Day 9 – Port Douglas – 23 September 2017

We got away from Cairns fairly early after stopping at Target for some much needed sun block and cheap clothes for me. We didn’t have a lot of distance to cover but I knew it could potentially take long to travel to Cape Tribulation so we got on the road sharpish. We did quick stops at Trinity Beach and Palm Cove to look at some more amazing tropical beaches before pushing on for the Daintree Ferry to take us over the Daintree River and on the road to Cape Tribulation. This is sugar cane country and we drove through many miles of sugarcane with rainforest covered hills as a beautiful backdrop – the landscape is beautiful and a lot different from what I expected.

We had to wait a bit to get on the ferry but it wasn’t an issue as the line moved quickly – the ferry ride is only a couple of minutes after all! We stopped at Mount Alexandra Lookout for pictures and then pretty much just drove straight to Cape Tribulation.

Cape Tribulation must be one of the most scenic and photographed beaches ever and it truly is glorious and unspoiled. Never in my life have I seen such clean beaches as in Australia – everywhere we’ve been is extremely clean with no rubbish left behind, or washing in from the sea. There were a few other people there but on the whole the beach was quiet and if we liked to spend time on the beach this would have been the perfect spot!

Despite its beauty and brilliant white sand, there’s only so many pictures you can take of a beach and after taking the boardwalk to get some views from a bit higher up and doing the walk to Myall Beach, we set off back the road we came in on.

We were kind of beached out by this point though we stopped at Thornton Beach for a drink and I got a Wagon Wheel ice cream that’s been fascinating me. It was a very strange confection – certainly not ice cream but more like cream with strawberry jam or something and covered in soft biscuit and chocolate. Odd but not in a bad way though Brian certainly liked it more than I did!

The trip to Port Douglas was uneventful, though very green, and we checked into the Port Douglas Motel where the WiFi was working(!!!) and we had a very nice and colourful room! We drove through the town as we arrived and it seemed very busy and full of people in the pubs (another AFL preliminary final and a rugby league game later on) so we headed out early for some drinks and dinner. First stop was Rattle & Hum where Brian nearly had a heart attack when the credit card was declined and said that is was deactivated or something. Fortunately we had cash and they had a $5/schooner beer special so we had a couple of drinks there.

I saw that there was a place called the Tin Shed in the harbour and we walked over there as the sun was setting, unfortunately just missing out on what would have been gorgeous views and pictures. They call themselves a ‘combined club’ and you have to be a member – which just means that you register on the night with some ID and you can get in and the food and drinks are slightly cheaper than elsewhere. I decided to have a seafood basket, all of which was deep fried, but still tasty, especially the Spanish mackerel. I tried a couple more different Australian wines before we headed into town and the Central Hotel where there were loads of people watching the rugby on big screens, and thoroughly enjoying themselves! We had another drink before heading back to the motel and getting some sleep after quite a long day of driving and sightseeing. People seem to go out quite early and go home early in Australia, which suits us as that is the pattern we follow anyway! We’ve come across quite a lot places that stop serving food at around 8 or 8:30pm, which is I time people go out in some other countries!