Cairns 2016, December 27 (We The North)

After breakfast I walked down to the car rental place to get the car for the day, it was supposed to be a Nissan something or similar, which turns out to be a Hyundai Accent, at least it was new. When I got in the steering wheel was blocking the speedometer and the back window view was quite small, I was able to fix the first of those problems at least.

The first stop of the day was Mossman. Driving along Captain Cook Highway was annoying because they have a roundabout every couple of kilometres and you are supposed to reduce speed to 40 kilometres before entering. I found the Hyundai brakes to be quite unresponsive and the acceleration was much more sensitive, so the GPS would often trigger being over the speed limit.

Not a V8 supercar.

Only stopped in Mossman to visit the Woolworths, then back on the road to the Daintree Ferry. Instead of just building a bridge over a small river you have to wait in line for a one-way ferry that can only take about thirty cars at once. I turned off the car while waiting in line, not a good idea as the car became a furnace within minutes. When it was time to start boarding the ferry the car didn't want to start even though I'd left the keys in the whole time. After a bit of random key turning and button pressing the engine finally started up again.

Waiting for the ferry.

The road to Cape Tribulation was very slow and usually only about 40 km/h, a bit like the Great Ocean Road. There are no sealed roads after the town so it was a good place to stop for lunch at Myall Beach nearby. In addition to the jellyfish warnings they now also have warnings about crocodiles at every beach too - how did they get there? Next to the beach was Dubuji Boardwalk which is not like the one in Monopoly, you just get to tour a bit of the rainforest.

Cape Tribulation.

Dubuji Boardwalk.

Similar to the boardwalk was Marrja Botanical Walk a bit further down the road. This one was more like a swamp full of those mangrove trees. After another stop at Thornton Beach it was back across the ferry and over to Daintree Village. This was a better attempt at a town, and they even have their own big thing!

Marrja Botanical Walk.

Thornton Beach.

Daintree Village.

The Big Barramundi !

Back to Mossman again, this time stopping to visit the Mossman Gorge. You can't drive all the way to the gorge yourself, you have to park at the visitor centre and either 1) walk 2) pay nine dollars for the shuttle bus 3) have someone else hand you their shuttle bus tickets on the way out. The main feature of the gorge is the river and rock pools you can swim and explore - without crocodiles and jellyfish - but I hadn't brought equipment for that, plus it was a bit late in the day already.

At the end of the park was a circuit which supposedly was only two kilometres long but took a good forty minutes to complete. That was the end of the day and another slow drive back towards Cairns as they have Great Ocean Road Part II south of Mossman too.

There was a power outage during the night which luckily only lasted for about three hours, any longer and it would have been quite uncomfortable, since you need air-conditioning running all night to survive.

Walking - 18000 steps and 190 minutes