The pack up went reasonably well considering we had been setup for three days, annex, walls etc. it amazing how you settle into places. First order of the day was the first load of equipment drop off to a storage unit. Yes believe it or not we brought too much stuff! In our defence as well, not that we need to, we have been watching all the cars going south and the red dust "Cape cars" stick out like a sore thumb. The thought of putting our bikes through that and expecting them to work afterwards was asking a bit too much, and we were also looking to offload Griffin's car seat given the full car, so those were the initial drivers.
However, as we discovered we could quite easily put a few additional things in there as well. Packed our 1.5x1.5 little storage unit quite well. Cairns is the perfect place to leave it as we'll be coming through here on the way back south.
Second order of the day was to sort out cold meats and food for the coming days, and courtesy of a quick moving Katie that was ticked off easily. Last stop was a long handled shovel that had to modified in the Bunnings car park to fit the front box. All ticked and at 11:30 we departed Cairns heading for lunch in Port Douglas.
Port Douglas was certainly a swish looking place, with fancy names for all the resorts. It's hilarious that the port's cemetery is directly opposite the entry to one of the swankiest ones, The Mirage! Not sure how they planned that. Another one had the cane train running right through it! The beach was also not that great, the wind picked up and was blowing quite strong. People were swimming but they must have been tourists. We commented that it was time for jumpers although it was still 24 degrees out of the wind! We must be aclimatising. After a quick play for the boys in the local park it was off again to head to our destination.
It was very lush with cane farms the dominate crop, they seem to be harvesting at the moment, so lots of activity from trucks to harvesters and cane trains. We are slowly putting together the pieces of the process. To get to the Daintree you need to cross the car ferry, a 40 second or so journey across. A total of $17.50 one way. It's a first for all of us, no dramas though.
Once across we make our way along a lush windy road towards Noah's Head. A few times we got out and took scenic shots. Sorry on chris's camera. However we couldn't pass up going into the Daintree Rainforest Discovery Centre. It had a whole bunch of information, an aerial tree top walk and a canopy tower. We all learnt lots, but much of the detailed tree and animal information shared will be digested through the booklet received. It was just nice to stop and enjoy the rainforest. They had a self guided tour with handsets available but we found them to take away from the experience, there are a lot people walking round with what looks like a mobile phone and not actually looking at the place! Each to their own.
We finally got to camp about 5ish, a nice spot under the trees and out of the in shore wind! First we had to ask the people that had setup camp in our spot (without booking) to move along, which they kindly did. To make best use of the area we had to disconnected and shuffle Ernie. This is where the extra muscle power came in handy! A quick dash onto the expansive beach only 10 metres away for a look see before starting to cook dinner, sausage hotpot.
We crashed around 9:30pm. Stu falling asleep in his usual style, the others (Chris and Katie) taking a little longer. It wasn't for long as around midnight we heard noises from outside that implied we had visitors. Chris was first up and discovered although we had closed most of the camper up, the kitchen was just pushed in 2/3 of the way, our visitors were enjoying our pantry contents. We think they were marsupials but think of them as big mice. It took some effort to get them out, needing all three of us adults, a broom handle and lifting the bed end up to get rid of them. Given what we found that they had eaten, we are not surprised they were a little slow moving. The list of casualties, bread and apples and a near new bottle of red cordial that was under the camper thank goodness. The little buggers must have been on a sugar high!!!
Our cordial bottle with multiple naw holes
We also noticed that the rain showers had become a little heavier, not good signs for we wanted to do the Bloomfield 4wd drive track tomorrow on our way to Cooktown, as rain is a sure sign that it will be treacherous to do with a camper.
See how we go ....
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