Port Douglas to Bloomfield River   Wind 15 – 20 knts  sunny  36 nm

After completing pre departure chores of topping up water tanks, folding up bikes, washing, pulling in power lead and returning the marina keys we headed out amongst the flotilla of tourist boats at 9:30 . The wind was only about 10 – 15 knots not the forecast 15 – 20 and mostly behind us so we only averaged 5.5 kts. The rods were out most of the day but it was a barren run.

We decided we didn’t have enough time to get to the Hope Isles with enough daylight to see the reef so it was an attempt at the Bloomfield River. We arrived off the entrance at about 4:30, the channel is not marked and part of it dries at low water to a height of .9 . The tide was two hours off the top so we felt we would have enough to get over the bar, even still we only had .2 under our keels for a lot of the way in, at least 500mts of nervous motoring. I wasn’t looking forward to running aground as there was very little of the tide to rise. We cleared the shallow part then negotiated the narrow entrance into the river which opened out into lovely calm water and only one shallow part of a metre.

The Bloomfield is a very picturesque river with rainforest overhanging the mangroves bordering the banks. It looked like real crocodile country. Looks like Morgan will be inside for the night.

We anchored upstream of a little jetty with locals fishing off it, in 3 mts of water in the middle of the river. There appeared to be a couple of derelect boats anchored upstream but no-one else. Enormous colonies of flying foxes were hanging in the trees, then about 5:30 they all took off heading somewhere for their nightly feed. Quite a sight as they blackened the sky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

An old fellow ( Dave Green) came over in his dinghy to talk about boats, he was very happy to see another cataraman in the river. I get the impression not many boats come up the river these days with the entrance so shallow. He has a hitchiker like our old cat Crusader. We might be able to send him our old sail which is stored in Maclean as he is putting a new mast on and we can’t use it. He told us to be careful as two 13′ crocodiles hang around the area, so not to let our dog swim. Well she wont be going near the water. Later I was reading that there are 12 – 15 crocodiles living in the Bloomfield, one named Brutus is 5.8 metres long.

Silverside and vegies for dinner and Brad Pit in the World War Z movie.

Last day here in this lovely place, tomorrow we head further north.

After a few early chores we rode up to the lookout, a very steep windy road bordered by tropical vegetation. Actually we mostly walked our bikes up as it was very steep in parts. Off to one side a quarter of the way up a little track leads to the old lighthouse which is now defunct, as the light is further up the road on the Telstra tower.

This acetylene ( gas) light was more powerful than the original wooden kerosene lighthouse built in 1978. The view was rather pleasant and John thought he would get away with only going this far, but his conscience took over.

The Pacific Dawn was anchored about one nautical mile off the headland and the Low Isles in the distance looked to be very busy.

From the top of Flagstaff hill the view was stunning, all the way south down the coast to Cairns and north to Cape Tribulation.

On the way down, Morgan and I took the skinny track that lead round the front of the headland and overlooked four mile beach, an iconic Australian landmark. We were down in five minutes and met John at a cafe for morning tea of iced chocolate and warm apple crumble.

Port Douglas was very busy today as the Pacific Dawn has disgorged its 3000 passengers via the marina into the town. The cruise ship industry is excellent for the locals as market stalls, shops and water activities are well patronised.

John honned his culinary skills for dinner and cooked us a very delicious seafood marinara.

Good to be back in the warmer climate although by lunchtime we were sweating as there was little breeze in the marina.  We returned the car and made a quick visit to a cataraman Liquid Desire to visit Splash another Portuguese Water dog from the same breeder as Morgan. Splash is only 18 months old and quite hairy at the moment, but appears to have almost the same markings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morgan lazed around happy to be back, while the day was taken up  preparing the report for Hydro Tasmania which completes the onsite consultation John had been to recently.

We were visited by Adam and  Shea Bloom who were on their honeymoon from Corryong  for the week, then we  discovered our neighbours on the boat next to us who had delivered a Maritimo from Perth were also from somewhere we knew Maclean. In fact the lady Gaye plays golf with my sister. Small world.

We spent three days with Megan and although the circumstances were extremely painful it was good to see her and Mick again,as well as family and friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It felt funny to be in Maclean without commitments or anything to be reponsible for, so we spent the entire time with Megan. We even visited the Yamba surf museum, something we had never got round to doing in all the time we have been there.

With heavy hearts we left Megan on Monday morning to fly back to Cairns and then onto Port Douglas. We had a hire car to return to Brisbane airport and then one waiting at Cairns airport to drive back to Port Douglas in. The only highlight of that day was picking up Morgan from the boarding kennels in Port Douglas. Boy was she glad to see us, I guess she thought we had abandoned her as we were in such a hurry when we dropped her off.

A terrible start to the day as Megan rang and told us her dog Mousse had passed away from rat bait poisoning in the night. She was utterly devasted and so were we as he was her best mate. In a mad hurry we hired a car , dropped Morgan off at Port Douglas kennels and drove to Cairns airport and hopped on a plane to Brisbane. From there we hired another car and arrived after long traffic delays in Maclean  about 8:00 to a very sad daughter.

I would have to say he was the best behaved , well mannered intelligent, loving dog I have known and it is so sad he is no longer with us.

RIP Mousse

The last three  days are bunched together as life in the marina  has been fairly quiet and also I haven’t had any computer access. I sent my computer off with a repair fellow from Mossman as it was still giving me grief. The anti virus program stopped working and windows was telling me it wasn’t genuine. Finally after two days it has been returned and is working properly. It’s had a rebuild which should have happened when I got the new hard drive in Airlie Beach. The information that was transferred across from my old hard drive  in Airlie  was not complete, making my computer have intermittent problems that were hard to diagnose.

So the past days have consisted of washing clothes, the boat, Morgan and sorting out other things needing attention. Morgan has had another haircut as the temperature is fairly warm up here , averaging 28 degrees , and she can’t go in the water and cool down because of the crocodiles.

On Tuesday a film crew  were filming series two of an ABC program called ‘The Cove’ . They filmed on the water , heated cafe scenes and police running down the marina. Some of the scenes  had me fooled at first until I saw the film crew lurking in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sue and David came to dinner on O’vive for fish pies on Tuesday then when John got back we went to the Yacht club for dinner and enjoyed a steak and their signature salmon spring rolls.

The wind has died down so Sue and David on Karinya departed yesterday morning heading for Cooktown.

John has to write up a report on his Tassie findings for Hydro then we should be right to head north as well.

We haven’t decided whether to go further north than Cooktown yet as the weather pattern changes from Cape Bedford northwards and we may have stronger trade winds against us when we turn around.

Wind 15 – 20 knts  rainstorms

Still in the marina , waiting for John to get back from his consulting job in Tassie.

Not much happened at all today, pulled the crab trap in and something had totally eaten the bait and also eaten the female blue swimmer we had left in there. Decided to put the trap away.

Washed boat, washed towels, posted mail, played ball with Morgan etc.

The flying foxes over in the trees were causing a racket this morning, don’t know why as they are supposed to sleep in the day.

Happy hour on O’vive with Sue and David.

 

 

John caught the airport bus to Cairns as he has to go to Tassie for a consultation job for a couple of days.

Morgan and I went for a walk to pick up my hairbrush that I had left in the hire car.

Sunday markets were in full swing as we strolled down to Anzac park on the waterfront and wandered among the various market stalls.

The markets are a delightful mix of local art, craft, souvenirs and fresh produce with lots of interesting items. Morgan especially liked Zoe’s doggie treats stall.

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch we took a trip on the Ballyhooley historic steam train.It is historic because the two coal fired steam locomotives (Speedy and Bundy), (good names don’t you think Sandra) that haul the trains are both over 55 years old, being the very last ones used by the Mossman Sugar Mill before switching to diesel locomotives for hauling the sugar cane from the fields to the region’s mill.

It is also historic because the track on which these trains run has been in existence for over a century.The railway is operated by a dedicated small group of passionate volunteers. All moneys collected go towards the cost of coal and insurance which are both very big “cash consumers”. Maintenance costs are extremely high also.

The return trip took a bit under an hour from the Marina Station, and passed through some scraggly areas of mangrove, the Sheraton Country Club, and a couple of resorts to the Station at St. Crispins which is adjacent to the 12th tee of the Mirage Golf Course.

Morgan was dubious about the noise and rattling and the train whistle which seemed to blow about every 5 minutes. By the return trip she had adjusted to the noise and was enjoying the view.

Sue and David Simpson arrived back in the marina after visiting Sarah in Innisfail so we enjoyed happy hour on their cat Karinya.

Sandra and Doug’s last day today, it was sad to see them go, but first we had a day of sightseeing.

After breakfast of, you guessed it, mackeral, we drove down the Captain Cook highway to Cairns. The drive was picturesque and windy taking us about an hour to drive the 70 kilometres. At Freshwater Station we boarded the Kuranda scenic railway train that winds its way to the village of Kuranda up on the tablelands.

Rising from sea level to 328m, the journey to Kuranda passes spectacular waterfalls and into the stunning Barron Gorge. The journey included a commentary on the history of the railways’ construction.  Constructed between 1882 and 1891 it is considered an engineering feat of tremendous magnitude. Hundreds of men were employed to build the 15 hand-made tunnels and 37 bridges in extremely difficult conditions. Many lives were lost as the numerous tunnels and bridges were built if not from accident then from disease and illnesses.

The train chuffs through Far North Queensland’s World Heritage-Listed rainforest, The Wet Tropics, are amongst the oldest on earth and home to an incredible array of plants and animals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twelve hundred species of flowering plants, eight hundred different rainforest trees, spectacular orchids, strangler figs, exotic palms and hundreds of unique creatures inhabit this lush green world.

The views overlooking the gorge and Cairns were magnificent, especially when we pulled up at Barron Gorge station with a sweeping view of  Barron Falls. All passengers disembarked  for ten minutes and thousands of photos were taken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived at the lush tropical plant covered Kuranda station and headed into the village for a wander.

An assortment of  shops, cafes, markets and interesting attractions greeted us and we spent a few hours enjoying the atmosphere.

The return journey was by the Skyrail rainforest cableway which was quite an experience especially for some of our group that weren’t fond of heights. (Doug and John).

 

 

 

 

 

John kept putting the wind up Sandra and Doug by rocking the gondola and telling them stories of cable cars falling off cables. I think he just did that to keep his mind off the height thing.

The Skyrail spans 7.5kms over pristine rainforest, at times gliding just metres above the rainforest canopy in  six-person gondola cabins, and other times a long way above the treetops .

 

 

 

 

 

The trip took about 1.5 hours including the stops at two stations along the way. The two rainforest stations, Red Peak  and Barron Falls Station, allowed us to explore the forest floor on boardwalks, and stroll to the viewing platforms overlooking the gorge. As it is the dry season not much water was flowing over the 250 metre drop yet it still was a  spectacular sight

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arriving at the bottom ( much to Dougs relief) we caught the bus back to our car and drove out to Yorkeys knob marina for an afternoon thirst quencher and some oysters. The oysters were quite cheap, $12 a dozen but we returned some as they tasted and smelt suspect. As Pete Law would say ” you get what you pay for”.

John and I dropped Sandra and Doug off at the airport and drove back to Port Douglas to return the car and have a happy reunion with Morgan who had been by herself on the boat all day.

 

A day for exploring the area by bike.

Sandra and Doug hired bikes at an excellent rate of $16 for four hours. We also hired a chariot for Morgan as we thought she would get very worn out running the whole way .Despite the strong wind the temperature  was still quite warm. The ride didn’t start well as we lost John and waited for an hour for him but couldn’t find him. Eventually we headed off without him. Later we found out he had gone ahead and was ahead of us all the way.

We rode down to the creek , along the cycle path, past the Sheraton Resort then down the access track to the beach.

 

 

Morgan was towed by Doug in her chariot and seemed to enjoy the trip. When we got to Four Mile Beach she got out and ran along the shallows. The beach was bordered by coconut palms and the sand was hard and easy to ride along.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped at the Courthouse Hotel for the lunch special of T Bone,  chips and salad for only $12.50  which was well worth the price.

We hired a car for two days then John , Sandra and Doug  drove to Mossman to play golf as a game at Mossman course is half the price of the Port Douglas courses. The course was in excellent condition and Doug said ” the greens were small and fast .”

Happy hour on the boat then we walked five minutes up the road to dinner at Chillys a pizza and pasta restaurant. The tables were all out in the open air amongst the coconut palms and the meals were excellent.