Margo and Harry generously included us in the itinerary they had planned for the day. They planned on visiting the Unesco Heritage site of the Mossman Gorge and they wanted to do this right, so no rushing around to see as many things that one can pack into a day. They arranged and covered the expenses for a rental van, which could comfortably sit eight people, so with Brad driving, our table of eight were very happy to go along with the days outing. This is our fourth time to this part of Australia, we had visited Port Douglas back in 2003 and went to the amazing Great Barrier Reef while visited many of the sites that the ships's excursions were going to on our last few visits. The one place we have not been is the Daintree National Park, home of the Mossman Gorge so we sere very happy with the day's agenda.
The website reads...
"Visit Mossman Gorge and experience the pristine waterfalls, stunning mountains and vivid flora and fauna of the Daintree World Heritage Rainforest with an Aboriginal guide. Share the enchanting stories and rich heritage of the significant and spectacular landscape whilst connecting with the lives. culture and beliefs of the local Kulu Yalanji community. Experience their connection to the natural environment first hand.
Wander beneath the towering canopy of the rainforest which is beautifully framed by the imposing mountains. See the crystal-clear water of the Mossman River cascading over granite boulders and enjoy a swim in the refreshing fresh water. The flora and the fauna of the area guarantee to excite and amaze and budding enthusiast".
There are two tours here, a one and half hour tour and two and a half hour, because of timing we selected the 1.5 hour tour. Very interesting and very informative as you are shuttled to the site and then conditioned for the trek by walking through the smoke of the traditional smoking ceremony. As told to us, the Kulu Yalnji people have been in this area for about 60,000 years (modern day techniques now support this claim) and as he describes the areas we trek through you can easily cast your mind to these primitive times as many of the basic traditions are still being performed today. Our guide's village of 120 to 150 inhabitants still exists in the area and in some way shape or form he in related to every member in the clan. We found this entire tour and experience to be very informative as we were learning what life is and was like as an aboriginal here in these modern times.
Fortunately and unfortunately we had beautiful sunshine all day today so the rivers were running low but okay for us in that we did not need our rainwear. After our visit to the Daintree Rainforest we visited the "Wildlife Experience" just outside to Port Douglas. This wildlife centre is great in that it gives you experience of walking with many of the amazing animals here, get up close and person with a stork or kangaroo, no problem - in fact you can buy some kangaroo feed for a couple of bucks and hand feed these incredible bounding animals, pretty cool. Picture holding a Koala, for $18 dollars you can also do this. The Crocs on the other hand are best kept behind a fence. So after a couple hours here we headed to the lookout over 4 mile beach before returning the van at 4pm. Great day, thanks again to Margo and Harry.
A couple of other things to note, sugar cane is a main crop here and we were very fortunate to see a Cane Train. Also, we were on the Captain Cook Highway, which for me was pretty great. Captain Cook and few hundred years ago crashed the Endeavour into the Great Barrier Reef right around here, so many little things are named after him and his ship in this area (just north of here is Cookstown). Captain Cook along with his crew spent a few months here repairing the vessel. Hmm. what else, oh yes, at the lookout, the pictures overlooking 4 mile beach, you may see a house in the forefront of the picture, well this house is worth some 80 million dollars, yikes. Friends on board Carol, Larry, Sandy and Bruce, spent the day with a friend they met on a previous cruise and this person knows the owner of this house. The sad part of the story is that the husband never got to see the finished home as her passed away before it was completed. Lastly, as we were leaving we noticed this huge bush fire on the hills just north of Port Douglas, we are all concerned and are trying to get some information on if it is now under control. At the time of writing this we still do not know...
Hope you enjoy the day's pictures as we settle in for a nice three days before we visit the amazing Sydney... Three parts today...
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