Revisiting a part of the world that I fell in love with several years prior was always a good thing to look forward to. Whilst we weren’t going there quite in the middle of winter I was looking forward to the beautifully warm weather, the laid back nature of the main street and simply magnificent surrounding areas. And by no means I was not disappointed, however I did learn something about myself.
Living for free in a resort in Port Douglas for 4 weeks is something not to be sneezed at. Anyone would jump at the opportunity. Though we were closer to Great Barrier Reef Tourist Dr than we were to Macrossan Street we were still in one of the best places in FNQ. We’d drive into town each morning for a coffee whereby I then went to the gym and caught the mini bus back to the room.
Here is where the problem started. At this stage my work had dried up a little and my days were not full. What’s more I did not have a car and while I could jump in the bus to go into town there’s not a huge amount of things to do once you’re there. I was starting to feel that the days were just wasting away. It was a valuable lesson for me in preparation for when I give up work fully. Days still need to be filled with useful things. Sitting around is not an option for me, it brings me down big time. I was feeling very flat. It made me realise that a location alone does not make everything ok. Activity and socialisation of some sort is necessary to keep things ok.
In saying, the weekends were so sensational. The first weekend we drove to the tablelands and visited Mareeba and Atherton. The landscape up here is truly magnificent. There is a very narrow coastal strip and the land rises very quickly. These mountains are thickly covered in deep, deep tropical green flora and where there are no towns that thick bush runs right down to the oceans edge. Climbing up that range, and we must remember that this is still part of the Great Dividing Range than runs all the way down to Victoria, is exhilarating as you begin to look back down at the vast expanse of coastline and blue ocean. After you leave the coastal sugar cane farms you climb, and particularly in the period still classified as the wet, you see full streams and waterfalls, thick jungle opening up occasionally to pasture land, little towns that once were more significant to the area than they are now and then finally reach the tablelands where the cattle farming takes over.
The aim of this weekend was to visit some of the significant falls up in this area and then soak in the cooling, croc free, fresh water pools and we succeeded 100% in achieving this. First stop though was the Mareeba markets which were pretty good to be honest. I always judge the quality of markets by the ratio of cheap and tatty $2 shop type stalls to the handmade small business type. And in Mareeba that ratio was very much in the favour of the handmade ones. Most of it was under the trees which was well needed because despite being several hundred metres up it was still stinking hot and very humid.
Lunch was pretty basic but they did have one of those systems where the fan blew out very fine misty water to cool you down. I was always a cynic about this system but it works amazingly. You do not get wet as I thought you would and it does actually cool you down.
We then took off to Davies falls where we had a bit of a walk to view the falls and then down to the pools. The water was very cool but much needed after the walk. Met a Welsh guy who was doing a bit of FIFO work and was due to head back the next day. He’d hooked up with a nice English girl who was about to head off to South East Asia. Took me a while but I realised that would probably be it for those two as partners and here I was yacking away to them. I should have left them in peace really. But he was a real nice guy and we all had a good chat.
The plan was to visit some more waterholes on the way back to the motel but the rain was starting to come in. Instead, we had a little stop off at the icecream shop in the middle of nowhere and by the time we got back the rain was getting more persistent. But then – it really chucked it down. It was one belter of a tropical downpour, seriously heavy rain for a good 30 to 45 minutes. Reminded me of every afternoon in Malaysia to be honest.
The next day we took a drive to Emerald Falls. We had been warned that the little car may not be able to handle the dodgy road but we thought we’d give it a go. We made it as far as the top of the last big hill down and realised we couldn’t go any further but did decided to abandon the car and finish the trip on foot. It was getting very hot despite it being early in the morning and the walk up to the top of the falls was gruelling but well worth it once you made it up. On the way up we saw a few tracks down to pools so on the way back we took one of them and we stumbled on our own personal little swimming spot. It was simply divine. This beautiful little beach and rocks edged the cool flowing fresh water. And it was all ours, no-one else was there. It was so nice and somewhere we did not want to leave.
Another reason we did not want to leave was the steep road we had to climb to get back to our car we had to abandon. We eventually trudged off toward the car, passed the main car park and noticed the crowds that were in the beaches near there and again we realised how lucky we were to have our isolated spot. Then, just as we were about to tackle the steep final ascent a friendly four wheel drive came past and offered to take us the rest of the way. It was like everyone kicked a goal.
After that we headed to Atherton for lunch and then got to a very sweet town called Yungaburra which had some gorgeous old but very well maintained old houses, churches and shops. Yungaburra is also famous for a platypus viewing spot. Unfortunately, midday is not the time of day that these little fellas come out for a feed and we did not see any. Next time.
As we wound down the last stop was one of the massive lakes that were created by comets colliding with earth. It was very deep, croc free but did have fish in it which surprised me as I am unsure as to how they would have got there. But I guess over the millennia that the lake was there the landscape would have changed a bit and who knows what was flowing into it. But it was a very beautiful scene and the restaurant that was there close to the shore definitely had an amazing view.
Thanks to the 80’s political band Redgum and their live album, Atherton Tablelands was simply the home of dope farms. Luckily I was very wrong and it is a whole lot more than that (I’m pretty sure there’s a fair bit of dope still available up there). A fair bit has been cleared but a lot of dense vegetation still remains. Toyota Yaris is the not the car of choice up there, that is one thing I can say with a lot of confidence. And I can also say, and this is my opinion based on observations, the drivers in FNQ are even more impatient than me and my fellow Sydneysiders. I must say that the drivers up there are pretty bad and I can now see why the North Queensland football team are nicknamed the cowboys. I’ll say no more.
I have loved the Daintree since I learnt about it in high school geography. One of the only places in the world where World Heritage Rainforest flows into World Heritage Coral Reef. When I finally visited a few years ago it did not disappoint and it did not disappoint again. The green is so vivid, the water is so blue. The wildlife is so diverse, highlighted by the Cassowary, a prehistoric flightless bird that has the most striking colouring and a horn on it’s head that puts it right back with the stegosaurus. At primary school our sports houses were Australian birds and I was a proud member of the Cassowary house, cementing my affinity for this crazy bird ever since.
With a similar colour scheme the Ulysses Butterfly can be found wherever there is a red flowering plant and this makes for an incredibly beautiful scene. But amidst all of this beauty there is the undertow of danger. Some spooky snakes, the Cassowary itself has a dangerous streak and of course the dreaded crocs. But you know, it does not fade the beauty and the colour of this amazing place. One day I will drive from the Daintree River all the way to Cooktown through the rainforest but for now I had to wait. The Yaris was not going to cope at all with the road turning feral after Cape Tribulation.
We did, however, make it to Cooktown on the last weekend but alas we had to get there via the tablelands. We climbed up on the same road that we took to get to Mareeba but instead of turning left we went right and headed toward a town called Lakeland. We hit the tablelands again but this time you really could see why it is called the tablelands – it is elevated but vast miles of it are very flat with just the odd peak jutting out. This was really evident when the road climbs up one of these peaks and there is a look out which makes it very clear as to the vast flat area. It was quite amazing and unfortunately I just could not get the photograph to show this phenomenon.
We also came across Mt Carbine, an old tungsten mine that has been in and out of favour for 130 odd years and was named after the horse that won the Melbourne Cup in 1890. Anyway, this town is pretty much a ghost town with really only the roadhouse there servicing the 98 people that live there and the passers by. It is a weird little place with still a bit of mining activity but nothing like what it was like in its prime.
We got to Lakeland after dark and after checking in went straight to bar for a feed. I was blown away by the amount of young, ie in their 20’s, people that were there and the fact that they looked Japanese. But like a lot of these pubs in the middle of farmland it got quite buy with a mixture of farmers and fly in fly out workers all congregating there. I lost on the raffle but did have a good time people watching for a while.
The next day we wound down toward Cooktown and in doing so solved the mystery of the Japanese punters at the pub. There was a banana plantation that was flying the Indigenous, Japanese and Australian flags out front so I assume the plantation was owned by a family originating from Japan.
I was super keen to get to Cooktown mainly because of an episode of A River Somewhere that had Tom Gleisner and Rob Sitch stay there overnight before hiring a sailing craft to head further up the gulf. The town looked great and the place they had a beer at just captured my imagination. Once we got there I realised that Cooktown is not a must see kind of place. It’s quaint, has some stunning old architecture and is on a magnificent river but not a lot more. I do lie – there is a beautiful old lighthouse, quite an impressive tropical botanic garden and the picturesque Finch Bay which has the Alligator River flowing into it. Putting the name aside for a moment, the river did really make this bay extra special, it was very nice. However, the name alone gives you a hint of the dangers that lurk below but what is worse is that the locals told us that has been a 2-3 metre salty hanging about lately. Made photographing the area interesting. I did not spend a huge amount of time lining the shot up as I was too busy keeping an eye out for snappy.
One huge highlight in Cooktown is the old bank building. Like most places around Australia, the banks have bailed on them and have moved out. One of those banks though left behind a magnificent building and the new owner has been very careful to preserve not only the outside but also a lot of the inside of this magnificent building. It is a little café and you can sit on the balcony, in the area that the customers would stand but there were also tables behind the counter where the bank staff would have been. It made for a really pleasant time.
The bank was not the only grand building there. The old nunnery has now been converted in to the museum and as a country museum goes it is pretty good. Mind you it is well helped by the building and the view. Walking around the exhibits I did feel very sorry for the old nuns having to wander around in the heat and humidity in those habits they wore. It would have been horrible for the poor ducks.
I think I found the building that Tom and Rob had their beer, a beautiful old colonial style building right on the water with a magnificent first level balcony all around. It certainly did make for a great setting. I will go back to Cooktown but only because I want to drive through the entirety of the Daintree and Cooktown is pretty much it’s end point. I did end the stay in FNQ on a pretty big low, struggling to adapt to not having as much work on and not being able to amuse myself adequately during the days. Getting back to Sydney and seeing the kids and getting to the beach helped rejuvenate and revitalise me but if I am going to continue to do this sort of thing I need to come up with some strategies. And as for FNQ, I do love it and I will return for sure. Daves Takeaway is still there, the Cane Toad races are on every night, it is warm even in the middle of winter and it is just a beautiful place to hang out, but probably not to live for
