point and the population including Daintree is around 11,000. It swells by 8,000 during the tourist season. As you travel down Port Douglas Road, there are very nice looking resorts on either side of the road. We didn't expect to see quite so many, and as for the pleasure craft in the Mariner! There was just a few dollars worth there!Port Douglas was founded in 1877 after gold miners discovered a passage from the inland fields to Island Point, while searching for a suitable port to transport gold from. It was a bustling town when it was gripped by gold fever, but as the gold fields declined so did the town. In the towns heyday there were 27 pubs and 12,000 residents.  We had a bit of retail therapy at the markets. They were the nicest markets we have been to. I've a lovely necklace made from seeds. The markets are unique in the fact that all the goods offered for sale are made or grown by the stall holder, or their immediate family. The markets were established almost 20 years ago.  The location is very, very nice!  The lush rainforest-clad mountains and the Coral Sea in the background, was a bit hard to look at whilst sitting under the palm trees, sipping a morning coffee.We drove up to the lookout for beautiful views along the swimming beach.  As the crow flies we are 3,460 kms from Perth. Bet it will take us a lot more kms than that to get back there!  We dipped our toes in the Coral Sea as well. Not cold at all, it fact quite warm.  After lunch we drove the 20 kms to the small town of Mossman which is nestled among fields of sugar cane at the foot of steep rainforest-clad mountains. The tourist attraction in this area is 'Mossman Gorge' which is in the southern section of the 'Daintree National Park'.  This is another of 'Australia's World Heritage' listed areas. For those tourists wishing to pay $55.00 you can take a guided walk with a member of the indigenous population and learn of their connection to the natural environment and be given an insight into their lives, cultures and beliefs. We just paid the $8.00 to go out on the bus and then we walked nearly 4 kms through the rainforest. You do have to catch the bus into the rainforest. They run every 15 minutes. There were lots of people walking the tracks and the brochure says over 500,000 people visit Mossman Gorge each year.  On the way home we called into the 'Mossman Cemetery'. It was in the Main Street and I had noticed a reasonably large building at the back of the cemetery. Our 'Minister for Tourism' had apologised for not telling us to check out the mausoleums at Mareeba cemetery. We said "We had seen some very high graves as we had driven past".A mausoleum is a funeral house and Delma informed us that some of the funeral houses are more elaborate than the home a person has lived in all their life – some costing $60,000! The family pop out to the cemetery for a visit and sit in the house and have a talk.  If what we saw were mausoleum's, there were no doors and it actually looked like the marble may have been inserts, enabling the coffins to be placed behind. I will have to discuss this more with Delma when we get home. 

On Monday we intend to go to Daintree and Cape Tribulation for the day.  20 photos