This 7 day adventure was arranged by my good mate Dorrise who lives in Cairns.
Dorrise loves living life to the full
including plenty of good belly laughs, often involving the consumption of fine
red wine.
Dorrise's best friend Colleen,
also a local near Cairns joined us and another VT member Allison from the
Sunshine Coast hired a car and tagged along.
So us 4 fun loving birds hit the road on another great adventure into the
unknown.
This 7 day road trip from Cairns would see us heading inland to Mareeba,
up to the far top end at Cooktown and then across to the Daintree and Cape
Tribulation and back down to Cairns through Port Douglas.
Some of the places that we went to and things we did were mixed together
with funny scarecrows, having lunch with a town mayor, fantastic coffee
tastings, awesome mango wine tastings, coming face to face with unique rock
wallabies, devouring fresh prawns straight off the trawler, viewing sunset from
the top end with a glass or 3 of fine red, wandering through lush rainforest,
visiting stunning deserted beaches, staying in cabins in the bush and sharing
drinks with the locals.
So, if you are planning to do a car trip to Cape Tribulation, then I
would urge you to spend 7 days and do the same as us.
So, first things first.
CAIRNS
~~oOo~~
FITZROY ISLAND
Before leaving on
our adventure, we did a day trip to Fitzroy Island.
This is a good
cheap option for those that don’t want to spend a ton of money doing an island
day trip with a travel company. We just
booked the ferry return trip which was cheap.
The island offers a
good bar overlooking a pretty beach. The
only problem was that the Beach was a shell beach which is a little hard on
your feet, but once in the water it was gorgeous.
~~oOo~~
VA's. You'll get used to these as you read through
my travel stories. Virtual Attendees.
VA's are people from all around the world that could not be with us so the next
best thing is to print out a pic of them, laminate and take them along for the
ride.
Here are our VA's hanging
around ready for
the big trip.
~~oOo~~
DAY 1 - CAIRNS TO MAREEBA
First pit stop - the Mareeba scarecrows for a
photoshoot including our VA's.
The scarecrows are on the left hand side of the road on the way to Mareeba.
You
can't miss them.
~~oOo~~
Coffee time!
JAQUES COFFEE
Jaques Coffee is a family
owned successful business. I take my
hat off to them. This family have
survived considerable obstacles since their business inception in the
1980's.
When you visit, take the tour.
~~oOo~~
MAREEBA
Stay at the Mareeba Lodge - the green building - can't miss it.
Mareeba lodge has a bbq area that we used to cook our sausages for a cheap
dinner.
~~oOo~~
DAY 2 - OUT AND ABOUT IN MAREEBA
THE HERITAGE MUSEUM
Dorrise’s good
friend Colleen arranged for us to have lunch with the Mareeba Mayor at the
Heritage Museum and we had some fun with our VA's.
Girls just want to have fun
Spot the Boozer
We had planned to visit the Mareeba markets but they were not on so we
took a drive around the back streets
and discovered Basalt Creek.
Here we soon learnt that our friend Dorrise was indeed the true 'chook
whisperer' .
On a previous road trip we caught Dorrise in action - whispering to
llamas and birds.
She tells me that animals are attracted to her.
Haha pfft! But so
true!!!!
~~oOo~~
THE GOLDEN DROP WINERY
On our back street tour we saw a sign - Mango Wine!!!
Wine?!! What girl can resist that?!!!
The Golden Drop
winery. Tasty mango liqueurs and a
divine mango bubbly to die for!!
No trip to Mareeba is fulfilled without a bit of 'the golden drop'.
😍 🍷
~~oOo~~
GRANITE GORGE
HOME OF THE ROCK WALLABY
We just loved it here and I would totally recommend it.
Rock Wallabies are so cute. Of course us Aussies are used to our wildlife. It was a lot of fun checking out how the overseas tourists were enjoying their day here interacting with our lovely native animals.
😀
And Shhhh, I secretly thought that Dorrise had just become the Rock Wallaby whisperer.
😉
Doesn't get any better than this hey.
Wonder what the rich people are doing?
A late afternoon picnic with wine and cheese!
And of course some of that gorgeous Mango
bubbly.
😎
~~oOo~~
DAY 3 - MAREEBA TO COOKTOWN
The drive to Cooktown
is long so we headed out early. There's
not much to see along this stretch.
LIONS DEN
Feeling thirsty? Look out for the sign
to the Lions Den just before
Cooktown and hang a swift right.
Not a big detour, but most certainly worth it for a refreshing ale and nice Pub lunch.
We added our names to the wall of fame here.
~~oOo~~
ANNON RIVER
Just before Cooktown,
Annan River is a nice pit stop for a photo shoot.
~~oOo~~
COOKTOWN
Harbour view luxury
apartments was plan B.
Plan A didn't go so well.
That accommodation was dirty
and smelly.
All of us chipped in and the price was
just right. Oh and the view over the harbour
was simply gorgeous!
We even saw Captain Cook walking past!!
😏
~~oOo~~
DAY 4 - OUT AND ABOUT IN COOKTOWN
We followed the path along
the harbour reading all the placards dedicated to the arrival of cook and the
early settlers here.
Just past the kiosk
and home of loads of
seagulls, we watched a trawler come in.
Ahhhh.... Fresh seafood!! We were their first customers for the day.
There's nothing like fresh prawns straight off the trawler! 😁
The other 2 were getting plates and wine glasses out and making a salad.
Allison and I couldn't wait.
We just
hooked in!!
Who needs plates and stuff when there's fresh prawns to be had.
~~oOo~~
SUNSET UP THE TOP END
The sun was dropping fast. No
time to clean
up. We just grabbed our half full wine glasses
and jumped in the
car.
Driven by Colleen's hubby who had
come to
join us for the night, we headed up to the lookout.
~~oOo~~
TO DORRISE 💕
😆
~~oOo~~
DAY 5 - OFF TO CAPE TRIBULATION
ULATTEN AND DAINTREE
Back the way we had
come in - because there is no shortcut to the Daintree, and turn off at Julatten.
JULATTEN TAVERN
This is the perfect
place for a hearty pub lunch on the shady verandah with a beautiful view.
This part of the journey got a little better.
We had left the dry and dusty outback and were heading towards the north QLD tropics.
We had left the dry and dusty outback and were heading towards the north QLD tropics.
~~oOo~~
DAINTREE
Daintree Village is small but has a lot of
things to see and do.
Last time hubby and I were here we did a
Daintree river cruise and croc
spotting.
This time we wandered around town and
checked out the quaint gift shops and
lovely
flowers.
~~oOo~~
CAPE TRIBULATION
Daintree rainforest bungalows is the place to
stay! Ed the owner made us
feel very
welcome.
Evenings were spent in the bbq area with Ed
and other guests.
I cannot recommend this place highly enough.
~~oOo~~
DAY 6 - OUT AND ABOUT AT CAPE TRIBULATION
The rainforest walk is a
must do.
Bumpy Satinash.
Funny name hey. 😄
Cape Trib beaches are absolutely stunning.
Too bad you can't swim there due to the crocks.
We were sad to leave our
new friend Ed.
Hopefully be back one day mate.
~~oOo~~
DAY 7 - BACK TO CAIRNS
`
~~oOo~~
PT DOUGLAS
Lunch at Salsa Bar and
Grill Pt Douglas hit
the spot.
Topped off with a celebratory cocktail.
~~oOo~~
CAIRNS
Back in Cairns we had our last lunch together
at the Salt House on the
water front.
Food here was delicious. I ordered
oysters
for entree and Al and I had a share plate.
Dedicated to Dorrise
our organiser and good friend. Love ya mate! Xx
We all put in something and gave Dorrise this lovely gift. 😘
~~oOo~~
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