Cairns – day 2
Yesterday was Daintree Day.
We jumped in the car after breakfast and headed north up the Captain Cook Highway. This road connects Cairns to Mossman, taking you past spectacular scenery where the forest and beaches meet, then through the sugar cane fields. And it was all happening at Mossman – not only was it the monthly Saturday market yesterday, but there was another rather significant Australian event taking place.
What a pretty polling place – but it was a good thing that I had cast my pre-poll vote back home, considering how busy it was there. As I type this the results of our election are still uncertain….but I’ll keep politics off the blog. I rather love the sugar cane fields – seeing trucks loaded with cane taking them to the sugar cane trains, which once they are long enough head off through the fields to their next stop – presumably to be processed. Many years ago I did a tour through a cane processing plant. I love factory tours and finding out how things are made. I wonder if there are still similar ones taking place? Anyway, our first stop was by the Daintree River, where we took a cruise through the mangroves to see if we could find any crocodiles.
Our tour with Daintree River Cruises was excellent. I find mangroves fascinating, and our guide really knew his stuff. We didn’t have any luck in finding large crocodiles, as the air temperature and water temperature were probably about the same at that stage so they weren’t on the banks sunning themselves. But we did manage to locate a teensy hatchling sitting on a log.
See him there?
We also spotted a beautiful Brahminy kite – a bird of prey with a stunning chestnut body with white tipped wings. Incredible to watch it soaring overhead. After our boat tour we joined the queue to catch the vehicle ferry across the Daintree River.
We were headed into cassowary territory. Our destination here was the Daintree Discovery Centre. Here there were boardwalks with audio tours for the whole family. It was an excellent way to learn more about the rainforest flora and fauna, as well as the history of the area.
On our way back to Cairns we stopped off to admire the beaches and the views.
Pizza for dinner with a glass of wine, Pitch Perfect 2 on DVD, and just a little bit of watching the election count finished off a wonderful day.
I remember when my parents first moved to Cairns from Townsville over 20 years ago and I visited them in their new place. We did all the tourist things and it was fantastic! I still remember the first time we crossed the Daintree and I was so excited (even though I’d protested against the Daintree-Bloomfield Road back in the 80s)
And yes – mangroves are fascinating. A lot of my studies at uni were spent in mangroves!
Looks like you had a lovely day! I visited Daintree with my husband in November 2014, he was rather disappointed that we didn’t spot any crocodiles on the cruise (I had been by myself a couple of years earlier and spotted quite a few). A couple of weeks ago we went to Kakadu and did a wetlands cruise, fortunately enough we spotted a number there, husband was very pleased. Enjoy the rest of your trip!
I’ve been on mangrove boat rides up in Arnhem land. Amazing. So calm yet also so scary. I’ve been to the Daintree too but don’t really recall much which is a shame.
Tully Sugar Mill does mill tours. I think you book with the Imformation centre.
I lived in Cairns for a couple of years. We used to drive up to Port Douglas quite a bit, and sometimes further. Yes, it’s a lovely drive in itself. We had annual passes to the Cairns tropical zoo near Palm Cove and I’m sad to hear it closed recently.
How beautiful is Australia? As a visitor the flora and fauna was just so fascinating. Lovely photographs they make me long to visit Cairns!