Blogs from Mossman, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

We had a lovely breakfast then joined the bus after filling our bottles with water. The Mirage had a filling station with sparkling, cold or warm water. I filled my bottle with sparkling which caused much laughter when I opened it later and it went "pop"!! I was asked if I had champagne in it. Unfortunately NO. Our first stop was the Mossman Gorge Visitor Centre and were taken on a dreamtime gorge walk by Ray. After participating in a smoking ceremony we set off on our walk where he explained the traditional uses of bush food sources such as plants, seeds, ochre used etc by the aboriginal inhabitants for foods, and medicine. At the end of the walk we had a Covid safe morning tea of damper, cream and jam. Paper cups, plastic utensils and ... read more

Our last day in Mossman so we went to the gorge and did the 2.4km walk along the gorge and in the rain Forrest. You have to use the transportation provided at $19 for the 2 of us because the way to the gorge is through a aboriginal village and they don’t want lots of cars going through plus the road is only wide enough for 1 car. We stopped off at the Mensware shop in Mossman to buy my 2nd bag with great success. Then we went to Hartley crocodile farm. Still baking hot but seeing all the animals was well worth it. Crocodiles, cassowaries, various snakes and lizards, various birds, emus, wombats, wallabies, koalas. Then we stopped off at the opal shop but we didn’t buy any. Finally got to karens Airbnb in Cairns ... read more

We decided to take it a bit easier today, cancelling our morning tour to relax and enjoy this amazing resort for the morning. Silky Oaks enjoys a lovely natural setting in the rainforest along the banks of the Mossman River. Swimming in the river is encouraged and when we inquired about crocs the desk staff said they are too lazy to come this far inland. For good measure they added that many locals swim farther downstream, so if they were wrong about the crocs laziness, the locals would likely be eaten first. The cabins are spread out enough that each seems totally immersed in the rainforest. After making good use of the internet (available only in the main lodge here) we had a lovely breakfast in the open-air restaurant overlooking the river. John and Sonia started ... read more

After another humid night we woke at around 07:30 and got up at 8. Wandered down to the beach and Brian found that crabs had taken residence. Left around 09:45 to go to Cape Tribulation, passed Newell Beach, but when we got to the Daintree river ferry crossing, was told that the Cape was inaccessible due to a lorry road accident. So we went into the hills to Daintree village and wandered to the tranquil historical wharf. Then decided to back track and to go Mossman and up into to the hills. We found the Gorge visitor centre and parked up around 12:30. Spent an enjoyable afternoon walking up the road to the Mossman river Gorge passed the local Aboriginal Community Village, along the raised forest walkway. There was a place to swim to escape the ... read more

Mossman 16th September 2012 Leaving Cooktown we were in mixed emotions, as from here we should have been heading North (to The Cape) not south towards Cairns, but, we figured that if we could clear up Trish’s medical issue quickly we would come back up and ‘do The Cape’. Another issue we had was we had to go to Cairns to get the medical help that we needed, a town we have been to many times before on holiday (and enjoyed) but not necessarily one that had been on our radar for this trip. We decided to compromise and head to Mossman to stay and commute as needed to Cairns, sounds like a great plan. A new town, we can explore the Daintree and Cape Tribulation from here and it will be on the way back ... read more