Far FNQ - Port Douglas, Cape Tribulation and Cooktown

Day 18 - Sunday 23rd Sept - Heading for the rain forest at Cape Tribulation - "by Chris"

We packed up after a funny night of cane toad pest control and left our private little shrubbery campsite to go and visit the Port Douglas markets. The market was alot bigger than we realised so it took aawhile to wonder around. My favourite thing at the markets were faces made from coconuts which I thought was very clever. Amy also got a cute green tree frog on a stick ornament. After admiring the flash boats we left Port Douglas and headed for the Daintree. The first stop on the way was Mossman Gorge where we walked to the gorge instead of catching the shuttle bus, had lunch and lots of swimming before walking back. Next stop was the ferry crossing at the Daintree River but we didn't see any crocodiles. The windy road through the thick rainforest was fantastic and we finally arrived at our camp site at Noah Beach in the national park. When setting up we didn't think the campsite was so nice however once we walked to the beach and saw just how close we were to the water we realised we were being too fussy! The rainforest really does meet the beach. The Noah beach was a pristine, secluded, white-sand beach that you would expect of Cape Tribulation. We swam, played and dug big holes in the sand until we lost light and had to go back to make dinner. It was a really great day and we certainly feel like we are now in FNQ.

The coconut masks, very clever

Mossman George

Swimming in Mossman George

Campsite at Noah Beach , Daintree National Park

Noah Beach - lots of swimming and sand castles

Noah Beach as dusk, beautiful place

Day 19 - Monday 24th Sept - A day at the reat Barrier Reef - "by Ryan"

We all woke up a bit earlier to get ready to go on our tour to the Great Barrier Reef today. Everyone was very excited when we went to the meeting point at the Cape Tribulation cafe and got our wet suits. At 8:30am we walked on a board walk through the mangroves and out to the beach where we met our boat. The boat was a large 25 seat inflatable rib that powered out to sea through a gap in the reef with two 350 horse power outboards. It was a quick 25 minutes to get to our first snorkeling spot which was next to a little sandy island. The snorkel guide Cane prepared everyone's snorkel gear and flippers while the captain gave us a safety talk on how to snorkel. Then it was time to get in the water! I started off swimming around looking at all sorts of colourful fish and numerous coral then I went with the snorkel guide who pointed out other species of fish and taught us facts about the reef. One thing that I enjoyed was when he swam down and took a friendly clown fish out of it's anenome, annemmonny, annennomeee thingy! It was also cool when Cane swam down and found a lion fish under some coral to show us. There was such a variety of sealife in this area including a blue spotted yellow sting ray swimming under me. One of my favourite things of the whole trip was when I was snorkeling off with Ned and I heard Mikayla shout "turtle" so I swam over to her and sure enough there was a big green sea turtle swimming under everyone! It was amazing to see such a big turtle gracefully swimming around and he was so relaxed with us all swimming with him. It was an amazing experience to be able to swim right next to it without it being scared. I swam with it for about 15 minutes but then I had to say goodbye to my new friend and go back to the boat to move to our next snorkeling spot. While we were cruising the guide gave us another education lesson to teach us about more fish and coral in the reef. We stopped at a deeper location and this time I snorkelled with Cane the whole time to learn more about this amazing reef. He swam to the bottom and picked up a giant sea cucumber to bring back to us to feel (was rough but not too spicky and a bit squishy). He showed us his favourite clown fish which swam out to his hand when he went near the anenome. I had a turn swimming down and was so excited when the clown fish also swam into my hand, but I couldn't stay down holding my breath for very long and had to re-surface.Cane also picked up a blue star fish for everyone to have a look at.It was time to leave and we enjoyed sitting on the side of the boat to cruise back to land. We had hot chips for lunch at the cafe before going back to camp where we played on the beach for the rest of the day. Us kids dug the biggest hole in the sand that we had ever dug which even had steps going down. It was getting dark so we filled in the hole, had dinner and went to bed after a brilliant day.

The Ocean Safari RIB, our boat to the reef

Amy about to go snorkelling

Blue starfish

Lots of colourful coral

Patting the very friendly Clown Fish , Nemo cousin ?

Impressive Lionfish

Ryans new best friend - a green sea turtle

More colourful coral

Heaps of fish to look at and swim with

Ned, Ryan and Miky enjoying the ride back sitting on the side, great fun !

Day 20 - Tues 25th Sept - Cape Tribulation to Cooktown - "by Mikayla"

In the morning we packed up then had one last swim on the beach before we left Cape Tribulation. At the beach we found a little hut made out of palm leaves and a swing in a tree so we played there for awhile. Then we went swimming in the sea which turned into a Hanna versus Schrapel family skimming ball challenge. Our game was so much fun and the Hanna's won 15-13. After our swim we left Cape Tribulation and began the 4WD trip via to Cooktown along the Bloomfield track. The track had alot of creek crossings and had very steep hills. Dad said it would have been really challenging in wet weather. We stopped to look for crocodiles in a couple of rivers but couldn't see any. For lunch we stopped in Helenvale at a historic pub called The Lion Den. The ceiling and walls of the pub was covered with writting and names of people who had stayed at the pub and campsite there. We made our own wraps for lunch but bought 2 bowls of chips to share. We kept on driving until we reached Archer Point where we looked around the camp ground there and then drove to the lighthouse at the top of the hill. It was a fantastic view of the sea and islands and we watched some kite surfers We drove into Cooktown and went to the Big 4 caravan park where we would stay for 2 days. Dad and Mr Hanna washed all of the dust off of our cars and camper trailers before we set up. Jock, Amy and I went for a swim in the pool then we all looked around the caravan park. For dinner we had a scrumshedidilosis pasta then played a game of cards together before bed.

The Hut and Swing 

Noah Beach - this time in the morning - sad to leave

The big Hannas vs Schrapels match

Loving the river crossings

One of the rivers on the Bloomfield track, no crocs today, normally a 5M  one on the  bank

The inside of the Lions Den Pub at Helenvale, very cool

Lighthouse lookout at Archers Point

Day 21 - Wed 26th Sept - Cooktown - "by Amy"

I was woken up by many different birds in the morning. I walked over to the camp kitchen and cooked my own eggs and bacon for breakfast. Everyone hopped in the cars to go for a look around Cooktown. We went to the Captain James Cook museum and had a good look around the big building which used to be a boarding school. Most of us kids got a treasure hunt sheet of paper to find things listed on it, like a golden key, a Chinese drum, a model of the endevour ship and a homework book. So we set off to try to find at least 15 of the objects. Once we had found everything we went to the front desk to collect a sticker. After the museum we drove to a park that had a statue of Captain Cook and a musical ship that we had fun playing in. We went for a drive down to the wharf and had fish and chips for lunch while we watched some fishermen catching some big fish. After lunch my Mum and brother went fishing and everyone else went back to the caravan park to go swimming and Dad went to get some hardware things for the camper trailer. Ned, Jock, Mikayla and I had fun at the pool diving and swimming. When we got out of the pool we rinsed off in the shower and went back to our camp to have some dinner. After dinner everybody played a card game called Hearts and winner was me. Then we went to bed.

James Cook Museum - previously a Boarding House

The musical boat, lots of fun

Sadly we didn't catch anything, but fun trying

Historic Cooktown main street

Take care and stay warm !

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Rough map of our trip so far ......