I have just had a week in Far North Queensland, visiting my sister Jacki. And I met her new partner Dave who is a good man, but who beat me at both pool and backgammon. We both stayed most of the week at Dave’s place in Mossman where there is more space than at Jacki’s more remote place at Wonga Beach.
Jacki picked me up at the airport in Cairns and we drove north to Wonga Beach, which takes about 90 minutes at the moment. There are a handful of stops on the highway which is being rebuilt after the most recent cyclone damage.
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| We stopped at Ellis Beach for lunch and for a look. The beach is patrolled and netted; this massive cable is here to hold the net. |
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| This beachside bar by the highway brought back deep down memories of stops on bus trips in Peru and Ecuador, where the climate was similarly steamy. But this place was clean, had good food and the beer was kept in the fridge. |
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| There are automated traffic lights instead of stop-and-go lollipop men, but the lights have to be supervised. |
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| A walk on Wonga Beach itself. The tide was in and we had to hop over a lot of recumbent palm trees. That is Snapper Island out there. |
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| Jacki has a couple of immense orb weaver spiders in her driveway |
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| Mossman District Hospital is a jaunty art deco / Spanish mission hybrid |
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| Dave’s local, the Post Office Hotel (cash only). The cane trains used to run right past it. |
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| Still from an YouTube clip only a few years old |
On Day 2, Jacki took me down to Port Douglas for a look. It’s 8km as the fruit bat flies and 20km by road, because of swampy mangrove flats. We took an interesting boat tour up the creek; and I learned a lot about mangroves and crocs. I saw my first croc; about 60cm long.
I think Port Douglas is the first hot and humid yet swanky place I have been. The main shopping strip has galleries and designer fashions, as well as many gentrified pubs. I had occasional vague flashbacks to being a kid taken to fancy enclaves on Sydney’s north shore in summer; and to visiting the bourgeois side of Lima, Peru.
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| Full of crocodiles |
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| I’ve heard Jacki talk about the Sugar Wharf; this is it. Recently redeveloped; the shed is used for events. |
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| This is the view north from the wharf towards Mossman and Wonga Beach. |
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| St Mary’s By The Sea in Port Douglas, a very popular place for weddings. Wonderful stained glass. |
On Day 3 Dave did the driving and the three of us went ‘over the river’, north of the Daintree to Cape Tribulation. To a Tasmanian this feels like you are just about in New Guinea; and you are closer to PNG than to Brisbane. But there is so much more Queensland to go.
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| The ferry across the Daintree River costs $50 return for a tourist car and is free for locals. |
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| We did the Madja boardwalk through the rainforest at Noah Beach which was terrific. |
Above is today's haul of critters, starring a wild cassowary. We had pulled up at one of the traffic queues, I think we had just crossed a one-lane bridge; and there he was. I snapped him heading left then he changed his mind, crossed over again and disappeared into the rainforest on the right. This was obviously exciting for me but more so for Jacki and Dave who understood how rare this is. Neither had every seen one.
We got home, showered and changed and then it was time for a night out at the Mossman Bowls Club where both Jacki and her son Malachy work. She’s on food and beverage service and he’s assistant chef. He's also one of the club's star bowlers.
We were there for a birthday party for one of Dave’s friends, who happened to be manager of the Mossman Woolworths.
Dave and I snuck into the ‘Sports Bar’ and he beat me at pool but it was really nice to see the traditional colourful set of balls; you mostly just see reds ‘n yellows these days.
Dave said again and again what a wonderful day he’d had. He’s lived in Mossman for 10 years, but he works pretty hard and he has never once been over the river before.
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