July 16 (Day 167) - Cairns to Mossman

After leaving the caravan park we refuelled at what was shown as the cheapest station in town for diesel, but it also turned out to be a full service station! What I mean by that is that, it was a true 'service' station, where the attendant came out to pump the fuel for you (well he was busy when we fuelled up so we did it ourselves), but they also had a mechanical workshop attached, which was full of vehicles being worked on!

It was very much something 'out of the past', but was still working very well and obviously making a dollar too, so we were very glad to have given them our business!

After leaving Cairns, we started up the coast towards Pt Douglas. We didn't really know what to expect of this part of the trip, other than the road looked quite close to the water. Well it certainly was, and we got some great views as the road swept right along the coastline - very similar to the Great Ocean Road!

There were a few places where one could pull off the road to admire the view, but it wasn't the easiest road on which to do sight-seeing with a caravan! It was a single lane in each direction with not too many straight sections. The speed limit was 80kph along this road, and the pull-off areas being fairly small, it ended up being quite hard with a van to slow down sufficiently to check if it was a good place or not to stop, and if it was to safely get off the road. This was made worse because as we slowed slightly to try to check these parking areas, or even side tracks to possibly stay the night, traffic would start to approach and build up behind, so one had to get back up to the speed limit. One had the feeling of being on a travellator at the airport or a shopping centre, where it's very hard to do anything but keep going straight ahead!

Captain Cook Highway, between Cairns and Port Douglas

Nonetheless we found a spot at Oak Beach after a while to have lunch, which turned out to be a lovely place to spend an hour or so.

From Oak beach we drove into Port Douglas to just have a look around to see what it was like. First we came to the information centre to ask the best places to see in Port Douglas and see if there was any free camping spots. It's a very touristy town and very much like Bryon Bay if you've ever been there. Very commercialised and built up and lots of resorts and places to stay. Not any free camps around here because of national forest and they prefer you to go into caravan parks provided.

From Port Douglas we headed north, and enjoyed a few cane trains along the way. Were planning on heading to a low cost campground near Mount Molloy, which is out to the west of Port Douglas, but we missed the turnoff and thus took what has probably so far been the best wrong turn of our trip! In the course of passing the intersection and trying to turn around, we spotted a track out to the left leading behind a forest. We turned around to investigate and came across this lovely spot just south of Mossman near Shannonvale.

Wow! It was just amazing! Free - tick! Forest - tick! Freshwater stream - tick! No crocodiles - tick! The site did have a sign to warn people about crocodiles so we were a bit cautious, but we very quickly worked out that it was more to be concerned about in the wet season (from the locals) and also from observing and keeping a very close eye on things.The water was very clear and quite cold, so not normally the type of water salt-water crocodiles like.

The track we came in on was actually the old road which used to ford the South Mossman river, but this is now bypassed by a bridge over the river. The track was still passable so we had to check it out!

The cane train was only about 30 metres from where we were camping, and was a lovely rumble through the day and night. It's peak cane season at the moment so they are harvesting and transporting day and night. It was always quite noisy but we got used to it.

The kids loved exploring the area and gathered quite a lot of the buddha belly bamboo to create and use for fuel for our fires.

Another beautiful spot for an office!

Later in the evening we had created enough coals to be able to make some yummy damper. I had bought some baking soda this time which helped it to rise better. I only had plain flour in the cupboard so our last damper didn't rise that well. It's a very simple recipe which tastes great. 1 1/2 cups plain flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1 cup greek yoghurt. Wrap in alfoil that is lightly oiled and Cook for 30 mins and it turns out beautifully especially with jam and cream.

-- Greg and Mim