We visited Mossman Gorge today - around a 45 minute drive north of Palm Cove. The Eastern Kuku Yalanji Aboriginal people took over the care and management of their traditional lands, which include Mossman Gorge back in 2007. The last time we visited the Gorge (in 2012) their beautiful new visitor centre hadn't long been opened, and at that stage it had attracted few visitors and looked quite raw in its surroundings. Today there were people everywhere, with the Kuku Yalanji people having built the centre and its surrounding environment into into one of the best (and busiest) eco tourism experiences in FNQ!! A wonderful success story!
We walked the 2.4klm Rainforest Circuit Track today, through forests that form part of the World Heritage Listed Daintree National Park (the oldest continuous rainforest in the world). We got great views of the granite boulder strewn Mossman River coursing down the eastern slopes of the Main Coast Range, amazing rainforest trees, plants, ferns, palms and fungi, and the odd scrub turkey.
We were struck by the quality and upkeep of all the park infrastructure too.
The entry to the Rainforest Circuit Track looked like it had been "blower vacced" in readiness for the day's visitors.
The Mossman River .....
Manjal Dimbi (Mount Demi) keeps a close (protective) watch over the gorge, according to stories that are at least 50,000 years in the making ......
We met two lovely young women on the track, Jessica and Grace, from Alberta Canada. They are in Australia working as nurses. Grace took this picture of us and we chatted for quite a while. We're hoping to catch up again, in time, when they make it to Canberra.
Crossing the Rex Creek suspension bridge - another marvel of beautifully maintained infrastructure along the track.......
We drove back to Port Douglas after our morning at the Gorge. We enjoyed lunch at the Court House Hotel on Wharf Street with Rob adding to his rapidly expanding album of portraits of me drinking a beer while on holidays .......
I convinced Rob, under sufferance, to do the Flagstaff Hill Walking Trail after lunch. The trail started over the road from the hotel in Rex Smeal Park and wound its way around the Port Douglas peninsula to the start of Four Mile Beach. There were great views along the walk, out to the Coral Sea, the Low Isles and Snapper Island to the north. Many a great site for an Instagrammable wedding too!
The most spectacular views were from the Flagstaff Hill Lookout. Rob could finally see the point of all this hilly exertion so soon after lunch!
Port Douglas's famous Four Mile Beach........
We walked back to the car via the length of busy Macrossen Street, stopping for a well deserved gelato from Shakes Gelati Bar - just for old times sake. Once we got back to the old port area where Packers Creek joins the Coral Sea at the narrow Dickson's Inlet we found some familiar sights ......
We watched one of the catamarans coming back to port around 4pm after the day's cruise to the Low Isles and wondered if it was one of the same ones we sailed on a decade ago.
We only walked about 6-7 klms today, but a lot of it involved climbing and then steep descents over some rough ground. Parts of our walks were under a tropical sun too although its nowhere near as fierce as it would be in Summer. But it was a such a memorable way to experience the forest meeting the sea in the unique way it does in FNQ.
Back at Palm Cove tonight we met up with our friends David and Ro at O'Donnells on the Esplanade. We did a thorough job of dissecting the weekend's election result (which has brought us all so much joy!) as well as making a few plans for the coming week!
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